Assessing Everything All the Time
A student affairs assessment colleague at another institution recently reached out to me with a challenge at her institution. Her problem is not lack of staff motivation to assess, it’s [...]
Extracurricular vs. Co-curricular
Language is important. We can all agree on that, right? It helps us communicate meaning so we understand each other. In higher education, we create our own jargon, slang , [...]
Increasing Response Rates
One of the most common questions we get in Student Life Studies is how to increase response rate, especially for electronic surveys. Students are over-surveyed, so just because you can [...]
Assessment vs. Research: What’s the Difference?
You may have heard the terms “assessment” and “research” used interchangeably. Are they really the same thing? Does it matter? (And that doesn’t even include throwing “evaluation” into the mix!) [...]
Is Assessment a Four Letter Word?
A few weeks ago, there was a thread on a couple of listservs about the use of the word “assessment,” which for some people has a negative connotation. Obviously, I [...]
We Are ALL Educators
Over a decade ago, Elizabeth Whitt wrote an article for About Campus (January-February, 2006), asking “Are ALL of Your Educators Educating?” I still think about that article today (hence, writing [...]
Five Questions…That’s All You Get
I’m fairly sure that we can agree that students (and staff) are over surveyed, particularly using electronic surveys. I think we can also agree that taking really long surveys is [...]
Reflections on the NASPA Assessment and Persistence Conference
In June, most of the Student Life Studies staff attended the NASPA Assessment and Persistence Conference where student affairs assessment professionals, institutional researchers, faculty, and administrators came together to talk [...]
Preparing for the Fall
Summer is supposed to be slow, right? The more people I talk to, the more people say that summer seems to be almost as busy as the regular school year. [...]
Reflecting on the Year
It’s May. Time to reflect back on a (hopefully) successful academic year. When things start to quiet down, it’s a great time to reflect on your assessment before getting wrapped [...]