Among faculty, assessment is frequently discussed as an added burden that does little to improve student learning, existing to appease administrators and accreditors. In fact, at one of the author's institutions, a faculty listserv post argued that assessment was a corporate and political move to standardize all education and destroy faculty autonomy. That said, Kuh, Jankowski, Ikenberry, and Kinzie (2014) argue, based on results from a national survey, that assessment efforts have moved from work imposed by government or accrediting agencies to collective faculty effort willingly engaged in, in order to improve student learning. They suggest: "Carrying out this important work [assessment] is no longer primarily an act of compliance but-more appropriately and promisingly-is driven by a balance of compliance and institutional desire to improve". These competing narratives indicate assessment efforts still can be contentious, but this does not mean assessment efforts should be abandoned, especially when focused squarely on student learning. This essay focuses specifically on assessment of the implementation and departmental use of (Learning Outcomes in Communication) LOCs.