Doctoral Programs Outcomes Assessment: An Approach to Assessing Program Inputs, Learning Objectives, and Postgraduation Outcomes

Abstract

Student learning outcomes assessment is conducted at the undergraduate level for academic departments to determine whether students are meeting learning goals. The assessments do not include course grades; rather, they include measures such as standardized tests or student coursework being rated outside the course by committees. Increasingly, there has been a movement to conduct outcomes assessment on graduate programs as well. This article presents an assessment methodology that can be applied to the special conditions of doctoral programs, which are generally structured very differently than undergraduate and masters’ level programs, and which therefore require different methods of outcomes assessment.