At Ball State University, the staff of the Offices of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research work cooperatively with departments to help facilitate many different types of assessment projects. We work with faculty members on a one-to-one basis and in workshop settings.

This workbook grew out of our workshops. Our workshops assist faculty members to design assessment plans and carry out assessment activities for their own departments. Although Ball State conducts many university-wide assessment projects, this workbook is designed to facilitate the many assessment activities which are discipline-specific and carried out by departments and colleges.

Departmental assessment at Ball State is essentially divided into two categories: General Studies and the major. The workbook attempts to illustrate the uses and advantages of different assessment techniques as they apply to both of these categories.

The initial chapter provides guidelines for designing your assessment plan. The second chapter discusses the development of departmental goals and objectives for learning–the basis for assessment activities. The remaining chapters concentrate on specific assessment activities–developing tests, designing questionnaires, using institutional data. The focus of each chapter is on the way you can use a particular technique for assessment purposes. What can a survey tell you about your program? How is a test for assessment different from a course exam?

Most of the chapters include a question and answer section. The chapters also include a variety of exercises and checklists. The checklists are not meant to be exhaustive–they are meant to be suggestive–to help you organize your thinking. In addition, they should allow you to move back and forth through the chapters so that you can focus on what’s most relevant for you. In keeping with the theme of a workbook, we have kept the narrative to a minimum.

The workbook was written by the staff of the Offices of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research. Several of the chapters were individually authored, while others were the responsibility of the staff as a whole. Peg Shaffer, Department Assessment Coordinator, had responsibility for keeping the project on track, initiating the group chapters, and giving the workbook a consistent overall look.

We hope the workbook is useful to faculty and administrators responsible for assessment. We intend for the workbook to evolve over time and we plan to use it as the basis for our future workshops. We welcome your comments and suggestions to increase its usefulness.

The staff of the Offices of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research are always available to work with faculty members on assessment projects and to conduct faculty workshops.