[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-599299-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-599299-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","strategies-for-assessment-in-communication-centers-perspectives-from-across-the-field","Strategies for Assessment in Communication Centers: Perspectives from Across the Field","","Key highlights from a panel discussion at the 2014 National Association of Communication Centers (NACC) conference focus on how communication centers approach assessment. Directors across the U.S. describe assessment efforts as organized, purposeful, and ongoing, while noting uneven experience and steep learning curves for many staff. The essay also examines challenges in transferring assessment literature to peer-tutor communication center models and calls for more public examples to support directors. It concludes by distinguishing “good practices” from misleading “best practices.”",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/strategies-for-assessment-in-communication-centers-perspectives-from-across-the-field/599299/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/strategies-for-assessment-in-communication-centers-perspectives-from-across-the-field/599299.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"WPS_1790064749","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What three main themes emerged from the 2014 NACC panel discussion?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The essay reports three themes: (1) a wide range of assessment knowledge among communication center faculty and staff, (2) difficulties translating higher-education assessment literature into the communication center context, and (3) a strong desire for a foundation of public examples to help directors begin assessment plans.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why is assessment harder for many communication center professionals?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Many participants describe assessment as new, with a steep learning curve. They also report limited training in research methodologies and uncertainty about how to do assessment effectively in their centers.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the essay distinguish “good practices” from “best practices”?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"“Best practice” is described as potentially misleading because it implies a universal superlative method. The essay argues effective examples should be labeled “good practices,” meaning they produce desired information that helps an organization do its work well under its own evaluation criteria.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},599299,1792171480,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":112},3985747859154,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Strategies for Assessment in Communication Centers: Perspectives from  \nAcross the Field  \nDanielle Leek  \nGrand Valley State University  \nRussell Carpenter  \nEastern Kentucky University  \nKimberly M. Cuny  \nUniversity of North Carolina, Greensboro  \nP. Anand Rao  \nUniversity of Mary Washington  \nThis essay offers key highlights from a panel discussion that took place at the 2014 National Association of Communication Centers (NACC) conference at Arizona State University – West in Glendale, Arizona. The panel included communication center directors from across the United States. Each participant was asked to describe assessment efforts at their respective centers. The presentations were rich with examples and evidence that assessment efforts at our centers are organized, purposeful, and on-going.  \nThe post-panel discussion highlighted three themes. First, there is a wide range of knowledge about assessment practices among communication center faculty and staff. Some individuals have a great deal of experience with assessment theory and techniques. Similarly, some administrators are skilled at collecting and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. Yet for many communication center professionals, assessment is an entirely new practice  \nwith a steep initial learning curve. Because graduate education focuses on developing disciplinary expertise, not knowledge of assessment, many in the panel audience expressed concern about “not knowing how” to do assessment effectively at their centers. Others reported a lack of training in research methodologies and wanting to “shy away from numbercrunching.” Moreover, despite the importance of assessment in the national discourse about higher education, assessment techniques may not be a focus of the available or funded professional development opportunities on some campuses where communication centers are located (Hutchins, 2010) .  \nA second theme to surface from the NACC panel discussion was the challenge of translating literature about assessment practices to the communication center context. Certainly a great deal has been written about assessment in higher education. This work is helpful, for example, in understanding how to assess student learning in the classroom, how to involve faculty in the assessment process and how to develop clear assessment plans (e.g., Andrade, 2011; Banta, Jones, & Black, 2009; Brown, 1997) . However, most communication centers operate alongside curriculums and use a peer-tutor model, rather than the traditional instructor-student approach used in classrooms. Panelists and audience members concluded that assessment strategies from academic services or campus writing centers appear to have a closer connection to communication center work, yet recognized that much more discussion is needed to understand how to bring practices from these contexts into their assessment efforts.  \nThis appeal for more discussion about assessment culminated in a final theme to emerge from the 2014 panel. Communication center professionals strongly support the position that effective assessment is essential for promoting the benefit of their service to students and to evaluate the work of their directors (Turner & Sheckels, 2015; Yook, 2006) . Yet so little public detail about the assessment work being done by communication centers is available that directors often struggle to start their assessment plans. The panel discussion highlighted alonging for a foundation of examples that could serve as inspiration for centers working on assessment and provide a basis for comparing center policies, procedures, and practices at institutions with varying missions and student populations.  \nThis essay is a first-step in continuing the conversation about communication center assessment and responding to the call for more public documentation about the assessment work being done in the field. Four members of the 2014 NACC panel share an example of an assessment strategy that worked in t","cbCaiiIMoS6YdkYO","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiIMoS6YdkYO","pdf",428855,12,"English","# Panel insights on assessment efforts\n## Range of knowledge and training gaps\n## Translating higher-ed assessment to communication centers\n## Need for public examples to start assessment plans\n# Good practices vs. “best practices”\n## Why “best practice” can be misleading\n## Defining good assessment practice through results and usable information","[{\"question\":\"What three main themes emerged from the 2014 NACC panel discussion?\",\"answer\":\"The essay reports three themes: (1) a wide range of assessment knowledge among communication center faculty and staff, (2) difficulties translating higher-education assessment literature into the communication center context, and (3) a strong desire for a foundation of public examples to help directors begin assessment plans.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is assessment harder for many communication center professionals?\",\"answer\":\"Many participants describe assessment as new, with a steep learning curve. They also report limited training in research methodologies and uncertainty about how to do assessment effectively in their centers.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay distinguish “good practices” from “best practices”?\",\"answer\":\"“Best practice” is described as potentially misleading because it implies a universal superlative method. The essay argues effective examples should be labeled “good practices,” meaning they produce desired information that helps an organization do its work well under its own evaluation criteria.\"}]","Strategies for Assessment in Communication Centers: Perspectives from Across the Field | PDF",1792088514]