Designing Meaningful Institutional Assessment Plans: Putting It All Together
Institutions with regional accreditation now have access to a great deal of information about developing assessment plans and many fine examples of general education assessments, academic department assessment plans, and a plethora of student affairs and student support assessment plans. But many institutions are lacking in the overall institutional level...
The Research Process and Its Relevance to the Culture of Assessment
This article first appeared in Academic Leader on November 30, 2015. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. As higher education evolves, so too does the importance of assessing learning. New regulations, financial constraints, and accrediting agencies are stressing that colleges and universities should strengthen assessment organizationally. However, when assessment is discussed in large...
How to Lead Assessment in Your Unit
Being in charge of assessment within one’s unit involves more than measuring student learning outcomes. It’s about leading cultural change, a process that is best undertaken in collaboration with those who know the discipline, program, and students best—the faculty and staff. In an interview with Academic Leader, Linda Neavel Dickens,...
How to Avoid Common Assessment-Reporting Pitfalls
Little things can make or break a large project, so it would be a shame if ill-prepared reports undid all the hard work you put into an assessment effort. John H. Schuh, author of Assessment Methods for Student Affairs, offers tips for getting your assessment results into the right hands...
Seven Important Factors in Program Assessment
“No one should be surprised to learn that faculty (in general) have not enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to see if their students measure up to those at other universities or to the expectations of their professors,” writes Diane Halpern in a “personalized review” of assessment programs in general and in...
