Greetings to all who engage with and champion assessment across Student Affairs. It has been nice seeing many of you "on the bricks" in the last two weeks. However, while the clock confirms that every day has 24 hours, somehow these days feel like life in fast forward. Notwithstanding the glitch I appear to be experiencing in the space-time continuum, we continue on our Student Affairs mission to foster student success by cultivating belonging, engagement, well-being, and learning. In encountering the spiky alien we have come to know as COVID-19, we have had to make numerous modifications to the Starship Carolina. Here on the Assessment deck, I've engaged many of you in discussions to inform tools and processes to make this part of the journey as effective, efficient, and user-friendly as possible. As you work to tune departmental systems for the year ahead, make sure to run diagnostics on your assessment engines!
- Is your department including the appropriate Student Affairs Core Survey Items on departmental surveys? A copy of our revised core survey items is also available in your Campus Labs/Baseline department folder. Remember the wording of our core survey items can be adjusted to fit particular contexts and learning opportunities.
- When you include a Core Survey Item on a departmental/program survey, consider applying display logic to trigger a follow up question inviting respondents to share what we could do differently in order to meet the stated outcome. This is a win/win as it produces data Student Affairs needs to inform organizational KPIs and Strategic Objectives, and can collect data you need to identify where/how you can enhance practices or inform decision-making to close the assessment loop. Need help with display logic? Contact Dr. Locke.
- These actions are critical to understanding our contributions to student engagement, and the extent to which we are creating an equitable and inclusive co-curricular environment. It doesn't work without you!
- If your department is participating in the Core Assessment Pilot QR Code program, make sure to print and post your QR code(s), and include department logo, tiny URL, and a brief title inviting students to "tell us how we did today".
- If you are implementing high impact co-curricular programs including student leadership roles and/or student employment, do you have plans in place to implement multiple assessment methods including direct measures of student learning/development?
- Does everyone who designs and implements assessment on your team have access to Campus Labs/Anthology's Baseline platform? If not, please contact Dr. Locke to request access and to set up a brief orientation.
In many ways in the coming year we will be continuing a journey into previously unexplored regions of space. As we chart the course, remember that assessment is there to help. Know that I am here and fully committed to supporting you and your team in designing and implementing departmental and/or program-level assessment in the service of achieving our mission and goals. And as always, please reach out if you have questions about anything on the checklist, and/or would like to schedule a consultation.
