Association and system analysts, state and federal policy makers, and the concerned public demand more and better evidence of institutional quality, and campus leaders are eager to find reliable, valid, and practical ways to evaluate student learning outcomes (Measuring Up, 2006). Data to feed this demand come from direct, standardized testing of students and from surveys where students are asked to self-report factual and attitudinal information. The latter often includes questions where students are asked to assess how much they have learned or developed in specific areas of content or skill. Recent research, described in the previous chapters and elsewhere, supplements an established body of evidence that such selfreported gains should not stand in as proxies for more direct measures of learning and developmental growth (Gonyea, 2005). Yet at the same time, many assessment professionals and institutional researchers collect selfreported outcomes as part of their campus evaluation plans, and researchers in higher education have looked to these questions as a form of outcomes data for their scholarly studies. So when we study students' selfassessments of learning and development, are we seeing only faces in the clouds? Or are there valid reasons to ask students such questions? If so, what role should self-reported gains play in higher education assessment?
Purpose
With the popularity of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and other instruments collecting self-assessments of learning by students, it is important for higher education researchers and assessment 99 Correlations between self-reported learning gains and direct, longitudinal measures that ostensibly correspond in content area are generally inadequate. This chapter clarifies that self-reported measures of learning are more properly used and interpreted as evidence of students' perceived learning and affective outcomes. In this context, the authors supply evidence that social desirability bias in such self-assessments does not constitute a significant concern. Recommendations for use of self-reported gains in research and institutional assessment are discussed.
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH β’ DOI: 10.1002/ir 100 VALIDITY AND LIMITATIONS OF COLLEGE STUDENT SELF-REPORT DATA professionals to understand the meaning of these items, how they can be applied and interpreted, and whether or not the results can be trusted to convey what the survey providers say they do. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to (1) present NSSE' s findings from internal studies about the quality of the self-reported gains items, (2) clarify the role of selfreported gains in various knowledge and skill areas, and (3) recommend appropriate uses and interpretations of college student self-reported gains.