Methodology
The methodology employed in assessment in higher education is diverse and must be appropriate to the purposes for which the assessment is being used. The student characteristics and other college inputs, the educational and other processes we use, and the multifarious outcomes we seek all require equally varied, sensitive, and appropriate methods if the results produced by assessment are to be credible and useful. Qualitative methods such as surveys, focus groups, portfolios, and direct observations are at least as important as quantitative methods, those that use and produce numerical data; and multiple rather than single methods of assessment often provide a richer and mutually corroborative array of evidence.