As some of you might know, every once in a while I get asked to talk to other colleges or universities about my study abroad research. Yesterday I was fielding some questions at one such workshop, when a faculty member who takes students on study abroad trips told a story of her experiences talking to her students about what they had learned during their trip abroad. She talked at length about the students’ description of their own growth but ended her statement by saying, “Of course, I don’t have any data on this.”

I hear that line so often when talking with faculty or student affairs staff about their experiences with students.  And although I’m sure I’ll say this again at some point (and hopefully in a kind and caring way!), I just wanted to quickly say to anyone reading this blog today . . . Data is information.  Sometimes information comes in the form of numbers. Sometimes information comes in the form of comments.  Sometimes information comes in the form of student assignments.  Data does not have to be numbers. In fact, sometimes the worst data out there comes in the form of numbers. So if you have information about students that comes from data you have gathered, then you have data. It might be indicative of something that a broader swath of students experience, or it might just be illustrative of the small group of students that provided that data.  But it’s ALL data.

The subtitle of this blog is “using evidence to improve student learning.”  Evidence comes in all forms, and information that qualifies as evidence must go through a vetting process that doesn’t have to be numerical. So if you have data that you think qualifies as evidence – bring it!  Please don’t hesitate or worse, short-change yourself and your work, by thinking that it only qualifies if it comes in numbers.  That’s just not so.

Make it a good day,

Mark