I have lived here in New Hampshire for the past 16 years when I came to be a hall director at the University of New Hampshire after finishing my master’s degree from Michigan State University in 1993. I am originally from Michigan and my parents still live there. My partner and I get back to visit them at least once a year. This past December was a “Henning Holiday” meaning that we would spend it with my family in Michigan. We were excited since my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew from Seattle were going to be at my parents’ house as well.
As we began planning our trip, I began thinking about it as having an outcome – an outcome that impacts planning and assessment. As I have said in the past, assessment is not an activity. It is a state of mind – one that I always seem to be in. (Visit http://www.studentvoice.com/app/Blogs/Gavin/post/Assessment-is-a-State-of-Mind.aspx for that discussion.) Like developing outcomes and the strategies to promote them to help our students learn, thinking about our trip to Michigan helped us understand “where we were going, how will we get there, and how will we know when we arrive.”
You may define some of the terms I use differently than I do, but I think you will get the gist of the analogy so that you can share this with others to educate them about outcomes. (Visit http://wwwstudentvoice.com/app/Blogs/Gavin/post/Inputs2c-Outputs2c-OutcomesOh-My!-Nuances-of-Assessment-Language.aspx for a greater explanation of each of these terms.)
So, in December, our goal was to drive to my parents’ house for a visit. We had some inputs for the trip which were the raw materials to help us achieve our goal. The inputs included the car to get us there, the money to purchase the gas to fuel the car, snacks to keep us fueled, money for tolls, and the like. There were also outputs that served as quantitative metrics to document progression towards the outcome. These outputs included the total amount of time we took or the money that was spent on food, gas, and hotel during our trip (resources used rather than the resources available when we started), the average miles per gallon of gas used and the average miles per hour we traveled (efficiency of resources used), and the number of speeding tickets received (effectiveness of resources used). By the way, we didn’t get any speeding tickets this time. I learned my lesson from the Pennsylvania State Police on a previous trip.
Now the outputs are helpful in understanding our trip. We can say how efficient and effective we used our resources, but we can’t use the outputs to help us determine if we met our goal or not (getting to my parents’ house). This is similar to how tracking the number of students that attend a program or aggregating their satisfaction with that program, while helpful, doesn’t tell us if they learned anything from the program (which is the ultimate goal).
Our outcome is our desired result. For the trip to Michigan, the desired result was reaching my parents’ house. But this isn’t even good enough. Outcomes have to be more specific. As the intelligent folks at the University of Central Florida in their program assessment handbook say, outcomes should be SMART – Specific, Measureable, Aggressive, but attainable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound. So, our outcome could be more effectively written this way, “As a result of our trip to Michigan, Gavin and Terri will arrive at 12 Round Lake Road, Saginaw, MI at 10pm on Saturday, December 20th.” The timing was important because we wanted to make sure we were there in time for my father's birthday on Sunday the 21st. The specificity of the exact address of my parents’ house and the arrival time are important so that we could plan our trip and assess are accomplishment of that outcome.
Once we had our outcome, inputs, and outputs, we needed strategies for reaching our outcome. Here is where specificity of the outcome was important, again.
There are two major ways to get from where I live in Concord, NH to Saginaw, MI with some minor variations on these. For the sake of illustration, we will just focus on these two routes. Route 1, the most direct route, is west across New Hampshire, through New York state, then through Canada. Here is a map for folks like myself who are visual processors.
Route 2 runs south through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and then west through Pennsylvania and Ohio and north into Michigan.
Route 1 takes about 15 hours from Point A to Point B while Route 2 takes about 17 hours. The natural inclination is to take Route 1 because it takes less time.. However, this is the moment where considering the strategies for reaching your outcomes are really important. While Route 1 is shorter, it actually takes more effort. Route 2 is almost entirely comprised of major interstate highways from New Hampshire to Michigan. Route 1, on the other hand, includes some winding, two lane highways, through New Hampshire and Vermont. While beautiful during the day, these country roads can be tricky at night and in the winter.
There is also the issue of Buffalo, NY. I like Buffalo. Some of my good friends live in Buffalo. But, have you been to Buffalo in the winter? From my experience, you never know what you are going to get weather-wise. The rest of the state could be sunny and clear and at the same time there could be a nasty snow squall right over Buffalo. You just have to be prepared for that type of adventure – buckle-up, turn on the wipers, white-knuckle the steering wheel at 10 and 2 and let the fun begin!
Another issue with Route 1 is that you have to go through Canada. Not that Canada is bad. It is a fantastic country and you should visit if you haven't been, but you just have to be more prepared since you will need a passport. Also, there used to be stretch of roadway going through Canada along this route where there was a vast expanse of nothingness. It was four hours without a place to stop for food, gas, or nature’s calling. With Route 2, you are guaranteed a nice service area almost every 45 minutes for all of your traveling needs.
Route 1 is faster, but you have to plan each step of the trip, or strategy, more carefully.
Our choice was to be safe and take Route B. This choice had implications for our planning and implementation given the outcome we developed. In order to get to Saginaw by 10pm on Saturday, December 20th and be as efficient and as effective with our resources (read: no speeding tickets which actually increase the cost and time of your trip) we would need to be on the road by 7am. This would allow for two stops for meals, gas, and bathroom breaks and three additional gas/bathroom breaks. We try to maximize our stops by accomplishing at least two of these tasks per stop. (Remember I said assessment and planning are a state of mind for me.)
With this information, we can not only assess the achievement of our goal, but how effectively and efficiently we reached it which would allow us to plan better for our next trip to Michigan. Knowing where we are going (and when) can help us determine which road to take and allow us to determine if we have arrived (or met our goal).
As you can see, developing a specific outcome impacts the process for selecting the strategies to support that. This is just what we do with our work with students. Once we determine a goal (e.g., develop leadership skills), we develop specific outcomes (e.g., as a result of the Emerging Leaders Course, students will be able to effectively facilitate a student organization meeting by the end of the course). We can then consider our inputs (e.g., staff and financial resources) and develop our strategies (e.g., identify three best practices for facilitating meetings) to foster that outcome. We can then measure our outputs (e.g., number of students in the class) and summative outcome (e.g., the extent to which students can effectively facilitate a student organization meeting) and make decisions for improvement. Following this process keeps goals, inputs, outputs, outcomes, and strategies aligned increasing our efficiency and effectiveness and allowing for easier assessment.
Apply this analogy to your next trip and let me know if assessment doesn’t start becoming a state of mind.
References
University of Central Florida. (2004). Program assessment handbook. Orlando, FL. Author.
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