Comparing Assessment Plan Data Across Cycles

Overview

This article explains how to design and run comparative data reports within the platform. While individual assessment plans attach to a single reporting year, comparative reports aggregate operational analytics from multiple plans, allowing users to contrast up to five distinct years side by side. This guide details what metrics the resulting reports contain and how administrators configure the criteria to build multi-year performance assessments.

Comparative Reporting in Plans

The system creates comparative summaries by consolidating operational attributes collected across separate planning periods. This functionality helps institutions track longitudinal performance trends and budget impacts over time.

Report Content and Metrics

Each multi-year comparative output compiles the following system indicators:

  • Plan Overview Summary: Logs total aggregate counts for participating organizations, assessed outcomes, created measures, finalized conclusions, and tracked action items. This view also computes a sum total of required financial funding across all recorded budget requests.

    The Overview section showing a multi‑year table with rows for five academic plans and columns for Organizations, Outcomes, Measures, Conclusions, Actions, and Budget Requests, with each row displaying corresponding numeric totals and budget amounts.
  • Organizational Completion Status: Quantifies the number of participating units that hold a Not Started, In Progress, or Submitted status classification for data entry per plan cycle.

    The Plan Progress section showing three academic plans, each with a horizontal progress bar displaying segments for Not Started, In Progress, and Submitted.
  • Institutional Outcomes Alignment: Maps local performance variables against macro-level institutional learning goals.

    The Institution Learning Outcome Success section showing two outcome panels, Communication and Cultural and Global Awareness. Each panel showing horizontal bars for multiple academic plans with segments for Met, Not Met, and Unspecified, along with a Disaggregate by Organization link.
  • Outcome Success Rates: Displays the specific percentages of learning objectives verified as Met, Not Met, or Unspecified per planning period.
  • Measurement Criteria Status: Calculates the percentage values of specific metric markers holding a Met, Not Met, or Unspecified valuation status.
  • Assessment Style Percentages: Breaks down methodology distribution profiles to categorize operations by Direct, Indirect, or Unspecified measurement types.

    The section showing three panels: Outcome Status, Measure Status, and Measure Type. Each panel showing vertical stacked bars for multiple academic years, with segments for Met, Not Met, and Unspecified in the first two panels, and Direct, Indirect, and Unspecified in the third panel.
  • Action Item Progress: Tracks continuous improvement tasks across selected plans, dividing active items into Not Started, In Progress, or Complete milestones.

    The Action Status section showing two academic plans, each with a horizontal progress bar displaying segments for Not Started, In Progress, and Complete.
  • Dominant Action Classifications: Flags the most frequently logged action design category recorded inside each tracking calendar period.

Note: The platform automatically suppresses the Results Progress Analysis widget whenever an administrative user generates a multi-year comparison view.

Running a Comparative Report

Administrators use the built-in filtering panel to initiate multi-plan review sequences.

The Insights tab showing a Compare Plans button selected and a Filter by Organization dropdown next to it.

To run the comparison sequence, follow these system steps:

  • Click Plans from the main left-hand workspace dashboard menu.
  • Select one of the baseline assessment plans scheduled for inclusion inside the tracking cycle report.
  • Click the Insights tab located at the top-center area of the screen workspace.
  • Click Compare Plans from the side option list panel.
  • Select up to four additional target assessment plans from the selection menu list.
  • Click Apply Selection to process the data models.

The platform then builds the comparative analytics interface tools based on the chosen parameters.

Once generated, administrators can isolate distinct layers by choosing the organization selector located in the top-left area. The metrics can be filtered dynamically across College, Division, Department, or unique Program classifications.

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