The Results Scale within Outcomes is a universal setting for each academic year and was developed to provide users with a quick view regarding the performance of a given outcome(s). An institution's scale can have anywhere between 2-5 units for their scale and cannot be changed once results have been entered.
During the implementation process of Outcomes, an institution will need to make a decision as to the labels and number of units for its Results Scale. An institution may make edits to their scale at any point in time, so long as assessments have not been entered for the given academic year (these changes must occur before Copying Outcomes to the new year).
Once decisions have been made, site administrators should communicate these decisions to Anthology Support to be updated. The Results Scale option in Settings is only accessible by Anthology, as only Anthology Support can change your scale.
Results Scale Units
Campuses must select the number of units that will appear on the scale. Campuses will see these units when looking at Assessment Results Data Reports. Campuses can select anywhere from 2-5 units for their scale. The default setting is a four-unit scale. This is an institution-wide setting and is set for the academic year. The Results Scale is locked for the academic year once Assessment data is entered due to issues of data integrity.
Below, please find two different visualizations of a four-point Results Scale.
Results Scale Labels
Campuses must select the labels used to identify the units on the Results Scale. Campuses can customize the labels of the results scale units. The default labels for a four-point scale are Not Met, Partially Met, Met, Exceeded. Below, please find examples of other labeling choices. While labels can be changed at any time, best practice promotes refraining from changing labels during the academic year to avoid user confusion.
Below, please find examples of alternative Results Scale labeling.
- Beginner, Competent, Advanced, Expert
- No Performance, Improvement Needed, Met Expectations, Exceeded Expectations
- Not Met, Met, Exceeded
Pass/Fail Option
Campuses can choose to enable a Pass/Fail scoring option. Pass/Fail scoring will collapse any scale into a two-unit scale along the Scale Midpoint. All units above the Midpoint are aggregated into one unit while all units below the Midpoint area aggregated into a different unit. If Pass/Fail is enabled, it becomes a usable option but is not required. Pass/Fail scoring can be turned on or off at any point in the use of the Outcomes platform.
Figure 2: Before
Figure 3: After
Scale Midpoint
The Scale Midpoint is the demarcation line between categories for the Pass/Fail option. Campuses must choose what units the Scale Midpoint will fall between. In the screenshot below, the visual representation of the Midpoint is highlighted in red.
Figure 4: Scale Midpoint
If campuses are using the Planning platform, in addition to Outcomes, the Results Scale visualization is part of the data that can be pulled into Planning.