Pathways Assessment Overview

Important changes are being made to the Pathways Assessment process beginning Fall 2024. Please stay tuned for an updated overview.

The University Writing Program has created this page to guide and support instructors of ENGL1105 and ENGL1106 through the Pathways assessment process. Pathways is the name of Virginia Tech’s General Education Program (i.e., courses that assure broad-based fluencies across foundational learning experiences in a variety of disciplines). The UWP’s compliance with this assessment initiative is essential to maintaining the program’s favorable standing with routine accreditation processes in accordance with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

Review of the Pathways Assessment Process

The Pathways assessment process (Figure 1 below) is consistent with recent past semesters. The Pathways assessment videos continue to be available online for your reference. You can also download a copy of an annotated assessment worksheet to gain an impression of what form the data will be in when you submit it.

Figure 1. Pathways Assessment Process. This timeline graphic expresses the five key steps for Pathways Assessment. The concepts and outcomes for ENGL1105 and ENGL1106 have been identified already. The workshop will give everyone who teaches first-year writing an opportunity to discuss together what the concepts and outcomes mean, how they apply to student work, and how to complete the assessment rubric this semester.

How to Prepare and Submit Pathways Assessment Data

We recommend applying the ratings rubric to the following major projects at the time of routine evaluation. That is, the Pathways process is best applied while you are assigning grades to student work as you would ordinarily.

ENGL1105, rhetorical analysis project
ENGL1106, source-based research project
If you apply the assessment process to any other paper, project, or artifact, please describe that project when you submit data.

Submit data for your section(s) in one of the following ways:

  • Use the worksheet to tally the ratings, then submit your data one section at a time in the online Google Form (preferable because this process also allows us to collect input about the Pathways assessment process, generally).
  • Use the worksheet to tally the ratings, then submit paper copies to Derek Mueller (323 Shanks Hall, box 17).