This chapter provides guidelines for designing an assessment plan. It suggests ways to identify the department's assessment needs and then explores the different types of assessment tools and activities that are available to departments.

In order for assessment to be effective and useful, it is advisable to develop an assessment plan based on the needs of the department. Having a plan can ensure that the selected assessment activities meet the various requirements of the department's constituents, measure what needs to be measured, and provide useful data. An assessment plan should address the three basic questions:

1. What are we doing?
2. Why are we doing it?
3. How will we use it?

Checklist for Designing an Assessment Plan

An initial task when designing an assessment plan is to identify the department's assessment needs. The checklist below can be used to answer some basic questions about designing and implementing an assessment plan.

What are we assessing?

Is there a need to look at assessment requirements of any of the following?

What do we want to know?

From whom will we collect the data?

Who will see the resulting information?

How will the data be used?

How often will data be collected?

Available Assessment Tools

Many assessment tools may already be in use within the department. Faculty members often engage in evaluative or research activities that are, or can be translated into, assessment activities. A review of these processes would determine whether they are effective and usable for assessment purposes, and whether the department is making the most of existing points of contact with their students. New assessment methods may be chosen to fit the needs of the department. Several of the assessment tools listed here are discussed in detail in the following chapters.

What existing information is available to the department?

• Transcript analysis
• • Patterns in course-taking
• Trends in student performance
• • Tracking exam or course grades over time
• Descriptive indicators for enrolled students or alumni
• • Student data such as SAT, ACT, High School Percentile Rank, and GPA
• Trends in student enrollment
• • Retention, enrollment, or graduation rates for students in the department
• Course exams or assignments
• • Any existing exams, assignments, or projects common to a group of students
• Materials describing current curricular program (syllabi, textbooks, exams, etc.)
• Secondary reading of senior papers or final exams for critical thinking and/or writing skills

What new information can be generated by the department?

• Surveys
• • Entrance surveys
  • • Why did students select the program?
  • Course surveys
  • • What are students' expectations of the course?
  • Senior exit interviews or surveys
  • Faculty interviews or surveys
  • Alumni surveys
  • Employer (of graduates) surveys
• Portfolios - Collected examples of student work
• Performance measures – Activities such as writing a paper, making a presentation, completing a computer project, etc.
• Unobtrusive measures – Observation and recording of student use of facilities and services
• Standardized tests
• • National tests such as the Major Field from ETS (a test of knowledge of seniors allowing comparisons to national data)
  • Faculty constructed exams
  • • Minimum competency exams (pre- & post-tests)
    • Comprehensive end-of-program exams
• Assessment center method – Simulation of real-life situations in which student performance is evaluated by expert judges

Questions & Answers on Designing an Assessment Plan

Q) What are some characteristics of an effective assessment plan?

A) To be effective, an assessment plan needs to contain the following important characteristics:

• Assessment should flow from the mission statement and needs to be both ongoing and built into the department's program.
• Assessment should use multiple measures, both qualitative as well as quantitative, rather than relying on one instrument or activity.
• A successful assessment program requires faculty ownership and responsibility since the faculty members, more than anyone else, are directly involved in the process of student learning.
• Finally, the results of assessment activities should lead to improvement and be seen as a means rather than an end.

Q) How do we decide where to begin our assessment?

A) Most departments have found that the best way to begin assessment is by first defining the most immediate need. Is the department on the current year of the General Studies evaluation cycle? Does the department have an upcoming accreditation or state commission review? If none of these demands are driving the assessment efforts, then a good place to start is by examining the department mission or goals and objectives statements. What, according to these documents, are the intended outcomes of the program? Which of these outcomes are most important to the program? Once these intended outcomes have been identified and prioritized, the next step is to select the best way to determine whether these outcomes are being achieved.

Q) Why is it so important to use multiple measures?

A) The very nature of assessment makes it important that you avoid relying on only one measure, such as a test or survey, to provide information about your course or program. Relying on one measure is risky since it could result in misleading perceptions of what is going on in the department. Students may perform poorly on one test or project, but better on another. Student responses on a survey, while certainly informative, take on a much richer meaning when seen with test results from those students. Both pieces are enhanced by correlation with student database information. Multiple measures allow you to explore what students know, what they can do with what they know, and what they think about the whole process. Don't forget, too, that important information can be gleaned from sources other than students. Data from surveys of faculty, alumni, and employers of program graduates can be combined with student input to provide a well-rounded picture of your program.

Q) How do we involve faculty members in the process of assessment?

A) Faculty members are frequently resistant to assessment. A good way to overcome that resistance is to involve the faculty in the process of assessment. In a planning session or focus group format, begin by asking faculty members to answer questions such as: "What outcomes do we value?" or "How would we identify a successful student in our course(s)?" The resulting discussion can spark ideas for an assessment plan. If designing a survey or exam, ask faculty members to submit items for the instrument. The most effective assessment plan is one that involves and has the support of the faculty.

Q) Should we collect assessment data from all our students or just a sample?

A) This depends on the size of the student population involved. A General Studies course that has six sections of from 40 to 100 students would require only a sample of those students to be tested or surveyed. On the other hand, a required course for the major that typically enrolls only 20 students per semester might be more effectively assessed if the assessment activity involves all the majors.

Q) Do we need to collect data in all sections of a course or just a sample of sections?

A) Again, this depends on the department's situation. There may be several sections of a course being taught by the same instructor or using the same text or exams. In this case, the department may decide to use only a sample of sections. If, on the other hand, the different sections are being taught by several different faculty members using a variety of texts and exams, it may be wise to use a sample of students from each section. The answer to this question also depends on the purpose of the assessment project. Assessment of a General Studies course may be focused on exploring whether each section of the course is meeting the goals and objectives of the course. This type of assessment will be more effective if all sections are involved. A survey of attitudes of majors in a core course may require that only a sample of the sections of the course be assessed.

Q) Who will see our department assessment results?

A) Most assessment data collected by a department is for department use only. Assessment provides an opportunity for the department to take a critical look at their programs to identify strengths and weaknesses. There are, however, some instances where a department is gathering assessment data for a particular audience. For example, the General Studies evaluation requires departments to submit a written report to the General Studies subcommittee. Many departments are required by their professional accreditation bodies to gather and report assessment data for their accreditation reviews.

Sample Department Assessment Plan - Example 1

Sample Department Assessment Plan - Example 2

For Further Reading

Adelman, Clifford, Ed. Performance and Judgment, Essays on Principles and Practice in the Assessment of College Learning. Washington DC: U. S. Department of Education, 1988

Erwin, T. Dary. Assessing Student Learning and Development. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Ewell, Peter and Lisensky, Robert. Assessing Institutional Effectiveness. Washington DC: Consortium for the Advancement of Private Higher Education, 1988.

Farmer, D. W. Enhancing Student Learning: Emphasizing Essential Competencies in Academic Programs. Wilkes-Barre: King's College, 1988.

Gardiner, Lion F. Planning For Assessment. New Jersey Department of Higher Education, 1989.

Hutchings, Pat and Reuben, Elaine. "Faculty Voices on Assessment". Change. Washington DC: AAHE, July/August, 1988.

Hutchings, Pat. "Linking Assessment with Teaching". Assessment Update. Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1989.

Nichols, James O. Institutional Effectiveness and Outcomes Assessment Implementation on Campus. New York: Agathon Press. 1989.

Tyler, Ralph.  Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. University of Chicago Press, 1949.

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