Dig Deeper - Curious about Student Learning?

Questions to Get You Started

The following questions reflect a utilization-focused approach to inquiry. We believe that all successful projects begin with questions. Have a look! What other questions do you ask? Tell us.

• Planning
• What makes you curious? What do you want to know? Why?
  What will you do with what you learn? 
  What is the primary intended USE for the results? In other words, are you planning to do something with what you learn? 
• People
• Who are the stakeholders?
  Who is / are the primary intended user(s)?
  Does your department / unit leadership share your interest? If not, how could you make this a meaningful and useful project for yourself?
• Process: Defining "good" questions
• Is your question actionable, answerable, and appropriate?
  
  Actionable means that you will be able to make evidence-informed decisions about instruction, curriculum, and/or programming based on the results of the inquiry.
  
  Answerable questions are those which won't take you the rest of your life to answer. Be realistic about how long you have to devote to the inquiry. Strive for the narrowest compelling question that will sustain your interest and yield useful results. 
  
  Appropriate questions make sense for your role and position within your unit, the college, and/or the campus. Each of us can contribute to improving student learning through our inquiry projects. Just make sure the question is yours to answer.
• Process: Collecting data
• What data are necessary to answer the question? (Remember: Assessment Rule #4 is collect the data you need, not the data you want.)
  
  What types of data do you need? (Direct? Indirect? Both?)
  
  Do you have access to the data? If NO, are you prepared and allowed to collect the data you need? If YES, how will you get it?
• Process: Analyzing data
• How will you analyze the data? (HINT: if you're not sure, ask someone!)
  Are the analyses appropriate for the data?
  What do you already know what to do?
• Putting results to work
• What did you learn? 
  What changes will you make based on what you learned? Why?
  When will you re-assess to see if the changes made a difference?