Does assessment make a difference? We all hope so. Every year, hours and hours of time are poured into program assessment plans and the work of collecting data to actually assess our courses and programs. We create thick binders and build data warehouses to systematize our assessment work. Professors even go so far as to change the assignments and exam procedures in their classes to make sure that they are in alignment with their program’s assessment plan. But is anyone assessing the assessment process?
We certainly should be. Assessment uses university resources. But before we can begin, we must make the following clear. When looking at a course (or program), there are two totally independent questions that we can ask about our courses which are:
- Is the course being well assessed or not? and,
- Is the course a good course or a bad course?
The Assessment Trap
The trap that we can fall into is the idea that the former and the latter are the same question. But they most certainly are not. It is more than possible to have a great course in which students are learning and loving to learn that has no real assessment going on. Also, it is possible that a course that students learn little in and that students generally hate has a solid assessment tool being implemented.
Let’s look at assessment in a slightly different way. Assessing a course is much like a professor giving an exam in one of their classes. The exam is designed to create accountability for the student. Student accountability is good and helpful, but it is not the learning itself. The best class at the institution often does not have to have the best written exam at the institution. It can be helpful for our students to be evaluated by exams because it gives them motivation to study and gives them feedback on their level of understanding (although at times exams can also be a grindy, anxiety filled experience that makes students like a course much less than they would otherwise), but any professor worth their salt would have to agree that the point of the course is not to pass the exam, or even to have an exam to take. The point is student learning and growth. Is your program’s assessment process motivating to your faculty or a grindy, anxiety filled experience?
One of the worst things you can be asked as a professor in the classroom is the dreaded question, “Is this going to be on the exam?” Professors hate this question because the student is clearly missing the point of their education! Students are not here to pass an exam! Is it possible that we as professors and administrators can fall into the same thinking regarding assessment? The role of an exam is to encourage and provide feedback to the student in their studies. In the same way, the role of assessment is to encourage and provide feedback to the professor so that they, in turn, can make the course the best that it can be.
Assessment should motivate a professor to make changes to the quality of the course. Assessment should never make a professor like to teach their course less. The assessment tool cannot make a course better itself – just like writing a great exam can’t force a student to study. Assessment is only a motivating tool for better instructional design. Once the difference between assessment and course quality is understood as independent, the role of assessment at our institutions becomes more clear. We need to stop figuratively asking ourselves, “Is this going to be on the assessment?” We are not here to pass an assessment! We are totally missing the point!
Accreditation and Assessment
Institutions need accreditation and often a part of getting accreditation is showing the proper signs of a rigorous assessment plan. This is not a bad thing per se, but it can become a horrible thing when we start thinking that because we have a rigorous assessment plan that our programs must be thriving. In today’s higher ed, almost every failing program has worked long and hard on an assessment plan. Assessment itself is clearly not making our courses and programs thrive. (If it were, we would not be having some of our problems in higher ed right now!) If we do enter into the fallacy of confusing good assessment with quality instruction and learning, it is quite like we have chosen the love of taking exams over the love of learning itself. The exam has its place in the classroom (and it is an important one), but a well structured exam will never take the place of the love of learning. Neither will an excellent assessment plan ever take the place of a great course delivering the ideas that bring us life and freedom. Excellent instruction must come first and assessment plans a long way second. The good news is we can have both!
Does Assessment Make a Difference?
It can, but only if used as a tool to honestly get some feedback about our programs and courses. Assessment used correctly gives us a feel for how we are doing at accomplishing our goals. This is only helpful if we have excellent goals. The goals of our courses are much more important than the way we assess the goals. A lower bar is much easier to assess.
Unfortunately, the goals of many programs and courses are to do what they have been doing for years or to do what they think the students are capable of doing easily. Programs and courses can’t actually get better without an upgrade to their goals. So first we must write excellent goals (critically important), second think about how to assess those goals (hopefully encouraging but less important), then get focused on the much more important work of making our courses and programs great for our students (the most important thing we do).
The Value of Assessment
One final thought about assessment and its skewed value in today’s higher ed: when was the last time that you heard a colleague questioned about the quality of their course? When was the last time that you heard that same colleague questioned about whether or not they had an assessment plan built for their course? I think we all would agree that the second question is asked constantly in higher ed and the former almost never.
Let’s make sure that our limited time and resources are being used to build a stronger student relationship with life-giving ideas. Just as an exam for its own sake is counterproductive to the learning process, an assessment plan built for its own sake is counterproductive to great program and course design. Let’s take the time to think about the time and energy going into assessment at our institutions and make sure that it is worth the investment. Let’s start assessing our assessment!
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