The Drive to Learning Outcomes Management

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Opinion

The Drive to Learning Outcomes Management

3/1/2007

By Catherine Burdt

Leading colleges and universities are looking for new ways to demonstrate their value to students and stakeholders, with learning outcomes information emerging as a debated—and desired--endpoint. These stakeholders, including current and prospective students, parents and employers, and government bodies and accrediting agencies are increasingly demanding access to learning outcomes and performance management metrics to ensure that their investments are meeting their needs.

The demand for LOM
College and university administrators are increasingly anxious about filling program slots as a result of new levels of competition and changing student demographics. The mix of students through 2015 is shifting from a traditional base to a "non-traditional" student base, including immigrants and working adults returning to school part time to complete their degree and accelerate their careers. For profit institutions have established a significant presence in higher education by targeting these students, and some are now moving to serve the 18- to 22-year-old audience.

Student-consumers, parents and employers providing educational funding often embrace the view that the value of a student's education is linked to workplace readiness. With this expectation comes a demand for outcomes information in areas such as writing, critical thinking, and problem solving, as well as specific preparation for high-stakes certification and licensure exams found in health care, education, accounting, and other professional disciplines. Accreditation by relevant accrediting agencies is increasingly important as well, as evidenced by Intel's recent decision to limit tuition reimbursement to institutions with regional and specialized accreditation.

Federal and state-level government agencies are encouraging improved reporting of and access to transparent data about variables such as price, costs, student outcomes, and other value-added results of a postsecondary education. The State Higher Education Executive Officers' National Commission on Accountability in Higher Education report cites public access to this information as a priority, delivered in a format that enables better decision-making for consumers and policymakers. Some states have already developed and are refining systems for higher education accountability, providing various stakeholders with state-defined outcomes. In linking federal attention to data gathering with existing state initiatives, Eduventures anticipates that reporting at colleges and universities will focus on aggregated data measurements, including learning outcomes, graduation rates, and broadly accepted assessments of adult literacy, such as the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress (MAPP)

Finally, accreditation agencies are placing increasing emphasis on student learning outcomes. These agencies are in the early stages of using metrics to assess and verify institutional progress, an important indicator of institutional quality. Looking forward, trends indicate that institutions are using the accreditation process as a catalyst to examine their internal data as well as to institute data-driven processes to achieve productivity gains.