WVSU

Academics Offices

Learning Assessment Center

About

The University Learning Assessment Center (ULAC) is an academic support unit under the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs that oversees student learning. The Center operates system-wide, including the extension campuses. Currently, its primary program focuses on Terminal Competencies Assessment, administered to all graduating students to determine their workplace readiness. The ULAC maintains a database of competency assessment results over the years. Additionally, it assists academic units in developing program learning outcomes, selecting and developing appropriate assessment tools, analyzing and reporting student learning data, and ensuring that this data informs institutional and academic decisions.

Objectives

The institutional objectives for student learning assessment are as follows:

  1. To evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and curricular offerings.
  2. To monitor student learning status for instructional planning.
  3. To encourage students to share the responsibility of learning.
  4. To utilize a variety of assessment tools to measure quantitative and qualitative indicators of learning.
  5. To provide regular, objective, and systematic feedback for program design, review, and development.
  6. To involve faculty in learning assessment research by providing a framework and organizational and infrastructure support.

Contributions to WVSU's Vision, Mission, Goals, and Objectives (VMGO):

The quality of student academic performance reflects the long-term planning and development efforts of a university. In order to have strategic and systemic periodic feedback, the ULAC institutionalized a regular and system-wide student learning assessment engaging every sector of the institution, including students, teachers, researchers, administration, and other stakeholders.

To support the learning assessment priorities of the Center, continuous enhancement of faculty and staff assessment capabilities was undertaken. Assessment instruments were continually designed and developed to measure competencies necessary for producing globally competitive lifelong learners. Results were efficiently disseminated to stakeholders for immediate feedback, sustaining a culture of collaboration and accountability. More academic and institutional initiatives are expected to ensue as an offshoot of the information obtained from the university’s assessment efforts, further strengthening the cycle that promotes a culture of excellence and accountability and sustaining a positive public image.

CHED has identified WVSU as one of the 18 Higher Education Regional Research Centers (HERRCs) in the country, and the ULAC Director was designated by CHED as the Program Director of WVSU-HERRC. The major research program focuses on learning assessment, providing WVSU the opportunity to continually improve its assessment tools and practices.

A research program proposed by ULAC, titled “HEIs Quality Assurance Initiatives through Learning Assessment,” was implemented in 2013 with funding from CHED amounting to P13 million. This program extends the learning assessment practices of WVSU to other State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the region.