As you work through the Academic Program Checklist, bear in mind the following tips and suggestions:

• With any means of assessment, you must decide what level of knowledge, attitude, or behavior is sufficient to meet the intended outcome. In other words, for each means, you must establish an assessment criterion. There is no simple or definitive approach to setting criterion levels. There are a number of factors you might consider: the nature of the student body, past performance, outcomes achieved by other similar programs, the desired rigor of the program, employer expectations, and, in general, your best judgment as to what level of knowledge, performance, etc. is needed to be successful.

• When setting benchmarks, be ambitious, but be realistic. If one of your intended outcomes is to get students into graduate school, expecting 100% of those who apply to get in is probably unrealistic if past history indicates that only 20% have been successful. On the other hand, aiming for 30% might be selling yourselves and your students short. Above all, remember that benchmarks can be revised if you find them to be too high or too low.

• Collect data that are meaningful to you and that allow you to make informed decisions regard­ing what adjustments should be made in your program. The purpose of assessment is to use the data – to be responsive to it. Avoid making things so complicated and involved that you do not have time to actually review the results and use the results for program improvement. Better to have a modest assessment plan that actually leads to program improvement than a large, sophisticated, but unwieldy plan that leaves you with a mountain of data that you have no time to analyze and interpret.

• Remember that data collection does not necessarily only involve seniors or only take place at the end of a semester. The decision of when to administer an assessment measure will depend on the intend­ed outcome being measured, the structure of your program, logistical realities, and other factors. Some intended outcomes might call for assess­ment early in students’ education, while other outcomes may dictate assessment during the senior year or post-graduation.

• Consider the costs of your plan, both in terms of finances and in terms of time. Do the merits of a particular assessment tool justify the costs involved? Can a single tool be used to assess multiple outcomes? If you decide a tool's value merits its expenses, contact Robyne Elder to apply for funding.

• Where possible, take advantage of already existing data collected by the university. (Lindenwood's First-Destination Survey may be especially valuable for program assessment; see this guide’s Data and Surveys page for more information about the data available.) Also, to avoid duplication of work for yourselves (and for your students), consider whether you can embed assessment within an already existing structure –for instance, a senior seminar, capstone project, portfolio, or exhibition.

• Remember that the most important step in assessment is to use assessment results to inform decision-mak­ing and improve our programs and operations. Plan to meet as a program at least once a year to discuss assessment results and what use can be made of them.