| Higher education regional accrediting bodies as well as the federal government are asking how institutions of higher learning analyze and use evidence of student learning to improve their programs. Former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings highlighted that learning outcomes at institutions of higher education have "inadequate transparency and accountability for measuring institutional performance, which is more and more necessary to maintaining public trust in higher education" (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). These concerns challenge institutions of higher learning to move assessment or outcomes measures beyond data collection of student learning to include continuous reflection, discussion, action, and accountability. Many barriers exist in meeting this challenge: insufficient institutional structures to implement change, poorly designed assessment tools or assessment procedures, lack of communication of assessment results across campus, and low engagement of faculty members. Fundamentally, many obstacles that interdict higher educational institutions from effecting change by using evidence of student learning results from a divergence between the vision or mission of the institution and the purpose and design of the assessment process. An analysis of this process of assessment can reduce this divergence. The study focused on the implementation of a professional development workshop to create an assessment reporting form. The workshop provided background information on assessment at the university, identified an assessment reporting instrument that is useful in diagnosing strengths and weaknesses of academic programs, provided information needed to identify a course of action for improvement, and delivered training on how to report assessment data. The participants were interviewed immediately following the intervention and then again within a three-week time frame after the intervention to determine where improvements in reporting programmatic assessment had been made and to evaluate them. The study indicated the participants understand the importance to the institution of having a comprehensive assessment process. Improvements in the wording, definitions, and explanations provided on the form made it clearer than the form previously in use. The study indicated the form would make it easier to understand what is required when providing assessment data. Based on the qualitative interview data, the professional development workshop improved the assessment process. |
