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Reflection Paper 3: Anthony Garrison-Engbrecht and Ethics

Melissa Villa

California State University, Fresno

HEAL 226: Assessment in Higher Education

Dr. Emily Langdon

November 5, 2023
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Dr. Garrison-Engbrecht has been and is one of the best professors I’ve had. So, I was

excited to have him as one of our guest speakers. For purposes of this paper, I will refer to Dr.

Garrison-Engbrecht as Anthony as that is what he preferred to be called by his students. Anthony

covered Ethics, chapter 15 of Henning and Roberts’ Student Affairs Assessment: Theory to

Practice book. Anthony broke down the sections of the chapter by creating a Jamboard with each

section assigned to a small group. My group covered the section, Doing No Harm, which was

about reducing risk to participants in assessment. Some of the main points that my group covered

was anonymity vs. confidentiality in regard to privacy in assessment. How to be transparent on

the type of information that needs to be reported. We also discussed what it means to be a

mandated reporter in assessment. Providing a list of mandated reported items before a participant

attempts to complete a survey, is a way to reduce risk to both the assessor and participant. By

doing this, a participant may be less likely to share something that is considered confidential for

them. This also reduces the risk of the assessor reporting something that is confidential to the

participant.

Utilizing pseudonyms or an ID number for participants will also reduce risk of sharing

identifying information. Anthony put this in practice on the Jamboard exercise where all of our

student icons were labeled as certain creatures such as a fox, raccoon, and turtle. This added

another layer of anonymity to the Jamboard as you could not tell who was sharing what

information. I’ve seen this done before on google forms or on a shared document, which is quite

useful when a person’s identity is not needed to share information. Chapter 15 explained that

using a person’s last four digits of their Social Security Number is also a way to assure

confidentiality of the participant. My group and I discussed this suggested method and still felt

that the last four digits of a person’s SSN should be considered private information and not
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shared freely. I can see the reasoning behind this method, as you really wouldn’t be able to

identify anyone by these digits, but we all agreed that other type of numbers could be assigned

instead. I can foresee that this might be more trouble than it’s worth for the assessor to try to

come up with numeric codes for each participant, but even just numbering off people in the order

that the surveys were completed would be a more simplified solution.

After our groups added information to the Jamboard, then we collectively shared our

results with the class in true assessment fashion. Anthony has a great way of listening to others as

they shared their thoughts on ethical assessment principles. Anthony made ethical principles of

assessment seems uncomplicated when he shared his experience with assessment. He didn’t say

that the process of confidentiality was easy, but he did provide ideas and workarounds he has

used. I like how Anthony tied in assessment ethics into his teaching and how it’s something he

utilizes inside the classroom setting. This exercise on assessment ethics reminded me of how

sometimes, as a student affairs staff member, I often receive random surveys from our division of

enrollment management. These surveys often start out simple like asking for name and job title,

and then gradually proceed to other questions that ask the participant to share what their

intersecting identities are. This type of information is collected to share with our campus

community in an effort to recognize inclusivity and diversity. A recent survey I received, also

asked me to set a date and time for a photographer to come by and take my picture to be shared

with my results. This type of DEI survey was not confidential at all and I’m not sure if it was

meant to be, but I actually just quit the survey since I did not want my picture posted online with

my survey results. I think if this information had been shared as a preface before the survey, I

would not have bothered taking it at all. The more I study assessment principles, the more I

recognize the use of them in higher education. Thanks to Anthony for his time and insights.