Consulting Services: Assessment Topics:

Communicating results, a key to Success

Open communication, articulation, and dialogue are the keys to successful assessment.  These types of activities promote involvement and shared goals.  Such communication is sometimes viewed as risky. Several ideals may help guide an assessment effort to successful involvement from all stakeholders.

bullet Communication should be open exchanges, not limited to "putting out the word."  Although "putting-out the word" in newsletters is a valuable first step.  For example, when each of the reports mentioned on this page included a request for feedback, and once that feedback was collected a further summary was published in a newsletters.

bullet Communication should be accessible to stakeholders
bullet For example when reporting the findings of a General Education assessment using standardized tests (ACT's CAAP), two reports were available.  One was a summary, written for general college-wide consumption, with limited number and a few graphs.  The other was a more complete technical report with statistical analysis and support. 

bullet On another occasion I was reviewing the feedback from faculty concerning general education.  I was very pleased with the tables and graphs, which I explained to an administrator.  She was scanning through the document and got to the comments summary pages.  Her face lit up, and she started to read each comment.  The experience reinforced the ideal that not all of use arrive at understanding through the same data formats.

Illustrating this emphasis on communication is a presentation several of us made at a North Central Association - Higher Learning Commission annual meeting.

bullet 28 Right- and Left-handed Tools for all Seasons:
A Toolbox of Useful Items to Embed in a Culture of Assessment
in General Education, Discipline-Level, and the Classroom - Presentation PowerPoint slides
 
bullet ToolBox - linked list of ideas