Addressing Key Challenges of Higher Education Assessment

Abstract

The planning and implementation of institutional and programmatic assessment to ascertain what students have learned and how well they have learned it encompasses a number of challenges. Some of these major challenges are gaining institutional resources for assessment, designing faculty development plans, determining student learning outcomes and measuring them, and making changes based upon assessment results. There are numerous issues, but the focus in this article is on the challenges that seem to be most prevalent. This discussion also emphasizes those issues that must be addressed on a continuous basis in order to sustain a rigorous assessment process over time.