This article provides an overview of the unique model and comprehensive approach to tracking, enhancing, and assessing students' global learning outcomes at the University of Pittsburgh's University Center for International Studies (UCIS). In the conclusion, the authors provide a discussion of strengths and challenges of this model that will be…

Classroom assessment techniques (CATs) provide instructors with the opportunity to get feedback about what students are learning, where they need help, and provide instructors with an important tool to tailor course design and student learning.

Assessment of student learning is the systematic gathering of information about student learning and the factors that affect learning, undertaken with the resources, time and expertise available, for the purpose of improving learning. In assessment, there are no conclusions, just ongoing questions that the data raise about learning and the process…

Assessing learning in higher education can be a very difficult task. There are some differences, however, when assessing for accountability to others and assessing for transformation. These distinctions are embedded in our historical understanding of teaching and learning. This article describes how over time, higher education has viewed…

Assessing general education is not that different from assessing any other type of academic program, but there are some distinctions that make it even more challenging than other types of assessment. This article addresses methods for working with nondepartmentally based and interdisciplinary areas within general education, providing some examples…

The new learning paradigm brings with it the need for a change in assessment practices as well. In this chapter, one of the assessment practices that is most consistent with this paradigm, authentic assessment, is discussed.

Warns that the effectiveness of on-line assessment can be mitigated by several factors: unrealistic appraisal of the potential of on-line education, enforcement of a code of conduct, computer and telecommunication skills bias, and other limitations of on-line media. (EV)

Asserts that professors can make effective use of electronic folios (e-folios) to enhance their students' learning and facilitate their own process of responding to student work. Maintains that e-folios have unique navigational advantages, are generally easier to maintain and share than traditional portfolios, and encourage students to develop…

Portfolios provide an opportunity for college students to participate actively in learning by selecting materials and engaging in self-assessment. Development of a portfolio should take into account its structure, the kind of evidence it will contain, when and how the instructor and student will assess the work, and what will happen to it at the…

College-level student inquiry projects are not easy to evaluate within the parameters of the academic grading system. One form of rubric-guided assessment has specific advantages in addressing both performance and product by allowing weighting of criteria, flexibility of criteria and standards based on the project, defining the major aspects of…

Student portfolios are an alternative authentic assessment method that invites active student learning and provides an opportunity for instructors to tailor assessment strategies based on student-learning outcomes.

Sometimes a radical shift in assessment procedures may uncover a whole new set of objectives that neither the students nor the instructor expected. Such an experience is described in the context of freshman mathematics. (Contains 1 table.)

Some of the special challenges associated with evaluation and grading in the large class are discussed. Suggestions for evaluation methods include seeking clarity, reducing the stress of test administration, giving feedback, guarding against errors in record keeping, and returning exams efficiently and with respect. (MLW)

Each of the many methods or approaches to assessing student learning is based on a clear understanding of validity, reliability, course objectives, the advantages and disadvantages of different evaluation formats, and the ways assessment data will be used to improve instruction. (Author/MSE)

There are now established methods and models to assess critical thinking in any discipline. The approach selected will depend on how critical thinking is defined, whether national norms are needed, and how the results will be used. (Author)