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Academic Assessment

Academic Assessment is part of the Office of Academic Compliance, Effectiveness, and Research (ACER).

Our services

Our assessment staff:

• educate and provide best-practice resources for tracking the outcomes and effectiveness of institutional, instructional programs, and administrative-educational support services,
• uphold the highest standards for continuous quality improvement in alignment with UMMC's academic mission,
• coordinate ongoing, systematic planning and reporting efforts by managing institutional assessment procedures,
• assist with demonstrating compliance for accreditation and
• assess findings and data used for targeted performance enhancement and leveraged to promote excellence in student-centered training and service initiatives.

Our framework

The assessment framework supports aligning unit/program objectives with UMMC's strategic goals. It provides a structured approach for gauging unit/program impact in the delivery of service or instruction. Mission statements, outcomes, means of assessment, success criteria, and results summaries are annually evaluated to support decision-making. Improvement over time is examined by reflecting on data from previous cycles and appraising actions for their ability to impact outcome metrics positively. Current data is then used to inform enhancement initiatives' implementation and plan future outcome assessments.

The schematic represents significant elements of the assessment framework used at UMMC to capture assessment data and demonstrate the effectiveness of unit/program outcomes.

Assessment cycle

The assessment process at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) is an ongoing, research-based, systematic process that embodies training, a framework for data collection, and internal report review to examine and document effectiveness across education-related support services and degree programs on an annual basis to seek improvement of desired outcomes.