Themes and Meta-Trends in Assessment: Ideas, Opportunities, and Issues for Higher Education

​This session offers ten “meta-trends” in student learning assessment identified in our forthcoming edited volume, Trends in Assessment: Ideas, Opportunities, and Issues for Higher Education. Our principal research question is: Thirty-five years into the assessment “movement,” how are colleges and universities approaching assessment of student learning? The book addresses assessment trends in such areas as STEM disciplines, civic engagement, global learning, student affairs, ePortfolios, High-Impact Practices, post-graduate/professional education, and staff professional development. Our meta-trends draw on this material, the assessment literature, and the Assessment Institute in Indianapolis. They reflect growing emphases on equity and inclusivity; holistic student development; authentic assessment approaches that help us understand why and how, as well as what, students learn; continuing needs for professional development; and the need to better align staff rewards and recognition with institutions’ responsibilities to students and society. The meta-trends also spotlight an ongoing shift from the “instruction paradigm” to the “learning paradigm,” and suggest that higher education is moving from a compliance orientation toward an improvement orientation. We believe that these new directions promise to help higher education meet its responsibilities for increasing educational attainment, contributing to global welfare, and developing more informed and engaged citizenries.