Running head: ASSESSMENT REFLECTION 1

Assessment Reflection

Johnathon Shaw

University of Wisconsin- La Crosse

ASSESSMENT REFLECTION 2

Before taking this course, I had limited experiences with assessments. The only type of

assessments I was familiar with were the formative and summative types of assessments I did as

a student teacher. This experience taught me a lot about the value of assessment and how to go

about ethically conducting one. I would place myself in the foundational area of this outcome. I

have gained valuable experience with assessment, but I am still new to this aspect of the student

affairs field.

One aspect of the AER competency I have grown in is the communication. We had to

effectively articulate and communicate our data and much of the terminology we have used.

Over the course of the semester, my group had to conduct an assessment of the 2,525

nonparticipating students. We defined nonparticipating students as students who have not utilized

the Rec center or any of their programming. When conducting our survey, we had to make sure

that the students we were polling understood the terminology we were using, and so we included

definitions in our questions. In the introduction of our executive summary, I wrote in a concise

manner that explained the details of our assessment. This shows that I can explain the complex

concepts of assessment practices in a clear manner.

Additionally, I grew in the area regarding technology. As I stated above, we had 2,525

students that did not use the Rec, and we wanted to understand why they chose not to. In order to

do so we had to become familiar with the survey program Qualtrics. Qualtrics proved to be an

invaluable tool allowing us to create a branching survey and an easy way to pull the data from

the results and unpack the data into a more meaningful form.
ASSESSMENT REFLECTION 3

As I stated before, I would place myself in the intermediate level of this competency. I

have gained experience in assessment, but it is an area in which I would consider myself a

novice. I plan on improving my assessment skills by implementing assessment into my work in

the Leadership and Involvement Center. I manage the campus food pantry and we do collect data

on our usage, but I would like to understand if we operate in a food-deficit.

As my time in this program wraps up, I would place myself in the intermediate section

still. I do, however, have much more experience with assessing particular items. I drew upon

much of what I learned from our Assessment course and used them in our Administration course.

I did not know or realize that I had internalized as much information and skills as I have. I find

that assessment is incredibly important and valuable, even if it is not my favorite thing to do. It is

something that should guide our work and allow us to grow as individuals and as departments.

You can see two screen shots of some survey results and data that I am using as artifacts.

This illustrates that I am able to parse out the information and use it to inform my practice. As I

continue on in my career, I plan on conducting both formal and informal assessments, and using

the results to better myself and my practice.