Aligning assessment to organizational performance in distance education

Aligning Assessment to Organizational
Performance in Distance Education
Service Delivery
Larry Nash White, Ph.D.
Department of Library Science
East Carolina University

April 29, 2010

Today’s Intellectual
Walkabout Map

11/24/12 Copyright 2010 by Larry Nash White. All rights reserved.

Before we get started,
a little story…


Introduction
• Libraries and their value to stakeholders are
constantly being reshaped by the dynamic service
environments in which they operate.

• The library’s service environment is that space,
both virtual and real, where the library actively
and purposefully utilizes resources to generate
services and access to library and information
services for its customers and stakeholders.


Introduction II
• The library’s service environment and all of its constituent
components drive the operational and strategic responses generated
by the library to effectively respond to stakeholder needs.

• The library’s strategic responses are the information services,
resources, and access that the library delivers to stakeholders and
customers in order to meet service needs and expectations, and
respond to competitive challenges and service options available to
the library’s customers and stakeholders for library and information
services.

• Service innovations and transitions are a critical strategic component
of the library’s service response and this is especially true for libraries
serving distance learners; these need to be assessed as well.


Introduction III
• library stakeholders are requiring greater accountability and value creation

• the library’s responses: assessment practices and reporting of internally
focused, traditional measures of outputs, efficiency, and outcomes.

• library service delivery and customer focus is moving outside of the walls of
the library and to a customer in an uncertain (or virtual) or inconsistent
region of the library’s service environment.

• libraries must have and benefit from the most effective assessment processes
available.

• one of the most essential aspects of an effective assessment process is the
alignment of the assessment process to the library’s strategic information
needs and to its desired service environment impacts.

• aligning the library’s assessment practices to effectively include distance
service delivery is a new imperative

Literature Review
• The literature of the library profession is saturated with discussions and
research on historical and current assessment practices of libraries;
performance assessment practices, and metrics; and the cultures of
assessment in libraries.

• However, the professional literature does not frequently reference the term
“alignment” in regards to assessment processes directly. Searches of the
terms “alignment” (and the derivative forms “align” and “aligned”) in any
combination with any of the terms “assessment, evaluation, measurement,
metrics, performance, and value” in the Library Literature and Information
Science database and in the Library and Information Science Technical
Abstracts resulted in zero findings. A similar search strategy in the Library and
Information Science Abstracts database resulted in one record from 1998. In
this article, Barton (1998) briefly discussed the need for the alignment of
library objectives with institutional goals for digital libraries.


Literature Review II
• the literature has many references to the symptoms typically associated with an
unaligned assessment process in the library.

• unaligned assessment processes

– do not use assessment methodologies or metrics consistently
– are not connected to a culture of assessment
– do not involve all stakeholders from within or outside of the organization
– are not connected to the service environment
– Assessment processes are not innovative, adaptive, or evaluated, and are usually
not valued in process or results by the organization or its stakeholders in the
service environment.

• the symptoms of aligned assessment processes fall generally into three categories:

– lack of consensus
– methodological / implementation
– organizational


Consequences of unaligned
assessment processes
• strategic and tactical negative consequences

– Negative tactical consequences are short term consequences that can
affect the library for one to two strategic planning cycles, falling into
three broad categories: resources, capability, and the intangibles.
– resource category includes resource and service reductions (i.e.
fiscal, staffing, etc.); staffing and leadership recruitment
challenges; and increased demands for future reporting of
assessment.
– capacity category includes the library’s reduced abilities to
benefit from strategic opportunities, partnerships, and
collaborative actions that would strengthen the library and its
value creation in the service environment and reduce
communication gaps and trust issues developing between the
library and stakeholders, which further decrease the creation of
value by the library.


assessment processes II
• strategic and tactical negative consequences

– Negative tactical consequences are short term consequences
that can affect the library for one to two strategic planning
cycles, falling into three broad categories: resources, capability,
and the intangibles.

– intangible consequences include the lowering of
organizational / service environment stakeholders’
morale and expectations, diminished value creation from
the library’s intellectual capital assets, and the potential
devaluation of the library’s intangible assets and
capabilities, further deflating stakeholder’s perceptions
of the library’s value, production and capability.

assessment processes III
– Negative strategic consequences are long-term consequences
that affect a library for more than 2 planning cycles. Negative
strategic consequences can be grouped into two categories:
tangible and intangible.

• tangible strategic consequences include:
– library stakeholders examining alternatives to existing library and
information service delivery
– funding and resource provision reductions or the loss of secure funding
sources;
– threatened viability of existing systems and staff, organizational
restructuring and elimination
– irreversible losses of stakeholder market share due to declining
resources
– diminished service capacity or quality may be an additional potential
consequence.


assessment processes IV
– Negative strategic consequences are long-term
consequences that affect a library for more than 2
planning cycles. Negative strategic consequences can
be grouped into two categories: tangible and
intangible.

• intangible strategic consequences include:
– loss of institutional support and prestige
– creation of stakeholder perceptions of the library as a
contributor to failed strategic responses to service environment
needs rather than a key component of successful need response
– losses of competitive advantage gained from the library’s
intangible assets (i.e. intellectual capital, brand recognition,
human capital, etc.) and the service environment value created
from them.


So…
Does your library assessment processes
library display any of these negative
characteristics?

So how do we get aligned?

And what is alignment?


What the @%*& is alignment?


When did
you last fly?


When did
you last fly?

Blue angels
demonstrating
alignment and
its importance


Major Library Service Environment
Factors Affecting Library
Assessment


Service Environment Factors
Interaction Results


Characteristics of Aligned
Assessment Processes
• Libraries with aligned assessment processes:

– use consistent metrics and practices to conduct assessment on all
aspects of the library’s services and operations, including distance
education service delivery.
– assessment methodologies / activities are incorporated into the
overall strategic planning and decision making of the library
– supported by a proactive culture of assessment and dedicated
resources to create effective assessment processes
– internal and external library stakeholders need access to the
assessment process and its results.
– results of assessment are compared to the evidence of need from
the library service environment for effective coverage and
response


Characteristics of Aligned
Assessment Processes II
• Libraries with aligned assessment processes:

– assessment processes and metrics should be in a constant state of innovation and
incorporation of outside resources, methodologies, and expertise
– assessment processes should be regularly evaluated to ensure that the assessment
processes are effectively and efficiently providing the library with necessary
strategic information for planning and decision making in all aspects of library
operations and throughout their service environment
– results of assessment should be valued by the library and the internal / external
stakeholders of the library service environment and make a difference in
stakeholder support of the library.
– Aligned assessment builds consensus, improves effectiveness, and strengthens
organization cohesion and culture while providing effective assessment evidence
to the library’s stakeholders, regardless of where they are or are connected to the
library.


Alignment Characteristics
Characteristics of Aligned Assessment
Processes (See word document)


Potential Benefits of the Progressive
Assessment Alignment Conceptual Model
• Libraries can improve the reporting effectiveness and value of their
assessment processes by improving the alignment of their assessment
processes in two ways:

– internally through the use of consistent and innovative processes,
metrics, and culture within the library and
– externally by embracing the alignment factors and available technologies
of the library’s service environment and using them as strengths in
developing strategic responses

• Libraries can compete more effectively

• Libraries connect and demonstrate to stakeholders (internally and externally)
equally regardless of where they are in the service environment


In closing, one final thought…


Questions and Contact Information

Larry Nash White
whitel@ecu.edu
252.328-2315

Aligning assessment to organizational performance in distance education

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