One employer questionnaire, developed jointly with
the College of the Menominee Nation, appears in the Appendix (CI-GE-18) of the 1999
Plan. Although
there is no alumni survey included as an example, it would not be difficult to
develop an alumni survey and to distribute it to recent graduates who are
employed in the geographical region. Clearly, employer and alumni surveys
provide an opportunity to independently assess opinions of program outcomes and
to inform the College regarding curriculum, such as course content, workplace
expectations of skills and knowledge, and training concerns. With the tasks
outlined in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Tribal Colleges and
Universities Program (TCUP) grant for the coming year (discussed below) will
provide the necessary support to begin the development and implementation of a
system of employer and alumni surveys. These surveys, when appropriate, can also
serve as the basis for future marketing initiatives as the College discovers and
emphasizes its strengths and successes.
Evidence of student involvement does not appear in
the 1999 Plan. The exclusion of students is a common oversight in many
institutional assessment plans, but this concern is easily addressed by inviting
student leaders to participate in assessment discussions, design, and analyses.
Not only will student participation in the review of assessment initiatives at
the College enhance and provide a sense of ownership of the assessment program,
it has also been shown that student involvement increases the motivation to
participate in assessment in meaningful ways. Indeed, the “3x4” matrix
published in the Addendum for 2001 and 2002 includes student involvement as a
key element in assessment program success. From the student perspective there is
a significant paradigm shift moving from grades to assessment of learning
outcomes. Bazile and Collins’s paper in the 2002 A Collection of Papers on
Self-Study and Institutional Improvement describes a process of motivating
students for successful assessment. The reward system is very different for
assessment when grades and GPAs at graduation had previously been the mark that
had signified student learning and achievement. Grant Wiggins in his book Educative
Assessment emphasizes the necessity that students self-evaluate their
performances with respect to criteria and indicators, not to the amount of
effort and time spent completing the artifact. As students begin to understand
the purposes and intended uses of assessment, the idea and support of assessment
would become more integrated into the culture of the College.