This resource will provide users with some quick campus examples on setting up Assessment Cycles. This should help users understand how to adapt the Assessment Cycle configurations to specific campus requirements.
Assessment Cycle configuration: In general, Anthology recommends that users set up a single assessment cycle for all units who have common reporting expectations and deadlines.
Example #1: All Student Affairs units have to complete a department objective with results and closing the loop data by June 1st.
In this scenario, the Anthology best practice recommendation would be for the campus to establish one assessment cycle for Student Affairs and all of its child unit for data related to department objectives with results and closing the loop data. We would not recommend a separate assessment cycle for each department in Student Affairs with the same configuration for each cycle.
Example #2: All units at the institution have to complete a department objective with results and closing the loop data by June 1st for annual reporting; they also have to update strategic priorities for the university’s strategic plan by October 31st.
In this scenario, the Anthology best practice recommendation would be for the campus to establish two different assessment cycles. One cycle would be for the Institution and all of its child units for annual reporting that would require data for department objectives with results and closing the loop data. The other cycle would be for the Institution and all of its child units for strategic planning that would require data for updating strategic priorities for the university’s strategic plan. We would not recommend creating one cycle to capture all of the required data for both annual reporting and strategic planning.