Practitioners who live in urban centres also experience isolation, simply because networking opportunities have not been established or are limited. One respondent from Winnipeg noted:
We seem to work so much in isolation. We [program coordinators] do meet, but this has only just started this year and we have not addressed the issue of assessment. Basically, we all just seem to do our own "thing" and make our own decisions based on our own knowledge and skill set.
While assessment can be learned through trial and error, assessment is also a socially constructed phenomenon that needs to be learned through dialogue and reflection with colleagues. It should be noted that limited access to resources is not restricted to practitioners living in isolated areas; in fact, many educators in urban centres noted the need for a library of assessment tools.
If you could wave a magic wand, what changes, if any, would you make to assessment practices in your program? This question generated interest, resulting in feedback from 335 respondents. Data analysis revealed that change revolved around two key areas: assessment processes and products, and human and material resources (see Figure 6). Although these two areas are presented as separate entities, they are connected, forming a gestalt. For example, additional human and material resources are usually a prerequisite to changes in assessment processes and improvements in assessment products.
Figure 6.