Proficient Competency – Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
CSP 6800 — Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education
Last semester I took a course that provided an overview of higher education assessment issues and concepts, taught survey and focus group methodologies for gathering assessment information, and shared skills and approaches for using assessment results to improve programs and practices (Bowman, 2014). In the course, I read a number of articles and books on different methodologies and then discussed in class how these methodologies could be used in a higher education context. As a demonstration of my gained knowledge, I completed three assignments: the Assessment Plan paper, Questionnaire Assignment, and Assessment Implementation paper. Furthermore, the content learned helped me “[understand and] differentiate among assessment, program review, evaluation, planning, and research and methodologies appropriate to each” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 8).
EDFI 6420 - Research in Education
This course “[built] a framework for reading, understanding, interpreting, conducting, and evaluating research both within and outside of the field of education” (Abercrombie, 2014). Within the course, we read research and attempted to interpret the findings as well as use the results to make appropriate inferences. For example, one of our assignments was to perform a literature review, which required me to review and analyze five to ten peer-reviewed journal articles related to my research topic and then describe how my findings in each article would contribute to my understanding of my research question. My experience in this course allowed me to “effectively articulate, interpret, and use results of assessment, evaluation, reports, and studies, including professional literature” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 8). Similar to ACPA & NASPA (2010), our professor taught us how to recognize trustworthy research by identifying measurement problems (i.e. sampling, validity, and reliability).
