Using Assessment to Inform Decision-making in AY 2025-26 [CAPS] Courses

As part of AY 2025-26 [CAPS] Assessment Reporting for UCORE, instructors were asked if they planned to make any changes in future semesters based on assessments from the current semester. Overall, 70% of instructors indicated that they planned to make a change to their course based on assessment.

Most commonly the changes were to refine assignment design and strengthen instructional supports. The most prominent pattern was a desire to provide clearer expectations, more structured guidance, and earlier checkpoints, particularly for major projects. Below are some examples:

Use of Assessment to Inform Changes: AY 2025-26 UCORE [CAPS] Report Summary Results

Theme / Summary	Quotations - Selected Sample
Clearer Assignments and Guidance: Many instructors described plans to make assignment expectations more explicit and to provide students with more staged support throughout major projects. This included adding checkpoints, examples, rubrics, structured outlines, clearer instructions, and earlier guidance.	"Future assignments will include clearer examples of high-quality documentation, additional checkpoints for feedback during project development, and more guidance on defining performance metrics, scalability considerations, and validation criteria." "I plan to add more structured guidance and project checkpoints earlier in the course."
Writing Support: Instructors frequently identified writing as needing more intentional instructional support. Planned changes included more writing examples, structured peer review, writing center referrals, thesis and outline support, literature review scaffolding, clearer documentation expectations, and additional revision opportunities.	"I plan to incorporate more opportunities for structured feedback on written work. These will likely take the form of structured peer-review and required consultations with me." "I am considering a new requirement that each student attends one of the writing assistance sessions for participation credit -- to encourage students to make use of the opportunities to receive individual guidance on their projects."
Course and Assessment Design: Many responses reflected broader course or assignment design. These included changing assignment formats, revising readings, adjusting assessment weighting, adding exams, reducing complexity, restructuring deliverables, and aligning assignments more closely with CAPS outcomes.	"I am going to make in-class assessments more heavily weighted rather than relying on out-of-class artifact creation." "I plan to work on assignment content and grade weighting to better reflect written communication performance."
Strengthening Engagement: Instructors also planned changes to strengthen student engagement, accountability, teamwork, mentoring, and interaction with instructors, peers, or external partners. These responses often focused on early check-ins, synchronous meetings, sponsor feedback, group coordination, mentoring sessions, and improved communication structures.	"I will continue the formal mentoring." "I will make it mandatory to check in with me their plan for the final project, and not keep it as optional only." "I am planning to incorporate more in-class activities."
Oral Communication, Presentations, and Discussion: A recurring theme was the need to help students build confidence and skill in oral communication. Planned changes included more presentation practice, structured speech preparation, informal discussion opportunities, presentation feedback, and increased oral communication assignments.	"Include some sort of discussion/speaking/ communication component within the assignments." "Spending some class time preparing the students to deliver oral presentations. This seemed to cause them the most angst during the semester."
AI-Related Changes to Teaching and Assessment: AI was a notable cross-cutting concern, especially in relation to writing, research, and assessment authenticity. Some instructors planned to reduce reliance on out-of-class written artifacts, incorporate AI literacy, require AI citation or reflection, or shift toward in-class and oral assessments.	"I will likely spend more time discussing AI and how to best use it and when not to use it, etc." "I do plan to incorporate more training about the use of AI in my assignments, including assignments to explore potential issues with AI, as well as additional support for how to describe its use in support of their writing."

Assessment results inform continual reflection and discussion of teaching and learning; they contribute to decision making to ensure effective teaching and learning. Decisions can include choosing to make changes, continue current effective practices, or build on strengths.

For additional information about how student learning evidence contributes to decision-making intended to support student learning and quality undergraduate education, see Use of Student Learning Evidence. See Key Assessments for additional information about [CAPS] Assessment for UCORE.