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University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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Memo To Departments: Outcomes Assessment Really Is A Good Idea, Wayne Jacobson
Memo To Departments: Outcomes Assessment Really Is A Good Idea, Wayne Jacobson
Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives
Outcomes Assessment has an image problem. For some people, it calls to mind standardized testing and centralized data collection systems. Others may think of file drawers full of unexamined reports. For many, it gets pictured alongside those other “A” words (accountability and accreditation) that they associate with satisfying someone else’s expectations. For some people, in some places, at some times, these are the kinds of images that outcomes assessment has evoked.
But these are not the only ways to see outcomes assessment, and it has never meant just those things. Outcomes assessment is first and foremost for departments: It helps …