But We've Always Done Assessment: Course-Level Versus Program-Level Assessment

When faculty argue that they have always done assessment and made changes to improve learning, they are absolutely correct.  The 2018 self-study report completed by the Department of Physics calls this “assessment by rumination,” asserting that it “happens all the time among faculty” and was happening “long before ‘rubrics’ and ‘operational goals’ . . .  barged their way into the lexicon of assessment.”

What faculty are referring to when they make these claims is course-level assessment. Course-level assessment has been happening for centuries.  However, the type of assessment that will inspire public confidence in higher education is not course-level, but program-level or institution-level. These are the assessments that provide the evidence we need to tell our stories to external stakeholders, including prospective students, parents, donors, accreditors, and grant-funding agencies.

Imagine you are promoting your academic program to a group of parents and prospective students.  You want to attract the best and the brightest students in the audience, and, while you aren’t crass enough to say it, you want each family to spend over $100,000 and probably amass significant debt. 

You can tell them what faculty colleagues at every other college they visit will tell them:  we have a great faculty dedicated to excellence in teaching; our curriculum is current, relevant, and exciting; we offer students opportunities for research, internships, and community-engagement; in our program, you are a person, not a number. 

But how might you tell a story that distinguishes your program and offers evidence supporting your claims?   

Findings from course-level assessments won’t help you here.  No parent or prospective student will care that last spring semester, 83% of the students in XXX-course met or exceeded expectations on a quiz.  They might, however, be interested to learn that in UC’s physics program, students in introductory and intermediate-level courses often exceed the national average on a standardized pre/post assessment.  Likewise, they would probably be interested to know that internship supervisors evaluate how well criminal justice students apply what they learned in their program to a real-world setting.  

Program-level assessment is not more important than course-level.  It’s just different—and it serves a different purpose.  It might be tempting to think that a handful of course-level assessments will add up to program assessment, but they do not. Program assessment considers the bigger picture—program-level goals—and is typically outcomes based.

Assessment guru Linda Suskie recommends that “Program-level outcomes are often best assessed with a significant assignment or project completed shortly before students graduate.”  

As departments plan for the 2019-2020 assessment cycle, consider how you might use your assessments to tell your program’s story.  You might even find that your assessment efforts become more simplified, more organic, and less burdensome than they have been.