Chapter 2. Overview of the Assessment Process

A. Developing and Implementing an Assessment Plan

Having decided (enthusiastically or not) to “do assessment,” faculty need a place to start: a plan or roadmap that specifies the decisions the faculty will make about assessment. The basic parts of the plan are:

• defining the mission statement for the program (Chapter 3);
• identifying the learning outcomes for students in the program (Chapter 4);
• choosing the tool or tools for assessment (Chapter 5).

The devil in assessment is often in the details of implementation (Chapter 6). Once the foundation of the plan is in place, the next phase is to make decisions such as:

• the methods for collecting evidence to assess learning outcomes;
• the number of students involved in the process (i.e. sample size);
• the personnel and resources needed for coordination and data analysis;
• potential training needs of evaluators;
• the best approaches for sharing and discussing the results with colleagues.

An assessment plan attains validity when faculty have a role in its creation. Validity is "the degree to which an assessment measures (a) what is intended, as opposed to (b) what is not intended, or (c) what is unsystematic or unstable" (Source: University of Maryland Center for the Study of Assessment Validity and Evaluation). To achieve validity, it is important to involve the department in the creation of the assessment plan. Most departments identify a person with a professional or personal interest in assessment (this could be the department chair) to coordinate the effort, but this person will also need to synthesize colleagues’ thoughts and opinions into a consensus plan.

In higher education, unanimity is not a goal; we welcome and celebrate diversity of opinion. The challenge is to find decisions that most people can live with. For example, the list of learning outcomes should not consist of the sum total of all the outcomes identified by all faculty in the program; rather, it should only contain the minimum list of outcomes that most faculty agree on.

Discussion and consensus take time. If an assessment plan takes years or decades to develop, it signifies an unsuccessful process. Aim for the plan to develop over the period of a semester; try to do it more quickly; don’t be discouraged if it happens more slowly.

An important part of assessment is sharing the program mission and learning outcomes with students. This helps students have a better understanding of the direction of their education and be more engaged in the learning process.

B. Steps in the Assessment Process

Figure 2.1, adapted from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (http://www.wisc.edu/provost/assess/manual.html), depicts the steps in the assessment process. The process is intentionally shown as circulatory, in order to evoke the idea of continual improvement.

Figure 2.1. Steps in the Assessment Process

 

On to Chapter 3. Developing a Program Mission Statement

 

Last Modified: June 5, 2008