Colleges and universities are “not doing enough to use the data they collect to improve teaching and learning.”  So noted a recent Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog (7/16/09) quoting Stan Ikenberry, (coprincipal investigator for the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, an initiative begun in 2008 to find and detail best practices in assessment across college campuses) regarding new findings from a recently completed NILOA study.  Indeed colleges and universities are not doing enough, but there are three key issues that underlie this assertion that can help move assessment out of the sphere of compulsory tasks and into the spotlight of improved learning outcomes.

First, campuses need to do a better job of taking inventory of the various types and forms of assessment already being done.  Many campuses have well-established assessment schedules, such as routine administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and Higher Education Research Institute Surveys, such as the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), inventories of student health or alcohol use, and course evaluations.  However, because the term “campus community” tends to mean a collection of independently functioning silos rather than a coordinated network, a good deal of data is gathered, stored, and understood only within particular departments.  Administrators, student affairs personnel, and faculty need to be more intentional about the dissemination, reflection, and communication of data that is already being collected. Read the rest of this entry »