Moving Forward or Holding Back? - Creating a Culture of Academic Assessment

Oct 15, 2026

This article analyzes survey data on faculty perceptions of a newly instituted academic assessment process at a small Canadian liberal arts campus. Survey findings are compared with a four-year review of reports submitted to the assessment committee to test whether assessment culture shifted toward explicit evaluation of students’ academic skills rather than mere compliance. Despite evidence of resistance and skepticism from a minority of faculty, results support the impact of a faculty-driven approach on teaching and assessment practices.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Research purpose and design

Faculty perceptions and survey results

Assessment materials, methods, and impact on teaching

The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Volume 11 | Issue 2 | Article 4 | | --- | --- | | Fall 09-30-2020
Moving Forward or Holding Back? Culture of Academic Assessment
Shauna Wilton
University of Alberta, [swilton@ualberta.ca](swilton@ualberta.ca)[ ](swilton@ualberta.ca)Mélanie Méthot
University of Alberta, [mmethot@ualberta.ca](mmethot@ualberta.ca)
Follow this and additional works at: [https://www.cjsotl-rcacea.ca](https://www.cjsotl-rcacea.ca)
[https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2020.2.8009](https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2020.2.8009) | Creating a | Recommended Citation Wilton, S., & Méthot, M. (2020) . Moving forward or holding back? Creating a culture of academic assessment. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 11(2). [https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2020.2.8009](https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2020.2.8009) Moving Forward or Holding Back? Creating a Culture of Academic Assessment Abstract This article analyzes data from a survey on faculty perceptions of a newly instituted assessment process at a small liberal arts campus in Canada. The survey results are compared with an analysis of the reports submitted to the assessment committee over a four-year period in order to determine whether a culture of assessment centred on students’ academic skills rather than compliance had been achieved. Although there is evidence of resistance and skepticism from a subset of faculty, we argue that overall a faculty driven process of assessment provided the space for the creation of a culture of assessment based on the explicit evaluation of identified academic skills. Our analysis examines faculty perceptions of assessment and its impact, the materials and methods of assessment used, and the overall impact of assessment on teaching on the campus. Cet article analyse les données d’une étude sur les perceptions des professeurs d’un processusd’évaluation nouvellement institué dans une petite université canadienne d’arts libéraux. Les résultats du sondage sont comparés à une analyse des rapports soumis au comité des évaluations au cours d’unepériode de quatre ans afin de déterminer si on en était arrivé à une culture d’évaluation centrée sur les compétences académiques des étudiants plutôt qu’à la conformité. Bien qu’il y ait des preuves derésistance et de scepticisme de la part d’un petit groupe de professeurs, nous sommes d’avis qu’engénéral, un processus d’évaluation dirigé par les professeurs permet de créer une culture d’évaluation basée sur l’évaluation explicite de compétences académiques identifiées. Notre analyse examine les perceptions des professeurs concernant l’évaluation et ses effets, le matériel et les méthodes d’évaluation utilisés, ainsi que l’impact général de l’évaluation sur l’enseignement au sein del’université . Keywords assessment, culture of assessment, academic skills, post-secondary education; évaluation, cultured’évaluation, compétences académiques, enseignement post-secondaire This research paper/Rapport de recherche is available in The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: [https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2020.2.8009](https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2020.2.8009) Eight years ago, our campus, an undergraduate liberal arts institution in Canada, voluntarily began a campus-wide assessment of student achievement of core academic skills. Together, teaching faculty developed a bottom-up assessment process, instead of one imposed by administration. The process included a new set of core academic skills that would be assessed, planned opportunities for consulting with the academic disciplines, and a formal way for reporting how well students mastered these skills, both within each academic major and on the campus asa whole. The process was developed without any external pressure, such as accreditation criteria or government mandates, and initially unanimously suppor

FAQs

What did the findings suggest about faculty engagement?

Most participating faculty embraced the assessment process and recognized benefits for student learning, while a minority aligned with compliance and/or fear rather than engagement.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Anna Hans