Faculty and administrators often have significantly different perspectives on institutional measures. These differences can lead to miscommunications and challenges when implementing new assessment measures. While both faculty and administrators want to improve their institution’s quality, they have different ways of achieving these goals.
Administrators view assessments as measurements of an institution’s progression to core values and goals. In contrast, faculty members often see assessments as tasks that add to their workloads. It’s important to align these viewpoints so that all administrators and faculty adopt a more favorable perspective toward assessments.
By framing concepts in academic terms, faculty can understand the importance of assessment more deeply. Faculty are typically most concerned with students and the pursuit of knowledge, prioritizing tasks based on these values. Administrators can appeal to these passions by framing issues according to those terms.
For instance, you can encourage faculty assessment engagement by:
Engaging professors in faculty assessment becomes easier when you remind them how they benefit students. Faculty members care deeply about student success and how their learning methods impact student experiences. By providing examples of how faculty assessment assists students, faculty members can become more engaged with the process.
For example, you could explain how assessments gather critical student data. Assessments like faculty evaluations identify student struggles and reveal teaching strategy effectiveness. If you notice students had difficulties with a particular assignment type, faculty can adjust their approaches for upcoming school years. Similarly, if students express appreciation for another teaching style, faculty can adopt those methods into their plans.
In addition, assessment data collection helps administrators optimize student resources. Data can reflect student attitudes about tutoring or other academic help. Then, faculty and leaders can enhance offerings to help students receive more effective assistance.
Administrators can also outline how assessments benefit faculty. Faculty are more likely to become involved if they see how the assessments benefit their own work.
For example, you could explain how assessments allow institutions to optimize and allocate resources toward necessary causes. Improvements like smaller class sizes, improved facilities, and reduced workloads strongly incentivize faculty members. Explain how assessment and data collection allows for these and many other improvements.
After understanding the benefits of assessments, faculty members can become more engaged and involved in the process.
Planning and accreditation software make the assessment process easy for any institution. Watermark offers assessment and accreditation management software that can transform your assessment approaches. The Planning & Self-Study solution increases data transparency across your institution.
Gain insights at every level, from individual classes to your entire institution. Use the data to enhance your institutional techniques, providing students with a more effective education. Tools like simplified curriculum mapping and streamlined accreditation reporting help schools with many manual tasks. You can show faculty the software’s effectiveness and explain how Watermark solutions allow you to ease into new practices.
To learn more about Planning & Self-Study, request a demo today.
