Continuous Quality Measurement: Restructuring assessment for a new technological and organisational environment

Abstract

This paper discusses the notion of continuous quality measurement and describes a technology-based continuous Quality Measurement System (QMS) that has been developed and implemented at the University of Louisville. QMS is an enterprisewide model for addressing the major challenges confronting the outcomes assessment movement in higher education. In the Fall of 1998, the University of Louisville developed a partnership with Dey Systems, a Louisville technology company that specialises in quality and measurement solutions, to create a Quality Measurement System for higher education. QMS is a relational, interactive information system that includes data from 273 students, alumni, faculty, staff and employer satisfaction surveys that are linked to corresponding databases at the university. QMS is an on-line information system, operating in a networked, client-server environment that permits licensed users access to designated components of the system at any time from designated desktops at the university. QMS users generate reports and perform advanced statistical analyses drawing from the QMS databases. These data and reports are used to improve academic and support programmes at the university. The paper closes with a discussion of the role of QMS in the university's quality improvement scheme and its initial impacts on the institution.