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Institutional Research at Western
As at many other schools, institutional research functions at Western are divided among several different offices that together constitute the Office of Institutional Assessment, Research, and Testing: the Office of Institutional Assessment, the Office of Institutional Research, the Testing Center, and the Office of Survey Research. See organizational chart for a visual summary of these relationships. The Office of Institutional Assessment and Student Learning collects and analyzes data, administers Western's Assessment Plan for assessing student learning, and writes reports on Western students, alumni, and programs. It also works closely with the Center for Instructional Innovation to improve the quality of both teaching and student learning throughout Western's academic programs. The Office of Institutional Research writes Technical Reports and maintains Raw Data files for the campus community through its extensive Data Warehouse. Technical Reports typically include full analysis, text, and recommendations . Raw Data Reports contain data that have been collected from quarter to quarter on a wide range of institutional indicators. Many of these reports are available online. The Office of Survey Research is a branch office of OIAT which regularly surveys students, alumni, employers, and the campus community to provide valuable assessment data which can be used for improvement of programs, instruction, faculty scholarship, and information services. OSR also provides assistance to a number of off-campus and community clients. The Testing Center is a branch of the Office of Institutional Assessment, and coordinates the professional administration and scoring of a wide range of tests at Western, both for the University community and for outside agencies such as ETS, other universities, and local government. Testing services are extended to outside agencies as resources permit. |
