Using Assessment Results or "Closing the Loop"
There are many potential ways to make good use of assessment findings. And there are a number of potential audiences for assessment results. However, the most important audiences (or beneficiaries) are yourself, your faculty colleagues and your students.
| Potential Audiences | Ways to Use Assessment Results | Where to Apply Assessment Results |
| Program Director | Design the assessment activities in a way that answers questions about your program that are important to you. | Program Review, Course Design, Curriculum Design, Curriculum Revision, Program Outcomes Revision, Course Outcomes Revision, Advising |
| Faculty Colleagues | Assessment results can help faculty see how their efforts help improve student learning. | Instructional Design, Activity Design, Assessment Design, Pedagogy, Student Engagement, Promoting "Deep Learning", Peer Mentoring, Advising, Shared Purpose, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning |
| Adjunct Faculty | Assessment findings can help adjunct faculty see how their teaching fits into the overall curriculum. | Instructional Design, Activity Design, Assessment Design, Pedagogy, Student Engagement, Promoting "Deep Learning" |
| Students | Assessment results can help students discover their strengths and weakness and take responsibility for learning. | Educational and Career Planning, Advising, Learning Support, Goal Setting, Self-Authorship and -Advocacy, Intrinsic Motivation, Peer Mentoring, Life-long Learning |
| Deans | Assessment results can help Deans make recommendations about allocating resources to support teaching and learning. | Academic Quality, Program Review, Program Prioritization, Human Resource Development, Budgeting and Planning, Strategic Planning, Fundraising |
| Provost | Assessment results can help the provost make decisions about allocating resources to support teaching and learning. | Academic Quality, Strategic Mission, Educational Vision, Strategic Planning, Financial Planning, Development |
| Accreditors | An assessment system that provides evidence of continuous improvement supports the institution's effort to meet accreditation standards. | Evidence of Institutional Effectiveness, Integrity, Student Success and Educational Quality |
Closing the Loop: Using Assessment Results for Action
There are any number of ways to make use of your interpreted assessment results. The list below is adapted from University of Central Florida’s Program Assessment Handbook Links to an external site. (2005) and University of Nebraska Lincoln’s Outcomes Assessment Guidebook Links to an external site. (2006)
Primary Uses
Student Learning
Assessment results allow you compare actual student performance with intended student performance. Knowing students’ strengths and weaknesses allows you to target areas for program improvement.
Making Use of Direct Assessment Results
- Cognitive: What does the student know versus what the program intends the student to know?
- Performance and skills: What can the student do versus what the program expects the student to be able to do?
- Affective: Is the student developing as a self-directed learner and reflective practitioner as appropriate to the program discipline?
Making Use Indirect Assessment Results
- Cognitive: What does the student report that s/he knows (perception of own knowledge, understanding, etc.)? Does it match what you planned students’ perception to be of the discipline or a specific aspect of the discipline?
- Performance and skills: What does the student report that s/he can do (perception of own ability or skills)? Does it match what you intended students in your program to do?
- Affective: How does the student respond to questions dealing with program impact on the student’s values? Is the student developing as a self-author as appropriate to the program discipline?
Internal Program Reviews/Curriculum Reviews
Evidence of student learning can be used by programs to encourage discussions of probable strengths and weaknesses and generate ideas for improving the program’s effectiveness.
Student Communication
What is learned from the assessment process and results can be shared with students to help them better understand the program’s expectations of them and give them a chance to take ownership of that learning.
External Accreditation Reports and Reviews
Results can be used to confirm the program helps students attain prescribed learning outcomes. Documentation of the assessment process can demonstrate that the program is engaged and committed to a process of systematically using evidence of learning to improve its curriculum and delivery.
Curriculum Committee Proposals
Assessment data may be used to support proposals to the College Curriculum Committee for course changes or new courses, program revisions or new programs.
Secondary uses
Recruiting/Marketing
Findings about the satisfaction of current majors and clear intentions about what the program will prepare students to know and to do can be used to recruit new students to the department.
Alumni newsletter
Share the successes of current students with alumni. Share successes of alumni with current students.
Career services
Department alumni surveys can demonstrate to prospective employers why graduates from that department are more skilled, and better qualified than graduates from similar departments at other universities and colleges. This can be done on a departmental level or centrally.
Securing grants
Many grants that involve innovations in teaching and educational programs now require an assessment of that innovation to determine its effectiveness.
Assessment Results Can Guide Assessment Plan Improvement
One way you may use your assessment results is to improve the assessment process itself. If your assessment plan is too complicated, too time consuming, not answering your questions or not providing information to help you improve your program, it may need a tune up. These are some of the ways that you may modify your assessment plan for next year:1
Improve assessment method used: You may have found that the assignment, exam or activity did not really elicit the competency in question from your students. Perhaps what is needed is revised assignment instructions, a clearer essay prompt or different exam questions.
Further assess the learning outcome with the same research question: Perhaps your study of learning outcome and research question produced inconclusive or unexpected results. You may wish to dig deeper.
Further assess the learning outcome with a different research question: Your study of learning outcome and research question produced satisfactory results and piqued your curiosity. You may wish to explore further.
Repeat assessment of learning outcome and research questions after implementing a program change: You have made program changes and want to determine if the change led to the intended effect.
Identify a new learning outcome and research question: You are satisfied with the conclusions of the study and are ready to assess other learning outcomes and explore new research questions.
Start over: If you are frustrated with your assessment process, find that it does not provide useful information or are overwhelmed with the implementation, call the Learning Assessment Director (Ellen Zeman) or the Director of Instructional Practice (Rebecca Mills). Either of these people can help you re-think your approach, simplify it and make it more meaningful.
1. Adapted from: University of Nebraska, Lincoln's Guidebook for Programmatic Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes Links to an external site. (2006)
References
Kuh, G. D., Ikenberry, S. O., Jankowski, N. A., Cain, T. R., Ewell, P. T., Hutchings, P., & Kinzie, J. (2015). Using evidence
of student learning to improve higher education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. (2016, May). Higher education quality: Why documenting learning matters Links to an external site.. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment.