Big assessment projects can be intimidating. We associate assessment with boring surveys, dry data, and Excel, Excel, Excel. It’s no wonder many staff shy away from wading into the thick of assessment unless explicitly directed. But what if it was more manageable that you thought? What if you could assess an area or program under your umbrella with limited time and financial outlay? You might find yourself with a pretty impressive product to bring to your supervisor or director. Plus, as one of our bloggers argued in her post, “Other Duties as Assigned,” taking on a special project outside the direct scope of your job responsibilities can be leveraged the next time you’re looking to make a career move.
If I’ve convinced you to make the assessment leap, here are four steps to take to make sure your project remains manageable and effective:
1. Scale the scope.
While someone out there definitely should be assessing whether overall student learning is being achieved at your institution, that’s probably not going to be you within the scope of a small-scale assessment project. Think about your work world and ask yourself a few questions.
- What do I know the most about?
- What functions, processes, programs, or people do I oversee or work with?
- What data do I have access to?
What you find in the center of the Venn diagram of these questions could very well be the basis for a great assessment prompt tailor-made for you.
Let’s say you’re in charge of an in-hall tutoring program in three different halls and you supervise the student workers for the program. You have some simple attendance data at your disposal based on scanning student IDs at the door. This sounds like a ripe opportunity to dig in for a mini assessment project, which leads us to recommendation number two…
2. Define your line of inquiry.
All assessment projects start with a question (or questions) you want to answer. Consider the following questions:
“How can I make our in-hall tutoring services better?”
Vs.
“What is the ideal time and location for our in-hall tutoring services?”
The first question isn’t bad. In fact, that question indicates a growth-oriented mindset in someone who wants to improve the student experience. But it’s a little vague for a small-scale assessment project. In contrast, the second question is more specific and targeted and defines exactly what the assessment project will try to understand.
The attendance data you already have will provide you with solid information about what times work better within the range you already offer. But what if students would go to tutoring more often if the hours were offered at times or locations you don’t currently staff? Consider collecting student feedback to learn whether you need to change it up. A few easy data collection ideas include:
- Tutors ask each student who comes in what time and where they’d ideally like to attend tutoring, then notes that information in a simple log.
- Use a whiteboard or poster near the entrance to give a few new time/location options and ask all students to cast a vote for their preference.
- Leave a pad of note cards by the check-in station and ask students to submit their preferred time and location in a jar.
Depending on your traffic, try one of these data collection methods for a week or two. Now you have two sets of data to assess as you start developing recommendations. Speaking of…
3. Digest the data.
The worst thing you can do with assessment data (and if we’re being honest, we’ve all been culprits of this) is…nothing. What is the point of collecting data and asking students to give their feedback if you’re just going to sit on it? Now is the time to take a close look at the information you have and consider what, if any, changes need to be made.
Looking at the data, you notice that the least attended tutoring session is 3-4pm at Jesse Hall. And looking more closely… yep, it’s the same one or two students every time. You also find that your note card poll received over 40 votes for hours after 8pm. Time to turn these findings into action. That means it’s time for…
4. Real recommendations.
Now that you have an idea of what to adjust, it’s time to bring your findings to your supervisor, director, or others in your department. Sharing your project in an organized and creative manner will help them take notice. (The content is unrelated to Residence Life, but for data visualization inspo, check out this Dear Data project from 2013.) Be confident in what you’ve assessed, but remain curious and encourage questions from others. Those questions might open up new lines of inquiry for a “phase 2” project at some point.
Now you’re ready to tackle your own mini assessment project. What slice of your work world will you turn your assessing attention to first?
