Director’s Notes
Last week, I was privileged to attend an assessment workshop presented by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). No doubt, some of you are wondering how I would consider an assessment workshop, especially one offered by HLC, as a privilege. However, my love of assessment coupled with the company of two great Concordia faculty members made the three days of assessment work both productive and enjoyable.
The purpose of the workshop was to provide a team-based approach that combines interactive concurrent sessions with mentored teamwork to produce a plan and strategies for implementing assessment projects on campus. It was designed to be useful to institutions using the traditional evaluation process (PEAQ) or the quality improvement model (AQIP). The goal of the workshop was for participants to design a project to improve student learning on their campus.
In one of the plenary sessions, we were challenged to create an assessment-friendly campus by actuating fundamental shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. Susan Hatfield, Professor of Communication Studies at Winona State University, maintains that an assessment-friendly culture is comprised of the following characteristics: focuses on learning; uses data to improve learning, iterative, participatory, action research; supports inquiry; and creates a supportive infrastructure.
Indeed, the conflict around creating an assessment-friendly culture, in which the focus is on student learning, is intense when there are external pressures to be accountable. In higher education, external pressures are inevitable. However, if assessment is only conducted to expedite compliance, then the real purpose of conducting assessment, to improve student learning, is undermined. We, therefore, need to be diligent in reminding ourselves and our colleagues of the true focus of our collaborative assessments efforts - to improve student learning (in the classroom and in co-curricular opportunities) in order to prepare our students to be responsibly engaged in the world and to thrive in a global society.