Using and Sharing Assessment Results

Assessment specialists and accreditors agree that doing assessment is simply not enough.  Sharing and using assessment results are probably the most important part of the assessment process—and, as numerous assessment specialists testify, the most challenging.

A great example of how to use assessment results is from the Department of Business and Economics.  

This department completed a carefully planned assessment during New Student Orientation. Included in this plan was how to use the results.  Business faculty modified the learning objectives they were given from the Office of Student Success for the Faculty Session and created a lively presentation focused on belonging to an academic community and developing strategies for success within this community. At the start of the session, the faculty polled the 39 majors in attendance about what they thought was most important to their academic success.  At the presentation’s close, they asked participants to identify which of those areas they feel they need the most help developing.

In a series of dynamic emails the following week, faculty discussed their interpretations of the poll findings.  The results and the analysis of results were then shared with the UCC 101 faculty to be used in lesson planning.

What makes this example meritorious is that the faculty planned the assessment by giving advance thought to how they would use the results.  Jillian Kinzie, Pat Hutchings, and Natasha Jankowski assert, “Institutions that effectively use assessment results focus sharply from the beginning of any assessment initiative on how results will be used” (Kuh 61, emphasis added).  

Sharing assessment results via evidence-based storytelling helps institutions communicate results that are meaningful to external audiences.  An added benefit is that audiences are spared from being overwhelmed by mind-numbing data and copious bullet points. It's a great assessment strategy for small departments that have few majors.

An excellent example of using assessment results to tell a story comes from the Department of Athletics.  The athletics staff used multiple methods, direct and indirect, to measure the impact of community engagement on student athletes.  The information was shared by the student athletes themselves in a video that highlights the value of community engagement as an educational goal for sports teams.  This video  (https://ucpioneers.com/sports/2019/9/6/pioneers-in-the-community.aspx) is posted on the Utica Pioneers webpage and accessible to external audiences, including prospective students.    

Simply reporting assessment findings sometimes amounts to little more than bean counting.  Assessment becomes a more meaningful enterprise when results are used to improve educational effectiveness and shared to tell our story.

Works Cited

George Kuh, et al. Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 2015. 51-72.