Minot State University
07/06/2022 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/06/2022 10:32
Analytical Anderson guides assessment at Minot State
By Calli Delsman
University Communications Student Assistant
MINOT, N.D. - Is it ever wondered how universities are measured on the success of their students and graduates?
For Minot State, those questions should be aimed at their assessment director, Nathan Anderson, who began his first year with MSU Fall 2021.
"One of my main responsibilities is to help ensure that academic and co-curricular programs are being assessed annually and to provide support and guidance for the programs, as well as serving on a variety of committees," he said.
Minot State recently went through the Higher Learning Commission accreditation process to help define, develop, and implement comprehensive strategies for institutional improvement. Anderson's role as assessment director plays a key role in those strategies.
"Programs have intentions to provide learning opportunities for students in such a way that will help students achieve certain outcomes," Anderson said. "The assessment helps programs know whether what they are doing is having an intended impact. It also helps programs know if they are doing what they intended to do."
Anderson described the process through five types of assessment: needs, theory, process, outcome, and resource efficiency.
"I would say that the outcome assessment is the one that people focus on the most. My role looks at that at the program level. If a program conducts an annual assessment and they see that outcome one only had 30% of students achieving that, and the rest of the outcomes are 80% or higher, they might conclude that they need to focus more on how to get students to achieve outcome one," he said. "They might make changes to what they're doing, how they are implementing the content in such a way that it resonates more for the students."
The HLC accreditation is looked at as a stamp of approval for a university and reflects positively as it increases a student's confidence in getting their degree from that institution.
"The organization and MSU went through a self-assessment to respond to a variety of different prompts under each of these criteria, to explain how they are meeting the criteria that HLC has defined as being important to meet if you're operating as an entity as a higher education institution," he said.
Since his start at Minot State, Anderson has enjoyed diving into the intellectual stimulation that the position brings. With his various committee positions, and learning new information, he has enjoyed everyone that he's come in contact with.
"Everybody's been very welcoming to me, really nice, they've been receptive to brainstorming ways of pursuing solutions to problems, conflicts, or challenges that we have here. I really appreciate how everybody's been patient with me in understanding that I'm not going to learn everything overnight," Anderson said.
Aside from his director of assessment role, he's done some self-influenced work outside of his job. Titled the CPR Success and Failure Analysis, he hopes to one day implement his analysis tool at universities and help students self-assess their interests and find a career that best suits them.
"It has to do with self-assessing whether you are fit for a particular role. If you have the capacity to do something, if you're passionate about it, if it's relevant to yourself, and if you're able to maintain a state of presence then the idea is that you would be fit for that role," he said.
Anderson has enjoyed his time so far at Minot State and is looking forward to continuing to improve not only the University as a whole, but help students achieve their academic goals to prepare them for their future.
About Minot State University
Minot State University is a public university dedicated to excellence in education, scholarship, and community engagement achieved through rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and a vibrant campus life.