Robert DiTomasso, Ph.D.
1. Failing to plan is planning to fail
You need to know how what you are doing in your educational programs relates to what you expect to produce in your students. Otherwise, the educational activities are then a series of disconnected unrelated activities without a common theme or thread that binds them together. Assessment data are the threads.
You need to know how what you are doing in your educational programs relates to what you expect to produce in your students. Otherwise, the educational activities are then a series of disconnected unrelated activities without a common theme or thread that binds them together. Assessment data are the threads.
2. It's better to know than assume
Outcomes assessment is a public declaration and commitment to knowing. It's a sign that we care and are serious about what we are doing. We strive to know what we are achieving in our programs rather than simply assume.
Outcomes assessment is a public declaration and commitment to knowing. It's a sign that we care and are serious about what we are doing. We strive to know what we are achieving in our programs rather than simply assume.
3. Absence of
evidence is evidence of absence in this case
Absence
of a plan that specifies mechanisms for providing evidence is essentially equivalent
to no evidence-if evidence is not sought for all intents and purposes it simply
does not exist
4. If you don’t ask
the important questions, someone else surely will
It’s
essential to determine:
What
are the critical questions you need to ask?
What
are the critical means of answering these questions?
What
type of evidence is the most compelling that can be obtained?
What
would be most the most convincing demonstration that goal attainment has
indeed occurred?
5. The best defense
is a good offense
The
idea here is to be proactive rather than reactive. Most programs are probably already collecting
a good amount of data but may not have systematically examined it. Only the strong survive!
The
health of an institution and its programs depends on regular check-ups and well-informed mechanisms for fostering change. Outcomes assessment provides an appropriate
review of systems and a solid basis for decision-making.
Outcomes
assessment is on-going and not just an activity we do for accreditation
purposes.
6. Some questions
may never be truly answered without resorting to data
Both
quantitative and qualitative measures are important methods for discovering
what you need to know. When multiple
sources of data all point in the same direction, we are more confident that
what we are doing is working, ie, truly having an intended impact.
7. To ask is to know
The only
dumb question is the one that is never asked and this never rings more truly than here.
We will never know what we need to know unless we question what we are doing.
8. There is strength in numbers
There is
truly no substitute for reliable and valid data in improving and strengthening
our programs. We must try to be certain
that our measures are indeed measuring what we say they are and that these
measures yield consistent and stable scores for making comparisons.
9. Information is power
While
knowledge is necessary but not sufficient for change, it is a powerful tool for
pinpointing areas in need of improvement.
To capitalize on its value, we must utilize it by populating feedback
loops with useful information that will drive decisions.
10.
Adopt a culture of assessment
We can achieve our goals by fostering and nurturing a culture of assessment. In this culture, we emphasize the importance of asking relevant questions, developing systems for streaming data, interpreting data, and using data to support and change what we do in order to improve quality.
