AALHE 2018 Annual Conference

As discussed in the literature, the process of "closing the loop" following an initial assessment of program learning outcomes involves several steps. Once data collection is completed, the subsequent work includes:
1. Analyzing and discussing results with different audiences
2. Developing an improvement plan to address areas of weakness
3. Implementing changes in the program as outlined in the improvement plan
4. Reassessing program outcomes to measure the impact of the changes introduced

Even though this sequence of events makes sense conceptually, practitioners recognize that completing all this work for every single assessment may not be the best course of action. Sharing and discussing results are essential assessment activities, but requiring that such discussion inevitably lead to the creation and implementation of an improvement plan is not always feasible or even desirable. Imposing this requirement across the board may lead to minor, inconsequential program changes, carried more for the sake of compliance than in the spirit of meaningful learning improvement. Based on our institution's experience with assessing program learning outcomes, this session proposes a rubric-based approach to guide practitioners in deciding when to implement steps 2-4 of the "closing the loop" process listed above.