Assessing Learning Communities at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis: Comprehensive Approaches, Leveraging Results, Lessons Learned, and Remaining Challenges

Abstract

Comprehensive assessment activities are often necessary to plan, implement, and continuously improve learning communities. This article presents some major strands of learning community assessment such as the use of mixed methods, the increasing need to assess multiple outcomes given the complexity of learning communities, faculty involvement, and mechanisms for leveraging assessment results for planning and improvement. The authors describe assessment strategies implemented at a large, urban, public institution in an effort to articulate how assessment reports have been used to sustain and improve the effectiveness of learning communities. The authors also discuss lessons learned from assessment and some remaining challenges.