Assessment for campus recreation department leaders isn’t just about analyzing the numbers; it’s about demonstrating the value of what we do for students, the university, and our communities.
For professionals who are newer to the field of collegiate recreation, the “a-word” can feel daunting. But we’ve been doing this for some time now and are happy to share with our NIRSA colleagues a brief guide to simplify the process and help you connect everyday recreation activities to the professional standards that drive higher education.
Frameworks and competencies
Measuring a program’s impact or a user/participant’s behavior, requires solid connections between inputs and outputs. That’s why it’s so critical to anchor your work in a clear framework; otherwise, you risk collecting data without a clear purpose or direction.
While these are not the only frameworks, these are the four that you are most likely to encounter working in collegiate recreation.
NACE Career Readiness Competencies
Using NACE Career Readiness Competencies in your assessment ensures your student staff (lifeguards, sports officials, fitness trainers, etc.) are gaining skills like Critical Thinking, Communication, and Teamwork that translate to real-world skills that employers are looking for.
CAS Standards
The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education is an industry-wide benchmark for student affairs. Use the Self-Assessment Guides (SAGs) to see if your program meets professional requirements.
NIRSA Core Competencies
Every day, professionals across the field help students find belonging, develop leadership skills, improve wellbeing, build community, and connect with their institutions in meaningful ways. They navigate risk, manage resources, lead teams, solve problems, build partnerships, and contribute to student success. The NIRSA Core Competencies Workbook provides insight into what makes someone effective in campus recreation; what skills help professionals grow; and how professionals identify their strengths and develop new capabilities.
NIRSA Institutional Data Set
The benchmark for benchmarking data related to campus recreation. Compare your budget, facility size, and staffing to similar institutions to see where you stand.
Tools for today’s professionals
Even the strongest data, on its own, rarely drives decision-making. To influence stakeholders and demonstrate value, data must be translated into a compelling narrative.
Once you’ve established a clear purpose within the bounds of one (or more) of these frameworks, the next step is choosing the right methods for measuring engagement and telling your story.
There are several tools that can be helpful in translating data sets into actionable, day-to-day assessment practices. Multiple tools can work together to provide a more complete picture of your program’s impact when it comes to skill development, participant experiences, and engagement behaviors.
Student Success Rubrics
Stop guessing if your staff is improving. Use a customized rubric to measure NACE competencies like Professionalism during employee performance reviews.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Keep things simple: Ask your participants, “How likely are you to recommend this program?” It’s the most straightforward way to gauge participant satisfaction.
Importance/Performance Mapping
Don’t waste time measuring things students don’t actually care about. Identify the gap between what students say is important to them and how well your programs, services, or facilities are actually deliver those things.
Participant Tracking
Use your software to help you find the “invisible” students. Who are the students that aren’t coming through the door, and how can we inspire them in the future?
When integrated into a unified dashboard, these tools move you from isolated data points to a holistic understanding of the general student experience.
Transforming data into impact
With so many tools and frameworks, getting started on the path of assessment dashboards can feel overwhelming. But effective assessment doesn’t require doing everything at once.
By grounding your efforts in frameworks, like the NACE Competencies, and benchmarking against robust data sets, your measurements become more than anecdotal. They evolve into evidence-based insights that can be aligned to align decisions around institutional priorities.
Still, numbers alone can never be enough: we work with students and their realities are uniquely human. Data can provide a solid foundation, but the human experience articulated through real experiences are what bring assessment to life. A “Photo Voice” project—where students share images of their favorite Rec spaces—can often be more impactful than a 20-page report.
Ultimately, we believe that when you pair meaningful data with authentic student experiences, you stop tracking attendance and begin demonstrating how students are becoming more prepared, more connected, and more resilient.
Promising Practices
Start small. Pick one competency, one program, and one tool. Measure, learn, and share. Stay tapped into your NIRSA network for insights into how small changes can make big changes.
NIRSA Assessment Committee
Did you know that NIRSA has an Assessment Committee? We are charged with fostering a culture of assessment within NIRSA by facilitating the delivery of educational programs, resources and tools to NIRSA members, as well as highlighting practical examples of using assessment data to inform strategy and decision-making within campus recreation units. Connect with us to learn what we know about moving from data to decisions by joining us or reaching out through NIRSA Connect.
- For more information, please contact NIRSA contact NIRSA Data and Accounting Manager Megan Granholm .
