We’ve Got Our Assessment Results –

Now What?!AAC&U 2014 Institute onIntegrative Learning and the Departments

Theme 3, Concurrent Session IV

Jo Beld, St. Olaf College

Session agenda

•Why using assessment data is important

•Why using assessment data is hard

• Using what you’ve already got

• Designing for use in the future

• Building a culture of assessment use

Why use is important

Assessment use is:

• Required by accreditors (all of them!)

• Engaging for faculty

• Engaging for other stakeholders

• A means of stewardship

• A means of improvement

Why use is hard

• Institutions are not “rational actors”

• Your colleagues are busy

• Your colleagues are smart

• Data feels distant

• Data can be ambiguous and short-lived

• Use requires collaboration

Why use is hard

•Which obstacle to using assessment is especially salient for your institution? Are there other obstacles we haven’t mentioned?

Using what you’ve already got

• Take stock

• Triangulate

Learning GoalsQuestionnaire

Using what you’ve already got

Internationalization at St. Olaf

Using what you’ve already gotInventory of:• Intended learning outcomes referencing

internationalization/global understanding (institutional, GE, program-level)• Institutional-level assessment data (NSSE,

HEDS-Alumni, local Learning Goals survey)• GE assessment data (analysis of student work in

selected GE-accredited courses)• Program-level assessment data (Study Abroad

Learning Assessment, results from selected majors and concentrations)

Using what you’ve already gotThink about the project you are working on at this Institute.

•What data do you already have that might be relevant? If you don’t know, where would you go to find out?

•What questions do you want to answer?

•Who can pull that data together for you so you can look for patterns?

Using what you’ve already got

• Task a group and/or tweak a routine

• Tell a story

Using what you’ve already gotInst Research & Evaluation

Assessment Subcomm

Curriculum Committee

Provost and Dean’s Council

Board Academic

Affairs

Early fall review of

assessment findings from

previous spring

Using what you’ve already got

Think about the project you are working on at this Institute. Story?

Routine?

Group(s)?

Designing for use in the future

Backward design in assessment

• Anticipate uses

• Ask for use

• Affirm successes

• Allow time

Designing for use: Anticipate

Designing for use: Anticipate

Intended uses by GE instructors (pp. 6-7):Promoting reflectionEnhancing alignmentRevising content/pedagogyImproving other coursesSupporting

tenure/promotion

Designing for use: Anticipate

Determining whether curriculum needs revising

Guiding faculty development

Informing department GE course offerings

Enhancing advising Informing Dean’s

Council decisions Supporting grant

applications

Intended uses by departments, offices, and committees

Designing for use: Ask

What uses have you made in the past?

What potential uses guided your current assessment project?

What use will you make of your current results?

What help or support do you need for this use?

Dean of the College

Institutional Research & Evaluation

Curriculum Committee

Assessment Action Reports

Designing for use: Affirm

Use = Sustain as well as change

Designing for use: Allow time

Multi-year assessment schedule • One program type per year• One outcome per program • One year to reflect and act instead of gather

Building a culture of use

Cite assessment

findings yourself

Link resource

allocation to assessmentengagement

and useMake assessment part of a larger project people are

invested in

Ask others to

cite findings

Building a culture of use

• Which of these strategies would you like to try?

• Are there other strategies that have worked for you?

• Are there new ones you’d like to suggest?

• Take stock• Triangulate• Task a group or

tweak a routine• Tell a story

* * * * * * * * * * * *

• Anticipate uses• Ask for use• Affirm continuities• Allow time

We’ve Got Our Assessment Results –

Now What?!

Share your “a-ha” moments!