Love it or hate it, assessment has become the new reality on college and university campuses. Although measuring student achievement of course outcomes is not an easy task, assessment does not need to be a complex or painful experience. This paper describes the methods used to assess student achievement of the stated course outcomes in…

Students' understandings of the concept of social class before and after taking the Social Science Foundation course (D101) at Great Britain's Open University were investigated in 1980. Among the students' conceptions before the course was that people are middle class or working class according to their job. Other conceptions were that social…

This self-instructional learning packet was designed to introduce instructors to the development and writing of learning packets for their own courses. The packet contains seven learning modules, each providing a rationale, learning objectives, a pre-assessment test, informational text, learning activities, and a self-assessment instrument and…

Students' understandings of the concepts of price control, oligopoly, and power before, during, and after taking a social science foundation course (D101) at Great Britain's Open University were investigated. Students were asked 10 questions on key concepts taught in the course. Three of the questions are addressed: (1) Why doesn't the…

Information and exercises in this two-part learning module are provided to acquaint instructors with the educational theory behind competency-based education (CBE) and to help them apply this theory in the classroom. Part I of the module discusses: (1) the defining characteristics of CBE, in which instructional processes are designed to facilitate…