Module 1: Introduction

Assessment Foundations for Effective Practice

Assessment is a foundational tool for effective student affairs practice. While it may at first seem like a foreign concept, assessment is part of what we do every day. “How are you doing?” is an assessment question to identify your friend’s emotional state, for example. Student affairs practitioners often perform assessment on their programs without knowing it. For example, when a director asks their staff to give them some feedback on how the staff thinks a recent event went, what students they saw represented, who they talked to, etc., the director is assessing the event. Some think of Assessment (capital A) as a practice that exists outside of the normal activities of a student affairs office, a necessary activity that involves complicated data collection and analysis that may or may not relate to the office’s primary concerns. But in reality, when student affairs practitioners assess their practices, they are, simply put, collecting information about their current activities in order to help them see whether or not their practices are accomplishing what they are supposed to. Assessment is key to informed practice, and it is key to understanding how student affairs activities best serve students in their developmental process.

Reflective activity:

Think about some ways that you see assessment in your context. Whether formal or informal, how do you see assessment happening around you?

Learning Objectives

In completing this module, you will gain an understanding of key factors in effective assessment practices and how to use assessment findings to effect change. Specifically, you will be able to:

Identify key questions to answer through assessment
Identify best assessment methods to answer key questions and to inform practice
Articulate the importance of stakeholders in the assessment process
Articulate why assessment is essential within student affairs practice

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