Thursday, November 15, 2007
On Oct. 29, the University Senate announced the possibility of learner outcome assessments as a requirement for future graduates. The Senate elected a task force that will conduct research regarding the variety of learner outcome programs.
The research will last until the task force will make their recommendation back to the University Senate in December 2008. Learner outcome assessments would require outgoing students to complete either an interview or test that would provide information regarding the skills that have been developed as undergraduates.
Tests would provide the University with the answer of whether graduates are prepared to venture out into the workforce and adulthood.
However, for this test to be beneficial to all those involved, it needs to be done correctly. In order to give all students a fair assessment, no one test should be issued to every undergraduate and different majors should entail different outcome assessments.
For example, it seems unreasonable that an engineering major and a history major should be expected to take the same test, given that their courses are different. They each learn different things for different purposes, requiring different tests for different concentrations. How to issue these tests will be part of the work and research that the elected task force will conduct and complete.
Not only could the tests be beneficial to the University on assessing students knowledge and skills developed, they could also provide faculty and staff with a way to assess their own methods. Our skills development directly correlates to the information we are receiving.
Upon exit assessment, if a student does not fit the profile of a capable adult, according the University, along with the student and their studying habits, perhaps one will begin to look to other areas that might need improvement to help future students reach that profile. We as students will succeed to the standard in which we set for ourselves. However without the tools and the resources to reach those standards, our success could be halted.
The possibility of such tests is still years off, but beginning the process now, which is in part practiced by various departments, allows the University that much more of an advantage in perfecting the process.
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