Mission

The Office of Academic Assessment supports learning outcomes assessment across the university, including on all three campuses and in any academic program. We work closely with faculty, university leadership and academic support resources to support meaningful assessment across the institution.

Please visit the Office of Academic Assessment SharePoint site to see our schedule of programs, request support and view asynchronous resources.

Our Services

The Office of Academic Assessment supports academic programs with:

  • Designing program-level student learning outcomes
  • Curriculum mapping and curriculum re-design
  • Planning, designing, and implementing assessment processes
  • Analyzing and interpreting assessment data
  • Reporting and making use of assessment results

The Office of Academic Assessment works collaboratively with the Center for Teaching and Learning to provide support to individual faculty with:

  • Course and assignment design for all instructional modalities
  • Writing exams and analyzing exam statistics
  • Equity-minded assessment, feedback, and grading practices
  • Promoting academic integrity, fairness, and validity in assessment
  • Designing evaluation protocols for teaching-focused grants and research activities

In collaboration with a variety of programs, units, and divisions, the Office of Academic Assessment supports with the assessment of:

  • University-wide Core Competencies
  • General Education learning outcomes
  • Co-curricular learning outcomes (by request)

Our team

Erica Bender

Director

Erica brings enthusiasm and pragmatism to assessment work, grounded in the conviction that assessment is most effective when it inspires curiosity and reconnects educators with their core mission of student success. Before coming to Pacific, Erica served as an Assessment Specialist at the UC Davis Center for Educational Effectiveness, the Director of Undergraduate Academic Programs at the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the Associate Director of the UC San Diego Writing Hub.

Education:

PhD, Sociology, UC San Diego
MA, Sociology, UC San Diego
BA, Sociology, Chapman University

Valerie McDaniel

Faculty Fellow of Assessment

Valerie is Assistant Professor of Speech Language Pathology and the Faculty Fellow of Assessment. In her role as Faculty Fellow, Valerie chairs the University Assessment Committee, supports the assessment of university-wide Core Competencies, and facilicates university-wide discussion of core competency assessment results. She also develops and participates in a variety of programs to promote Pacific’s culture of effective, equity-minded assessment.

Education:

PhD, Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Memphis
MA, Speech-Language Pathology, University of Memphis
MA, Creative Arts Therapy-Music Therapy, Drexel University
BA, Fine Arts-Music, Loyola University Chicago