Direct sources of evidence must be used in program assessment whereby actual student work or performances is evaluated using a standardized method or rubric. Assessment using student work provides information about a level of achievement of an outcome(s) in a program. Direct measures are imperative for program assessment.
Indirect sources of evidence provide information about a program through means other than looking at actual student work and can be helpful in quickly providing information which indicates something about a program or an outcome. Indirect measures are an option in program assessment.
Examples of Direct Evidence
- Archival records
- Behavioral observations of students performing a task
- Brownbag presentation to the program or department
- Competence interviews
- Comprehensive examinations
- Conference presentations
- Culminating project (capstone projects, senior theses, senior exhibits, senior dance performance)
- Embedded assignments, course activities, tests/quizzes
- Employer/supervisor direct evaluations of student performance
- External examiner
- Exam essay questions
- IRB or IUCAC approval of research
- Licensing and professional examinations
- Locally developed examinations
- Oral defense of a thesis/dissertation
- Oral examinations/presentations
- Peer-reviewed journal articles submitted for publications
- Performance appraisals
- Portfolios or e-portfolios
- Poster or paper presentations at conferences
- Practica and internships
- Pre-test/Post-test evaluations
- Projects
- Published examinations (commerial, norm-references, standardized)
- Scoring rubrics
- Simulations
- Student publications
- Teaching evaluations for graduate teaching assistants
- Thesis/Dissertation proposal draft
- Thesis/Dissertation defense draft
- Videotape or audiotape evaluations
Examples of Indirect Evidence
- Alumni surveys
- Course evaluations
- Employer or supervisor evaluations*
- Enrollment in higher degree programs
- Focus groups
- Institutional/program research data
- Job placement
- One-on-one interviews
- Reflections*
- Student surveys
- Syllabi analysis
- Transcript analysis