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The new requirement applies to courses -- not just sections -- with 300 or more students enrolled annually during the first year; 200 or more the second; and 100 or more in the third and final year of the plan's rollout. Because there are some costs associated with reporting mandates, Quirmbach said the legislature thought it would get the most “bang for its buck” by focusing on large courses.

Beyond a timeline for implementation and the "summative and formative" assessment stipulations, the plan is somewhat vague. That's in part to afford faculty flexibility to define their own learning outcomes and methods of measurement, whether by tests, written assignments or other means; professors -- subject matter experts -- know best what their students should be learning, Quirmbach said.

Not so during a departmental faculty meeting at Northern Iowa, where the plan was recently explained and "most perceived it as busywork," said Mary DeSoto, professor of psychology. 

Template assessment tools are being drafted by at least two of the universities to help professors new to formal reporting.

Planning for next semester’s new requirement is under way now at all three universities, with most taking a “train the trainer” approaching at the college or department level.

Karen Zunkel, director for undergraduate programs and academic quality in the provost's office at Iowa State, which will be most impacted by the plan, said faculty reaction has been mixed. Some professors have asked if the information gathered will be used for tenure and promotion decisions, she said. But she’s assured them that it’s not the goal of the legislation, and that information will be collected by course, not by instructor.

One of the most appealing aspects of the plan so far, she said, is that it will require instructors teaching different sections of the same course to meet, discuss and record what they want their students to learn and how they’ll measure it.

As for fears that information gathered will eventually be used against faculty for personnel decisions or other potentially punitive means,

Sheila Doyle Koppin, spokeswoman for the Board of Regents, said the board has a “longstanding commitment to specifying and measuring expected learning outcomes for all undergraduate programs.” The new requirements are not meant to hinder faculty from teaching, she said, but rather “support and enhance” that ability. Gorton disagreed. Between other required reporting at the department level and above, strategic plan planning and execution and academic programs reviews, there's increasingly little time to teach, he said. And the problem isn't unique to Iowa.