by Jac Assessment

Every good quest starts with knowing where you’ve already been.

Once upon a time, in Glendalia, a college not so far away, assessment was sometimes viewed as something that happened because a report was due, a spreadsheet needed completing, or an accreditation wizard might someday come knocking at the gates.  But somewhere along the way, the story at GCC started to change.

We began gathering evidence of student learning, talking together about what that evidence told us, making changes, and looking again to see whether those changes worked. Course assessment became increasingly familiar territory. Departments developed processes. DACs became guides, translators, problem-solvers, and occasional rescuers of wayward spreadsheets.

Most importantly, we started asking better questions:

• What are our students learning?
• How do we know?
• What can we do to make that learning even stronger?

In other words, GCC built something much more important than a collection of assessment reports.  We built experience.

Our Story So Far

Like any respectable group of adventurers, Glendalians collected a few achievements along the way.  We strengthened course assessment and became more intentional about using evidence of student learning to inform our teaching. We expanded our work with Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) and began mapping learning across programs to better understand how students grow from introductory experiences through increasingly complex learning. 

Our Convocation tale captured this expanding landscape through the Course Commons, Isles of ILOs, Prog-Ram Mountain, and the still somewhat mysterious Caverns of Cocurricular. Beneath the fairy-tale geography is a very real accomplishment: GCC faculty and staff have developed a broader, more connected view of student learning.  None of this happened because one heroic person rode into Glendalia carrying the legendary Spreadsheet of Assessment. Although, admittedly, there have been a lot of spreadsheets.

It happened because faculty and staff brought their expertise to the work. We examined learning, adjusted assignments and instruction, tried new approaches, and then did something especially important:

We looked again!

That is the foundation we carry with us as we begin our next adventure.

Finding True North

Fall 2026 marks the beginning of a new three-year assessment cycle, but we are not going back to the beginning. We are building on what we have learned and becoming more intentional about where we go next. Our destination is True North: helping students learn, grow, and succeed.

Every decision we make in assessment points toward one destination: helping students learn, grow, and succeed.

True North is not compliance.  It is not reports.  It is not completing a form because someone sent the third reminder in Tuesday Tidbits.  Those things may document the journey, but they are not why we make it.  Our compass points toward student learning. Assessment begins not with the assumption that something is wrong, but with a question: 

• What do we hope students will learn?  

Then:

• How will we know?

• What does the evidence tell us?

• What should we do next?

That is where the PAIR Compass becomes useful.

Prepare. Assess. Intervene. Reassess.

PAIR does not create the destination. Faculty already know why they teach and what they hope students will achieve. PAIR simply helps keep the destination in view.

Preparing for the Expedition

Before every great expedition comes thoughtful preparation. Excellence requires intention. We design courses, programs, activities, and learning experiences because we want students to leave knowing, understanding, or being able to do something they could not do before. Assessment helps us check whether we are still headed in the right direction.

When we shift from asking what assessment task must be completed to what we genuinely want to know about student learning, assessment becomes less about producing evidence and more about using evidence to answer meaningful questions.

In the Prepare stage of PAIR, we identify what matters most. We consider the learning outcomes we want students to achieve, determine where that learning occurs, and decide what evidence will help us understand whether students are getting there.

A New Three-Year Expedition

Over the next three years, our journey will continue connecting four important domains of student learning:  Course. Program. Institutional. Cocurricular.

These are not four separate kingdoms competing for territory. They are different views of the same student journey. Students develop knowledge and skills within individual courses. Those experiences build across a program. Along the way, students develop broader institutional learning outcomes and learn through cocurricular experiences as well. 

Year One begins by building on the preparation already underway: identifying priorities, asking meaningful questions, reviewing maps, aligning learning outcomes, and determining where useful evidence already exists.   From there, projects move through the remaining PAIR stages as we examine evidence, respond, and reassess whether our actions made a difference.

Prepare. Assess. Intervene. Reassess.

Not a one-time event. A cycle. A journey.

The Heroes Were Already Here

Fortunately, no one needs to undertake this quest alone. Assessment leaders, faculty and staff colleagues, and a growing collection of resources will provide maps, tools, and signposts throughout the cycle.  Tuesday Tidbits will continue pointing toward these resources and upcoming milestones.  Some parts of the landscape will be familiar. Others will take us into new territory. And yes, there will probably still be spreadsheets.  Every hero has a burden to bear.

As we begin our Assessment cycle again, remember that the Assessment Hero’s Journey is not the story of assessment experts coming to save the village.  It is the story of the people who teach, support, mentor, advise, design, and create learning experiences for GCC students each and every day.  

You were already on the journey. This new cycle gives us another opportunity to choose a good question, check our compass, and continue moving toward True North: student learning.

The next chapter of GCC’s assessment story is just beginning. Stand by for more on YOUR Assessment Hero’s Journey.