Part 4. Assessment

First two simple questions: do you think your work contributes to effective student learning? And…How do you know? I think all of us would answer “YES” to that first question, but we might struggle a bit with the second. We might say we know because of our intuition, or our experience, or the anecdotal feedback from students or some other personal rationale. These are all reasonable things. But they may not be enough to tell the real story of how we contribute to student learning on campus. Assessment – thoughtful, systematic approaches to assessment – should be an integral part of helping you answer that question. How do we know?

It’s a curious word – assessment. It can trigger a whole range of negative responses – fear, hostility, exhaustion, cynicism, inadequacy, apprehension, suspicion. And there are some well-founded reasons for those responses. But assessment is also quite simply an essential thing to engage in as Learning Strategists if we are intent on continuous learning about what we do and why we do it. My goal here is not to gloss over those more negative responses and indoctrinate everyone into a neat and tidy assessment gospel. Indeed, it is my goal to do precisely the opposite – to give greater voice to those apprehensions by situating them in the context in which they legitimately arise. This will deepen our approach to thinking about assessment in our profession so that it goes beyond superficial cheerleading for assessment on the one hand and knee-jerk rejection of assessment on the other.

The approach here is context-heavy. There will be practical advice, to be sure. But it’s also a place to wrestle with and scrutinize the things we think we know, the things that are important for us to know about meaningful, honest, brave, useful approaches to assessment as professionals in the field.

Assessment: from the Latin Assessus, Assidere – to sit beside.

That’s a good sentiment.