The following survey was given online during the week of April 2-9, 2007. The request to submit the survey was sent ot all staff via e-mail. 5 classified, 18 exempt, 16 part-time faculty, and 20 full-time faculty submitted the survey. The analysis follows. Compare these results to the April 2003 and April 2002 results.
59 responded to the survey with a wide variety of comments.
The responses to question 3 indicate that staff continue to think that assessment is a valuable process. Only two individuals indicated less than neutral for this response. The average response from full-time faculty, part-time faculty, classified, and exempt staff were 3.25, 3.31, 2.60, and 3.28, respectively. The low value from classified is not surprising, because most do not teach. Of those who do teach, the average response to this question was 3.0 (2 respondents). A similar trend exists for exempt; the average response for exempt staff who teach was 4.0 (3 respondents).
The five-year trend from the first two questions indicates possible confusion regarding the definition of assessment. Though the 2007 distribution of answers for question two shows much more agreement than disagreement (average 2.92), the distribution is much broader - indicating more confusion for the distinction between program and course-level assessment. On this question, faculty reported an average of 3.15 and 3.06 (full and part-time) while classified and exempt reported 2.40 and 2.67, respectively. This makes sense since faculty have received more training regarding assessment than either of these other groups. The self-reported understanding of the distinction between program-level and course-level assessment is much lower than the self-reported understanding of assessment in general (Q1 vs Q2), but again the average responses from full-time faculty, part-time faculty, classified, and exempt were 2.80, 2.69, 2.60, and 2.33, respectively.
Only faculty answered questions three and four, and the trend seems to indicate that faculty feel that assessment helps both their own teaching and their students' learning. Compared to the distribution of responses from other questions however, the responses to "My students learn from my assessments" are definitely skewed toward the disagreement end of the spectrum. This indicates a need to provide more instruction regarding "teaching assessments" like those in Classroom Assessment Techniques.
The responses to the sixth question, "Assessment is an institutional priority," seem to indicate that the institution does value assessment as a priority, however, the lowest average response, 2.20, was to the last question, "Institutional decisions are tied to assessment." Faculty reported averages of 2.45 (full-time) and 1.88 (part-time) to this question, while classified and exempt staff reported 1.80 and 2.33, respectively. The five-year trend graph indicates a continued decrease in this score, though insignificantly lower the the 2003 result. This question was designed to measure the perception that assessment and institutional decisions are causally related; the results indicate some combination of:
Several of the comments relate to this issue of assessment driving institutional decisions.
One part-time faculty member pointed out that the assessment mini-grant program
was "successful," but did not indicate that it was the result of prior assessments.
A full-time faculty member responded that student evaluations should be used as
assessments. Both of these people responded with "Agree" to this question.
One exempt staff respondent said that
Institutional decisions SHOULD be tied to assessment findings, especially
financial decisions
, but that person marked this question "Disagree."
A different exempt staff member responded that the Valley Campus counseling and career center
was created in part due to an assessment result, but this person selected "Strongly Disagree" to
the instututional decisions question.
This seems to indicate that this person did not understand the question. Further, it indicates
a need for more training regarding "closing the assessment loop."
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