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Abstract
College and university disciplinary proceedings are a valuable opportunity to provide learning and growth experiences for students outside the classroom. In the United States, disciplinary procedures are outlined and guided by case law and state and federal legislation. This guidance does not offer recommendations or requirements for student learning to be part of the process, but many student conduct programs—as functional areas of the student affairs field—infuse learning as a central component of student conduct work.
As the student affairs field has implemented official learning outcomes to programmatic goals, the use of assessment practices to ascertain the learning attained by students has also increased. In the past 35 years, most assessment for student conduct has been focused on system efficacy and sanctions. In 2009 and 2012, the Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA) conducted studies of their membership to explore and determine how they perceived assessment practices in student conduct programs and what work these professionals may be completing to determine student learning attainment. This study modified these two previous studies’ research instruments to evaluate to a larger population and advance the exploration of learning outcome and assessment practice implementation in current student conduct programs. The survey garnered data to answer the following questions: (a) did student conduct educators believe student learning and assessment projects were important components of student conduct programs; (b) how, if at all, have learning outcomes and assessment practices been used within student conduct programs; and (c) what knowledge and training did student conduct educators have regarding learning outcomes and assessment practices for student conduct programs. The population of participants was expanded from the prior studies to include those who were not ASCA members, but currently participated in individual student conduct proceedings.
The results highlighted that similar themes and outcomes from the 2009 and 2012 audits were still prevalent with current student conduct educators. The respondents in both of those audits and this study felt learning is an important aspect of student conduct programs, and they felt educated and knowledgeable on the topics of learning outcomes and assessment techniques. However, they were not provided trainings to implement such practices for student conduct, nor were they expected to do tasks to determine what learning students have attained. Lastly, this study found student conduct educators were mostly unaware of several publicly available resources that were not available when previous students were conducted that assist student conduct educators with assessment work for student conduct programs.
As the student affairs field has implemented official learning outcomes to programmatic goals, the use of assessment practices to ascertain the learning attained by students has also increased. In the past 35 years, most assessment for student conduct has been focused on system efficacy and sanctions. In 2009 and 2012, the Association for Student Conduct Administration (ASCA) conducted studies of their membership to explore and determine how they perceived assessment practices in student conduct programs and what work these professionals may be completing to determine student learning attainment. This study modified these two previous studies’ research instruments to evaluate to a larger population and advance the exploration of learning outcome and assessment practice implementation in current student conduct programs. The survey garnered data to answer the following questions: (a) did student conduct educators believe student learning and assessment projects were important components of student conduct programs; (b) how, if at all, have learning outcomes and assessment practices been used within student conduct programs; and (c) what knowledge and training did student conduct educators have regarding learning outcomes and assessment practices for student conduct programs. The population of participants was expanded from the prior studies to include those who were not ASCA members, but currently participated in individual student conduct proceedings.
The results highlighted that similar themes and outcomes from the 2009 and 2012 audits were still prevalent with current student conduct educators. The respondents in both of those audits and this study felt learning is an important aspect of student conduct programs, and they felt educated and knowledgeable on the topics of learning outcomes and assessment techniques. However, they were not provided trainings to implement such practices for student conduct, nor were they expected to do tasks to determine what learning students have attained. Lastly, this study found student conduct educators were mostly unaware of several publicly available resources that were not available when previous students were conducted that assist student conduct educators with assessment work for student conduct programs.