Measuring the impact of any action/change is a key step of the academic assessment cycle. This crucial step is often overlooked.
Measuring the impact means taking a meaningful look at the assessment results and actions taken, re-assessing after these actions have taken place, and comparing results. Ideally, the changes will result in a positive change. However, sometimes actions do not have their intended results and assessing the impact may lead to these findings as well. Each of these instances is important to report and learn from as part of the continuous improvement cycle.
Once the impact of the action/change has been measured, it is time to revisit the goals of the program to see how they are being met and/or if there is a need for them to be amended. This is known as closing the loop on the continuous improvement process and assessment cycle.
