Collecting assessment data [education program quality]

Both regional and professional accrediting agencies are placing a stronger emphasis on outcome assessment. For example, both the new ABET and CSAB accreditation criteria put strong emphasis on outcome assessment. By outcomes assessment we mean information about graduates is gathered, evaluated, and used to plan future improvements of both courses and curricula. Too often the collection of assessment data is incomplete or biased because it is frequently based upon oral feedback from alumni. This feedback tends to be positive, describing successes. What about the many alumni who do not make any attempt to provide information? Also, students are not the only source of data. What about the information that might be available from the organizations that hire students? They are a potential source of invaluable information. With surprising little effort an institution can make the transition from relying on anecdotal information to gathering a significant amount of data that can provide meaningful and reliable information about the quality of a their programs. This paper describes a variety of data gathering techniques along with some preliminary evaluation of each data gathering process, both in the quality of data being gathered and in the effectiveness of the process. There are four easily developed sources of data: (1) student exit interview; (2) an external advisory committee; (3) recruiter exit interview; and (4) corporate feedback requests.