Assessing Student Learning in the Disciplines

Because faculty members' thinking is immersed in the discipline(s) they teach, it often makes good sense to begin an assessment initiative at a college or university by focusing on student learning in the discipline, or academic major. This new issue illustrates how assessment initiatives focused in that fashion can be the starting point of a successful institutional assessment program. Methods range from faculty-developed comprehensive exams to computer simulations, from patient-actors to electronic portfolios. Disciplines represented include political science, psychology, sociology, nursing, teacher education, social work, engineering and technology, business, history, urban studies and planning, communications, and fitness/wellness. Click here to view all five installments of Trudy Banta's Assessment Update Collections.