Data collection and use began in 1989-90 and continue to evolve. As the section What's Next indicates, the evolution will continue. It also takes time for outcomes assessment to be accepted as a normal part of university functioning. As was mentioned earlier in this report, the number of units taking the process seriously grew year by year. Differences between units must be acknowledged The diversity of CU-Boulder units is sometimes a problem in an enterprise like this one, but it is more often a benefit.
Units are too different, and too independent, to attempt to impose common methods.
Letting units experiment with methods and discover what provides useful information for them takes time and requires unit-specific discussions, feedback, and consultation. The individual unit summaries show great variation in how units gather and use outcomes information. Units make the best use of approaches that fit their own, and their discipline's, style of gathering and using information. Units learn from each other. One unit's experiences with a method can help another unit decide to try it, or to avoid it.