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Reporting Annemieke Rice Assessment Consultant
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(No Transcript)
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Build Reporting into Assessment Planning

• Who is the audience of the report?
• When will you need the report?
• Why is this information important to this
  audience?
• How will you be reporting the results?

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Challenges to Reporting Assessment Results

• There are many challenges to reporting your
  results.
• Lack of Time
• Feeling like it is just one more step in the
  assessment process
• Feeling like there is already too much going on
• Lack of Expertise
• Real or perceived
• Lack of Tools
• May not have software
• May not have skills (analysis, marketing, or
  other)
• May not have training opportunities

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More Challenges to Reporting Assessment Results

• Using an academic format to the report, which
  often has
• Too much focus on literature
• Too little focus on the discussion/implications
  of results
• Too much focus on procedures and methods
• Too little focus on an effective executive
  summary
• Ineffective distribution of assessment reports
  often includes
• Not customizing reports to individual audience
  need
• Relying on only the formal report to convey
  messages
• Failing to maximize distribution opportunities

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Types of Assessment Reports

• Full reports covers all sections with in-depth
  analysis and may include in-depth discussion of
  literature, methods, data analysis procedures,
  findings, and could include appendices for copies
  of instruments, consent forms, and other
  material.
• Short reports provides an overview of many areas
  of the assessment process and places greater
  emphasis on findings, discussion, implications,
  and/or recommendations. Focused with the needs of
  target audience in mind.
• Summary reports 1-3 page report that offer only
  overview/summary information on all areas of the
  report. May bullet information for users. May
  only focus on specific areas for individual
  audiences.
• Presentations provides opportunity to provide
  information customized to individual audiences.
  Allows for presenter to structure content and
  discussion of results to convey particular
  messages.

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More Types of Reports

• Dont forget that posters, flyers, emails, web
  postings, and other ways that you inform others
  of your assessment results are also types of
  reports.
• The ways that you can report your assessment
  results are only limited by the imagination.

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Basic Structure of Assessment Report

• Executive Summary
• Purpose of Assessment
• Methods
• Description of Participants
• Findings
• Conclusions/Implications/Recommendations

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Executive Summary

• Typically, a one to two page overview of the
  report including the purpose, description of
  methods, findings, and recommendations.
• Intended to highlight important aspects while
  providing necessary information to reader.
• May use bullets or other tools to draw attention
  to important elements.
• Should be written after completion of full
  report.
• Is a document that can stand alone.

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Purpose of Assessment

• This section provides an understanding as to why
  the project was undertaken.
• The section may include some supporting
  literature.
• Gives reader a clear understanding of the
  rationale, purpose, and direction for the
  assessment project and the remaining elements of
  the report.
• Should include as statement such as
• The purpose of this assessment project was to

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Methods

• This section provides an overview of the
  methodology for the assessment project.
• Gives a summary of the timeline of the assessment
  process and steps in that process.
• Information on sampling procedures, assessment
  instrument, and any intended data analysis
  procedures may be discussed in this section.
• For assessment reports, provide only the
  necessary details to provide insight into the
  process.
• Finally, address any possible meaningful
  limitations to your methods (Ex. Data for alcohol
  study collected after Spring Break)

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Description of Participants

• This section provides a brief description of the
  participants in this study.
• It may include an overview of the demographics
  and comparison data of the sample to the
  population.
• The description is to give readers an idea of who
  participated and is not intended to give in-depth
  analysis.

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Findings

• This section presents the more detailed results
  of your assessment project.
• It may include tables, graphs, or other figures
  to provide quick access to dense information.
• This section also provides the results of any
  statistical analyses used.
• The findings become the facts from your data.
• Ideally, this section moves the reader easily and
  quickly through your results and uses the purpose
  of the assessment as a guide for what specific
  findings to include.

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Discussion/Implications/Recommendations

• This section is where everything is tied together
  and serves as the capstone experience of the
  assessment process.
• This section should focus on what happens or
  should happen as a result of the answers gathered
  through the assessment process and not a repeat
  of the assessment findings.
• The discussion can happen around the findings in
  relation to your campus, other campuses, and/or
  professional dialogue on the issue.

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Issues to Know When Reporting Data

• Get the right data
• Know what to do with your data
• Differences between Charts, Graphs, and tables

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Getting the Right Data

• What is the right data?
• Data that answers the purpose of your assessment.
• Well designed assessment instruments and an
  understanding of what you want to know will
  assist you in getting good data.
• Data collection is the foundation of your ability
  to effectively report your results.
• Planning and reporting go hand in hand. Begin
  with the end in mind.

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Know what to do with data

• What questions are you trying to answer?
• What are you wanting to do with the data you have
  collected?
• Frequencies
• Basic descriptive statistics
• Advanced statistical analysis
• Correlations
• Other analyses
• The data you can report is affected by what data
  you collect.

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Tables or Graphs

• Tables
• Show exact numerical values in rows and columns
  that aid in presenting large amounts of data in a
  small amount of space.
• Graphs
• Show relations- comparisons and distributions- in
  a data set.
• (APA, 2005)

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Graphs and Tables

• Graphs

• Types

• Pie- used to show percentage or proportion
• Bar- used when independent variable is
  categorical
• Line- used to show relationship between two
  quantitative variables
• Scatter- used to represent single events on two
  scaled variables

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Tables

• Simplify material that would be too dense with
  data.
• Meaning of the data should be obvious at a glance
  
• Titles and headings should be concise.

Table 1. Place of Residence by Gender
Men Women Total
On Campus Resident 25 35 60
Off-Campus Resident 50 75 125
Total 75 110 185
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Guidelines for use of Graphs and Tables

• Make them simple
• Make them clear
• Be consistent in your use and format
• Should compliment not duplicate text
• Convey only essential facts
• Easy to read and understand
• Should not overwhelm the reader

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Reporting Assessment Advice

• Consider adopting a consistent style for reports
• Develop an electronic template for reports
• Share assessment reports
• Adopt an Assessment Spotlight
• Share assessment reports

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Online Reporting Tools

• Frequency tables
• Graphs
• Basic statistics (mean, median, mode, standard
  deviation,)
• Filters
• Save views
• Export report view to
• Word, PDF or Excel
• Export raw data to Excel
• or text file

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Benchmarking Report
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Questions?

• Annemieke Rice
• Assessment Consultant
• arice_at_studentvoice.com

T 716.652.9400 210 Ellicott Street, Suite 200 F
716.652.2689 Buffalo, New York 14203