Gather Evidence
Select an Assessment Tool
The next step is to determine how you want to assess the learning goals.
Consider questions such as:
- Which goal(s) do you want to measure? Use the assessment cycle table in the template to schedule which goals you will assess each cycle.
- How will you know if a student has achieved the goals? What will acieving the goal "look like"?
For example:
- What does "devloping a sense of belonging and community" look like?
- What are the essential elements that must be present in articulating "what culture is"?
- What does a student need to be able to tell you, for you to know they can identify their next steps?
Consider your audience for the assessment data - what type of data is needed or do they respond to?
Direct vs Indirect
Choose a method that measures and captures how students demonstrate what they have learned vs their perception of what they have learned.
Direct measures of collecting information require student to display learning or "demonstrate their competence in one or more skills" (Banta and Palomba 2015, 79). For example, directly observing a student leader delegating to peers or a student navigating a process successfully. Other examples include collections of student work, pre-post tests, performance on a case study.
Indirect measures ask students or others to reflect on student learning. For example, asking a student leader to reflect on delegating to their peer. Other examples include questions asking self- perceptions of learning, job placement statistics, the percentage of students who graduate.
When writing questions or selecting a method, note that there is a difference in asking students if they learned vs. what they learned. The goal is to know what they learned.
An article by Pamelyn K. Shefman is a good one for understanding use of direct measures in cocurriculum.
*Banta, T. W., and C. A. Palomba. 2015. Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing,
and Improving Assessment
in Higher Education, 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Assessment Methods
| Method | General Description | Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Interviews | A purposeful discussion with a single individual to get information. |
Rich detail Deeper levels of information Gather information on topics we know little about Does not require professional moderator Does not require special facilities Good for discussing sensitive topics Flexible |
Transcribing recorded conversation takes time and effort or if an outside company is hired to transcribe, money A note-taker is recommended to ensure conversation is recorded Time consuming if a large sample of students is needed Breadth of understanding Difficult to select and solicit participants Not representative of population |
| Focus Groups | An interview with a small group of people to get information on a specific topic or experience |
Rich detail Deeper levels of information Gather information on topics we know little about/testing ideas Does not require professional moderator Does not require special facilities Flexible A large amount of data in a short amount of time |
Transcribing recorded conversation takes time and effort or if an outside company is hired to transcribe, money A note-taker is recommended to ensure conversation is recorded Breadth of understanding Difficult to select and solicit participants Not representative of population |
| Observations | Watching and recording a phenomenon within the context in which it occurs |
Study natural behavior Gather rich detail about behaviors |
Based on the experience of the observer (bias, interpretation) |
| Documents | Gathering documents such as minutes from meetings, reports, or files and analyzing them |
Cost effective Does not require soliciting participants |
Does not directly measure behavior, opinions, attitudes, or values |
| Survey |
Descriptive data about attitudes, behaviors, opinions, values of an individual are collected. Note: The University provides Qualtrics which is a robust survey software available to anyone with a HawkID. Sign in via uiowa.qualtrics.com to get started |
Flexible (multiple formats and question formats) Ask a larger number of questions Breadth of topics and understanding Ability to develop internally or use standardized surveys Questions can be written to get at direct measures of learning |
Can result in a large amount of data Based on self-report data which depends on accurate and honest responses Often gathers data on indirect forms of student learning |
| Portfolio | A collection of artifacts that demonstrate student learning |
Opportunities for reflection Opportunity for personal selection and assessment Look at learning outcomes over time |
Labor and time intensive to compile and review |
| Visual Methods | Captures images (pictures, videos, artwork, sculptures, etc.) as main form of data |
A picture says a thousand words. Could use images for multiple uses Technology |
Smaller number of perspectives Timeline Technology |
| Rubric | Detailed set of criteria for defining the standards for evaluation performance |
Ability to develop a home grown rubric Ability to use and tailor existing rubrics Expose to students what we want them to learn Reduces bias and/or subjectivity |
Can take time to develop Multiple raters may have to coordinate ratings for reliability |
*Adapted from UoI Assessment Handbook, who adapted from Bresciani, Zelna, & Anderson (2004), Morgan (1998), Sanderson (2007), and Sanderson, Ketcham, Alexander (2008).