Simplifying Assessment Using Direct Measures

Almost everyone has heard or read somewhere that to complete quality assessment a program must use multiple assessment methods, and furthermore that indirect measures such as surveys cannot be the only source of assessment. These types of issues bring up challenging questions. How many assessment methods are enough? What is the required depth for each assessment method? What direct measures are best for your program? This paper will provide some insight into choosing direct measures and how they have been used by one program. There are many reasons for a program to use multiple assessment methods. One important aspect is the ability to provide multiple view points for each program outcome which assist in determining trends in performance that might necessitate program changes. Although surveys are an easy assessment method, their low rates of return and many times poor quality of questions result in them not particularly being effective instruments to drive program improvement. Most programs have turned to multiple direct measures to ensure they can properly demonstrate their student’s accomplishment of an outcome. The direct measures presented in this paper are: embedded indicators, capstone (point allocation), external exam (Fundamentals Engineering Exam, FE), and internal exam (Gateway). This paper will also present the lessons learned by one program through their four years of using these direct measures and the program’s success in reducing the work and data collected as well as the superb ABET visit results based on using these methods (no deficiencies or weaknesses at the end of the on-campus ABET visit). Additionally, this paper will also present the current program efforts to further reduce the assessment data collected and time required to the irreducible minimum.