Current Issue

Volume 1 Issue 1 

Editorial Statement

With pride and pleasure, our editorial staff launches the inaugural issue of Assessing Student Learning and Development: A Journal for Higher Education. This open-access, online journal is devoted to publishing original and innovative scholarly work that describes research or practice in the field of assessment of student learning in higher education.  Assessing Student Learning and Development features peer-reviewed articles that address the wide range of assessment topics and practice that comprise this field. This inaugural issue focuses on…

Jessica Jonson and Nancy Mitchell

Insights into the transformative power of an outcomes-based general education program

Focusing on learning outcomes can lead to real general education reform. This synopsis examines lessons learned by our institution about the transformative power of a process focused on outcomes. Effective practices and specific lessons offer help to other institutions in revising or assessing their program’s common learning outcomes for undergraduates.

Adam and Evelyn

Qualitative Tools for Assessing Student Learning

Higher education has responded disproportionately to the demands of accountability by relying almost exclusively on quantitative methods. This paper will demonstrate how academic departments and assessment professionals can use student focus groups to produce meaningful data to guide decision-making regarding curriculum and instruction.

Cain and Abel 

Ensuring Effective Assessment: Examples from Three Administrative Structures

This session compares and contrasts three different administrative models for institution- and program- level assessment. The taxonomy of these models will be discussed in the context of each institution’s mission and culture and highlights how these approaches converge and diverge, yet all serve to understand, confirm and improve student learning.