Outcomes assessment is best viewed as a means to an end, not a goal in itself. It is a tool meant to produce improved student learning (both in terms of what is being learned and how well it is being learned), so we must avoid the trap of spending all our time and energy on assessment and not having any left to make the changes necessary for improved learning. Most faculty members are already overloaded with teaching, research and service responsibilities, so even if they believe assessment is a useful activity they will often resist it as much as possible to avoid the extra workload. The key to overcome this resistance is to 1) make assessment an integral part of the basic course design structure and 2) provide templates and standard procedures for the faculty to follow. Providing standard assessment procedures does not take away from faculty creativity and involvement in the assessment and continuous improvement process, it just focuses it on the most important items. The key is to communicate clearly the important information that must be collected for program assessment purposes, reducing time wasted by individual faculty thinking about the assessment process and allowing them to focus their time and creative energy on the design of the overall curriculum and the learning activities within the courses that will best help students to achieve the program outcomes. Use of a standardized backward course design process based on program and course outcomes can be very useful here. One example of outcomes-based course planning is given in "Understanding by Design". Even with a good outcomes-based course design instructors still have to evaluate student performance on the assessment activities for each outcome, but they get to spend most of their time on activities directly related to improving student learning rather than on individually developing procedures and protocols for collecting and evaluating assessment data. When properly implemented, a standardized backward course design process can actually increase creativity by providing a framework within which the faculty can creatively generate learning and assessment activities. This is in agreement with the anonymous quote that states: "standardization is the friend of creativity".
展开▼
