Encouraging Assessment From the Ground Up

In this article, Donna Engelmann, writing in Inside higher ed, follows up on her earlier, related piece:

In our experience, there are at least five things that have been helpful in engaging faculty in teaching for and assessing learning outcomes:

1. Draw on the expertise of professors who are already — even without a formal assessment protocol — doing effective work in teaching, and in understanding what helps students learn. . . .

2. Move toward reward structures that encourage and recognize this kind of faculty collaboration. . . .

3. Create communities of practice around teaching and learning issues that faculty themselves see as critical to their work. . . .

4. Emphasize that collaboration to improve the teaching and assessing of student learning need not violate academic freedom or faculty autonomy. . . .

5. In working with institutions everywhere, we have also learned that leadership on behalf of improving learning and assessment – both formal and informal – is critical.