HIED-840 Evaluation of Academic Programs
Course Reflection
Through this course, I have learned that assessment in higher education is a valuable and necessary process. Though I expected this course to be focused on data analysis, I was surprised by the depth and intensity of the material that we dived into. It made me realize that assessment is far more than just data collection and analysis that involves many stakeholders’ efforts within an institution. The process of collecting and analyzing data is just scratching the surface of the assessment process.
The most unexpected item for me was the NSSE report. This was one of the most challenging assignments for me. Trying to piece altogether and analyze so much information and make sense of it was quite of experience and a reassurance that I do not and will not intend to pursue a career in IR neither now nor in the near future. Though, I’m most grateful that at least I gained a basic understanding of how to read and interpret the NSSE report results.
The most useful about this course for me was the group participations and practice of writing the Student Learning Outcomes, developing our own projects and personal rubrics for those projects according to the adjusted student outcomes because it was essentially practical to the real world that I am exposed to. Especially since I work already in the higher education field and I am planning to pursue a teaching career as a part-time instructor. This practice left me more confident in my ability to embark on a project like this at my institution and with better basic knowledge of what needs to be done. The group collaboration also helped me in a great deal to bring awareness when working with peers and knowing when to take the lead and when to step aside to give the opportunity to others to showcase their skills and knowledge in order to reach harmoniously a common goal. I also enjoyed very much the opportunity to learn and practice writing an Executive Summary as again, this is something that is practical and can be a useful tool for me in my current work field as an administrator.
Overall, the course addressed more than what I expected regarding institutional assessment. However, I do feel that would have been more comprehensive to help close the loop to include additional small information about the actual post-assessment process and initiatives. Same as some of my class peers, I felt that our focus for the course was more about planning, gathering, and presenting and analyzing data and mechanisms. Especially, based on my own professional experience, the administration is the one in charge to carry on with these initiatives, but we hardly get to see any of those initiatives put into actions and I believe this may be due to the lack of practice of how to actually proceed to implement them.
As for suggestions for future course offerings that can be improved in the Assessing Student Outcomes course, since I already work in the administration field and know in the direction that I wish to head in the higher education field, I feel I would have benefitted more from including some hands-on group work experience about post-assessment and perhaps less focus on the data analytics, or at least not as nearly the depth of what we were exposed to. I believe that for those who are pursuing or plan to work on institutional research the intensity of these analytics is a good basic to intermediate introduction experience. But, not so much for those who intend to go on a different route such as teaching or administration. I feel this particular group would have benefitted more from focusing on closing the loop cycle and learning more about actual action plans, strategies, and initiatives implementations.