Arizona Western College Assessment for Administrative Departments Objectives: describe the value and purposes of assessment as related to service identify and write measureable goals, identify and write methods of assessment with benchmarks, and enter department/program goals and measures in an assessment plan.

What is assessment and why do we have to do it? “Assessment is the systematic collection of information about student learning, using the time, knowledge, expertise, and resources available, in order to inform decisions that affect student learning” (Walvoord, 2010). We assess teaching, learning, and services to ensure we are providing top quality education and services. Without documented evidence of assessment, how do we know how well our students are performing for every course or program outcome? How do we know if we are providing the services that are actually needed? Talk is not enough. We must have evidence of what really is occurring. As noted in the cartoon below, it is not enough to just teach or provide a service. We must collect evidence of what the students did or did not learn and we must collect evidence of how well (or not so well) an office is meeting the students and/or publics needs. Blake, B. (n.d.). Walvoord, B. E. (2010). Assessment clear and simple (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

How do we assess our services? Assessment is easier than you think and you do it more often than you realize. You are engaging in assessment: – When you ask students or perspective students if their needs were met before they leave your office. – When you leave a two question flyer on your counter for the students/public to provide feedback. – When you survey what students/public needs. – When you change a process because you realize service needs were not being met. – When you make a change because you observed a student become confused by a process, a layout, or a form.

Why do we have to document assessment? Assessment plans provide records of: what goals a specific department/program focused on for a given year. how well or poorly the goals were met (measure results for each goal). what will be done to improve and/or meet the goals the following year (recommendations for improvement). Assessment plans should not be completed to check a box for the accreditors or the administration. Assessment plans should be completed to analyze how well a department is meeting the needs of the students, the staff, the faculty, the administrators, and the public. Quality does not just happen. Quality service requires a willingness to truly examine the services being provided and the ability to accept both positive and negative feedback. Think of assessment plans as routes on a map to enhance services. The first assessment plan is your starting point and the first route on the map. At the end of each route you assess the bumps in the road as well as the smooth sailing. Adjust your next route according to the findings and move forward. The plans will provide documented direction of where you started as well as the paths you took that helped propel your path forward. The documentation informs every one of the path to improving services and can shed valuable insight over a long period of time.

Time to get started. Now that you have a better understanding of the purpose and value of assessment it is time to move on to identifying and/or writing goals and measures.

What are goals and how are they written? Goals are the foundation for making improvements. Goals identify what an office or department hopes to achieve. Goals should be specific (clear statements), measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Consider starting a goal with: assist, provide, help, identify, increase, evaluate, collect, etc. Below are some examples of goals for service oriented departments in higher education: Help students understand and comply with institutional requirements. Assist students in the selection of courses and other educational experiences. Make initial contact with prospective students. Develop and distribute promotional literature on the institution. Provide places for adult students to socialize and study. Offer staff development workshops that improve… Stock and sell personal supplies for students. Assist alumni in their search for new jobs and provide support during their career transitions. Provide a safe, stimulating, educational environment for students, faculty, and staff. Increase the number of concurrent enrollment high school students Enrich campus life by encouraging interaction between international and domestic students. Provide facilities for students and faculty that access learning support materials and programs.

Measuring departmental goals Goals may be as different as the measures used to assess them. The following are just a few examples. Calculations Focus groups Surveys/questionnaires Informal Feedback Observations Activity attendance After identifying how the goals should be measured, the department should set a benchmark for each goal. For example, the department could write measures as: – 75% of the students in the freshman orientation session will be able to identify institutional requirements covered in the session by scoring 85% or higher on the session quiz. – Increase the number of concurrently enrolled high school students by 5%. – Enrich campus life by holding at least two activities that provide opportunities for interaction between international and domestic students. Benchmarks are set to inform the department of not only whether or not the goal was met, but to what degree. If the second goal above increased by only 2% then the department should analyze what was done to increase the student enrollment and recommend and implement changes to work toward increasing the number by 5% the following year. Best practices recommends each goal should be assessed using two or three measures.

Let’s make an assessment plan! To this point, we have learned: the value and purposes of assessment as related to service, how to identify and write measureable goals, and how to identify and write methods of assessment with benchmarks, and Now it is time to enter the department goals and measures into an assessment plan in Tk20.

Getting started in Tk20 Open the Mozilla Firefox browser (Tk20 does not function well when using the Internet Explorer browser). If you do not have the Firefox browser, and you are on your personal computer, you can download it at: Using the Firefox browser, go to The link is also accessible on the Assessment and Program Review webpage. Log into Tk20 with your AWC username and password. If you have trouble logging in, try your AWC username and your AWC employee ID number with any leading zeroes. If you are still having problems please contact the Assessment and Program Review office at (928)

Entering departmental goals in Tk20 Step 1: Click on the ‘Planning’ Tab. Step 2: Click on ‘Outcomes/Goals’ in the left side menu. Step 3: To enter goals for a department/program, select your department/program from the ‘Organization’ drop down menu and then click on ‘Edit/Create’ under ‘Outcomes/Goals’ in the left side menu.

Step 4: Add goals for the department/program. Click on the ‘Add Goal’ button. Type the goal in the ‘Goal*’ field or copy and paste from a document on your computer. The description text box is for internal departmental notes/comments only. This is NOT where you should enter the actual goal. Leave the ‘Type’ as Goal and the ‘Results’ as ‘Results are derived from its own measures’. Click on ‘Save’ if you are done entering goals or ‘Save and Add Another’ if you have more Goals to enter. NOTE: The Tk20 software has a problem with leading or trailing blank spaces. Be sure the text starts all the way to the left and that there are no spaces after the period.

The goals listed on the department/program goal page will be associated with every assessment plan for that department/program. If you want to limit/select specific goals to be assessed for a given year (3-5 is considered best practices), you can ‘hide’ goals by utilizing the ‘Disable Selected’ button. This feature is very helpful for departments who would like to enter 10 goals but only assess a few each year. To hide goals, click the small checkbox to the left of the goals you do not want to assess this year and then click on ‘Disable Selected’. The goals will not be deleted! They are hidden until you restore them. To view the hidden goals simply click on the ‘View Disabled Outcomes’ link. Next year, if you decide to assess one or more of the hidden goals, view the list and select the goals to be assessed. Click on ‘Enable Selected’ and then click on the ‘save’ button. Once you have finished adding goals and/or ‘hiding’ the goals you do not want to assess this year you are ready for the next step. Starting the assessment plan!

Creating an assessment plan in Tk20 Step 1: Click on ‘Assessment Planning’ in the side menu, under the ‘Outcomes/Goals’ heading. Step 2: Click on ‘Plan Data Entry’ to create a department/program assessment plan.

The department/program goals you entered and elected to assess this year will be listed. Click on a goal to open the assessment plan for the stated assessment period.

Step 3: Enter the measures you will utilize to assess the selected goal. Best practices is 2-3 measures for each goal. Your goal is listed at the top of the page so you can keep track of the specific goal you are working with. NOTE: Some individuals will enter measures as simple one sentence phrases and some will provide more detail. Either way is fine. At the beginning of each assessment period (August-September) you enter the measures with benchmarks and mark, ‘Direct’ for the type of measure. ‘Indirect’ can be used if you are going to utilize mapping to support a goal. You will not enter measure results until the goals have been assessed. The results can be entered as they are obtained, at the end of a semester, or the end of the academic year. Assessment plans are due on June 30 th each year. Scroll down the page and click on ‘Save’ when you have finished entering the measures for the first goal. Now repeat the process for the remaining goals.

Congratulations! You have completed part 1 of your assessment plan! You have successfully entered goals and measures for your assessment plan. That is all that is required for the first part of your assessment plan. The next presentation will cover: entering collected evidence of assessments and notating the findings in your assessment plan, evaluating the findings and formulating an action plan to improve services based on the assessment plan findings, and submitting your assessment plan. Assessment plans are due each year on June 30th. If you have any questions regarding the quality of your assessment plan check your plan information against the assessment plan rubrics on the Assessment and Program Review website: Individuals who submit well developed assessment plans and demonstrate closing the assessment loop may be awarded the Excellence in Assessment Award. Everyone is eligible! The recipients of the awards are listed each year in the Annual Assessment Report. Check out last year’s report to see who earned an award:

Questions? Problems? If you have questions, run into any problems, or just need a little more guidance, please contact the Assessment and Program Review Office Monday through Thursday, 7am-5pm. Brenda Ellis, Assessment Specialist Elaine Groggett, Director of Assessment, Program Review, Curriculum and Articulation –