One might make the case that closing the loop is the most important part of the assessment process. Closing the loop in assessment happens when a unit makes changes in response to a criterion that has not been met and then measures the outcome again to see if the changes had any impact on meeting the criterion. In a unit's assessment report in Xitracs, the unit is asked to indicate whether this is a close the loop example. This means to indicate whether or not this outcome was measured again after implementing an action plan from a previous cycle. The yellow line in the figure below represents closing the loop.
