Frequently
Asked Questions:
Useful Forms:
Check
out the results from some of our projects
Frequently
Asked Questions
What
is assessment and evaluation?
In
practical terms, assessment is any effort to gather, analyze
and interpret evidence on what other people think about a specific
service, program or issue. Evaluation uses what you discover
in the assessment process to improve effectiveness of the service
or activity. To learn more about assessment, please visit our
Resources page.
How
much time does an assessment project take?
The
timeline will vary with each project but a good starting point
is allowing at least four weeks to design an assessment tool
and four weeks for the data analysis after the information
is collected. The time needed to collect the data is dependent
on your project.
How
much does an assessment project cost?
The
services of the Student Life Studies staff are free. The only
costs to you are things such as copies of the assessment tool,
postage if the assessment needs to be sent through the mail,
and similar project-specific details.
What
assessment services does Student Life Studies offer?
We
can offer a wide range of services to fit your needs such as:
Assessment plan development
Writing student learning outcomes
Scannable surveys and evaluations
Web surveys and evaluations
Data analysis
Summary report of the results
Ideas on how to use the results
Writing learning and program outcomes
Who
has Student Life Studies worked with before?
Here
are some examples of the student organizations and departments within
the Division of Student Affairs with whom we have worked:
Student
Organizations:
Class Councils
Fish Camp
MSC Committees
Residence Hall Association
Southwestern Black Student Leadership Conference
Student Government Association and SGA Committees
Student Engineers Council
Division
of Student Affairs departments:
Corp of Cadets
Memorial Student Center
Multicultural Services
Offices of the Dean of Student Life
Residence Life
Student Activities
Student Health Services
University Art Collections
How
do I get started on an assessment project?
The Process
1. When you
have an idea for a project, check out our helpful guide
for thinking through assessment projects: the Assessment
Questions Form the Assessment
Questions Form [PDF Format]. We also have a guide to tips on
writing good survey questions that can help you get started.
2. Contact
Student Life Studies as soon as possible to set up an
appointment to discuss your project. We ask that clients allow
four weeks for the survey development after the initial meeting.
Please share with us any support materials that can help us
understand your program or services. This could include mission
statements, goals, brochures, existing evaluations and results,
schedule of events, etc.
3. During the
meeting, we will go through the Assessment Questions Form [PDF Format] with you to ensure we
understand the assessment project you have in mind. As part of
the discussion, we will review the options of how to accomplish
the project and together we will design an implementation plan.
4. When all
of the data has been collected, we will analyze the information
for you and generate a report according to the needs you have
indicated. Keep in mind that the data analysis and report
writing may take up to four weeks
5. We will
contact you to schedule a meeting once the report has been
completed to review the outcomes with you.
Important
Information
1. Our staff
services are free to student organizations and Division of
Student Affairs departments. However, if there are costs
associated with your assessment project (i.e., copies, postage,
etc.), your organization will be required to fund them.
2. Depending
on your assessment needs, it takes varying times to complete
projects. Please allocate enough time to ensure that all
aspects of the project can be accomplished. We encourage you to
plan for four weeks between your initial idea and the
implementation of the project. Following data collection, we
will need approximately 3-4 weeks to analyze the data and write
a report for you.
We look forward to
working with you!
Revised 5/20/05
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