The study presents data and commentary from 29 US colleges and universities about how they have handled issues of student assessment during the pandemic. The report includes data on how they have handled transfer students, the placement of new students, remedial education, and the many issues with online education. The study includes data on assessment office budgets, prior and post pandemic, and specific data on how they are approaching faculty with assessment-oriented tasks and services in the new and problematic environment. The report particularly stresses the role of assessment in student retention and includes evaluations of the role of the academic library, distance learning departments, student affairs offices and other college departments in assessment efforts. The report is designed to help its readers to know what their peers are doing in this turbulent time, and what their plans are for the near future.
Just a few of this report’s many findings are that:
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Mean budgets for assessment have fallen in the past year by 4.2%
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31% of institutions sampled had not changed their student grading policies at all.
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Academic libraries of the largest institutions, those with more than 10,000 enrolled students, were much more likely than those of other colleges to be highly involved in student assessment efforts.
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More than 70% of assessment offices have conducted studies of student use of Zoom.
Data is broken out by college type or Carnegie class, enrollment, size, tuition level, and for public and private institutions. In a broad range of open ended questions, survey participants comment on how they have handled the pandemic and what their plans are for the near future.