Using an export in the field from outside your program, usually from a similar program at another institution to conduct, evaluate, or supplement assessment of your students. Information can be obtained from external evaluators using many methods including surveys, interviews, etc.

Advantages

• Increases impartiality, third party objectively (external validity)
• Feedback useful for both student and program evaluation. With a knowledgeable examiner it provides an opportunity for a valuable program consultation
• May serve to stimulate other collaborative efforts between department/institutions
• Incorporate external stakeholders and communities
• Students may disclose to an outsider what they might not otherwise share
• Outsiders can see attributes to which insiders have grown accustomed
• Evaluators may have skills, knowledge, or resources not otherwise available
• Useful in conducting goal-free evaluation (without prior expectations)

Disadvantages

• Always some risk of a misfit between examiner's expertise and/or expectations and program outcomes
• For individualized evaluations and/or large programs, can be very costly and time consuming
• Volunteers may become "donor weary"

Way to Reduce Disadvantages

• Share program philosophy and objectives and agree on assessment criteria before the assessment
• Form reciprocal external examiner "consortia" among similar programs to minimize costs, swapping external evaluations back and forth
• Limit external examiner process to program areas where externality may be most helpful

Bottom Lines

Best used as a supplement to your own assessment methods to enhance external validity, but not as the primary assessment option. Other benefits can be accrued from the cross-fertilization that often results from using external examiners

Bibliographic References

Fitzpatrick, Jody L. and Michael Morris, Eds., Current and Emerging Ethical Challenges in Evaluation , San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999.