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Assessment of Advising Commission Resources

General Assessment Methods

Examples of methods that provide direct measures of student learning outcomes

  • Written Exams (multiple choice, true/false)
  • Collections of student work/portfolios
    • Process portfolios (journals, autobiographical reflective papers, philosophical statements)
    • Program portfolios (documentation, collection of important work used by group/department for evaluation purposes)
    • Presentation portfolios (resumes, collections of important work
  • Capstone projects, papers, presentations
  • Course-embedded
  • Reflective essays
  • Panel discussions/debates
  • Performance in performance based disciplines
  • Senior seminars of projects
  • Direct observation of student behaviors (naturalistic descriptive observations)
  • Internal juried review of student projects
  • External jurors or evaluators to evaluate performance
  • Internships or Practicum (evaluations of student performance by internal or external reviewers, or from the participants themselves)
  • Performance on a case study/problem
  • Performance on national licensure examinations
  • Standardized tests
  • Pre-test / post-test investigations of change

Examples of methods that provide indirect measures of student learning

  • Focus groups
  • Surveys and questionnaires (satisfaction/perception of advising by students, faculty, other campus units, etc.)
  • Interviews (entrance interviews, exit interviews, etc.)
  • Graduate follow-up studies (alumni surveys, etc.)


Examples of methods that provide evidence of the processes that support student learning

  • Tracking student data (in terms of enrollment, persistence, performance, graduation rates, enrollment trends, transcript analysis, choice of major)
  • Case studies
  • Historical or matched comparison groups
  • Quantitative data showing usage of services
  • Adviser to student ratios
  • Diversity of advising
  • Needs/services assessment
  • Advisor/advising program recognition awards
  • Advisor/advising program contribution to academic advising field through conference presentations or publications

 

NACADA Executive Office
Kansas State University
2323 Anderson Avenue, Suite 225
Manhattan, KS  66502-2912
Phone: (785) 532-5717   Fax: (785) 532-7732
e-mail: nacada@ksu.edu

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