The Academic Terms file is where you can structure academic years and academic terms in your assessment reporting. The terms will dictate reporting parameters, act as filters for data, and act as anchors for course sections. The Academic Terms file will import the academic year and the academic terms used within each year.
Academic Year
Academic years are navigable within the site to view historical data or enter new data. Academic years will hold each years annual assessment data. You will be able to navigate between academic years in the Academic Term drop down menu which will be located in the top-left corner of your Outcomes platform.
Site Administrators will be able to control access to academic years through Term Management Settings.
Academic Terms
Each academic year can be further divided into academic terms. These help to organize data and help to structure your annual assessment schedule within Outcomes.
Campuses will be able to filter data by specific term or view data in the Overview mode. The Overview mode will show data from the entire academic year. You will be able to navigate between terms within the academic year, as well as the Overview mode, by using the Term drop down menu located in the upper center of your Outcomes site. When measuring an outcomes, users will have to choose what term to conduct the measurement in. Measurement can occur across multiple terms.
Student Affairs Term
While Academic Affairs usually requires assessment reporting by semester, Student Affairs usually finds reporting needs based on an annually requirements. If Student Affairs only requires a final assessment report, it might be confusing or tedious to users having to repeat processes and outcome assessment in multiple terms. Campuses can have a discussion about creating a separate term for Student Affairs.
This division would allow Student Affairs reporting to be conducted in this one term, which would allow for annual assessment instead of semester or term based. This separate Student Affairs term would still be able to contribute to the Overview Data visualizations which combine data from all terms for the academic year while also preventing duplication or separation of Student Affair assessment by term.
Please note, this separate Student Affairs term is not required for Student Affairs assessment.
Structure
Campuses can build any number of academic terms into Outcomes using the Academic Terms file. There are several things to keep in mind when constructing this file.
- Only one hierarchical division of academic terms will appear in Outcomes. You will see the academic year and then one level of division for academic terms. You must have at least one term within an academic year. Unless assessment reporting is specifically required by further division, it is recommended to limit the number of terms to as few as possible for reporting requirements. Having more terms creates additional workloads.
- Further hierarchical divisions of terms will not appear in Outcomes.
- The Campus Labs Course Evaluation product also uses the Academic Term file. Please see your Campus Labs consultant so we can check to make sure the file will work for all product reporting needs.
Additional Campus Labs Platforms
If you are using, or will be using, the Campus Labs Course Evaluation product, please contact your Campus Labs Consultant to discuss your Academic Terms file as your choices will affect both products.