Assessing General Education Programs

General education is the core of the undergraduate experience. It provides a lasting foundation for lifelong learning, application, and appreciation of the various approaches to understanding individuals, cultures, and the world we live in. First-year experience programs are becoming virtually universal in colleges and universities, and first-year seminars often are integrated into general education programs to promote student retention, engagement, and success. The assessment of these institution-wide efforts is particularly challenging, but many campuses have made substantial progress from which we can learn.
Written for college and university administrators, assessment officers, faculty, and staff who support general education and first-year experience programs, this book is a pragmatic guide for developing, aligning, and assessing general education programs in meaningful, manageable, and sustainable ways. It presents a variety of approaches to help readers understand what other campuses are doing and develop a repertoire of methods so they can make informed decisions about their own programs.
Contents include:
• General education and first-year experience programs
• Steps in assessment planning and implementation
• Assessment in the context of accreditation and learning-centered institutions
• An array of direct and indirect assessment strategies and how to choose among them
• Published tools for assessing general education and first-year experience programs
• Alternative models for assessing general education programs
• Strategies for articulating general education and first-year experience learning outcomes
• Examples of learning outcomes and assessment studies from more than 100 community and 4-year colleges and universities
• Assessing the alignment of the curriculum, pedagogy, grading, and institutional support with learning outcomes
• Using the course certification process to promote a cohesive general education program
• Developing an effective campus infrastructure to support assessment and student success