Sharing Results v. Respondents

“Ethical Issues” – Schuh and Upcraft

            This article talks about the importance of timing when it comes to sending out an assessment or evaluation. In an effort to get an adequate or “ideal” group of students to respond, the timing of when the assessment is handed out is crucial. For my assessment project, I place the conference evaluation in the program booklet that each participant got when they checked in for the conference. The thought behind it was that they would have their program book with them at all times during the conference; however, with an online application for the conference program and a multi-day conference, it was unlikely that the students would have the evaluation with them upon completion of the conference. It is usually a toss up as to whether or not a paper evaluation will have a higher response rate than an online version.

            The data access is also something that stuck out to me in this article. All of my evaluations were done anonymously; however, those who submitted the completed evaluation could also submit a form to win a raffle prize for completing the form.  I was asked to do my assessment project for a director on campus and it has never been defined what information he wants to have and what information isn’t of interest. We are both also on a committee for the conference that is comprised of over 10 individuals and so there is also grey area there as to what information should and would get passed along to them.