What is Assessment?

Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public:

• Setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality.
• Systematically gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards.
• Using the resulting information to document, explain and improve performance.

  (A)ssessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education" (Angelo).

The Communication Studies Assessment Plan represented here is a first step in the ongoing process of assessment. It provides a beginning for what we recognize as a continuous and modifiable system for identifying the desired outcomes of our programs and for identifying ways to improve our success in meeting those outcomes. The unit of analysis for assessment is the academic program, not the student.

Goals of the Assessment Program

Our overall goal is to improve our academic programs through an ongoing process of self-adjustment. Our specific goals are to:

1. Use the assessment process to promote dialog among faculty.
2. Identify and refine the desired student outcomes of our programs.
3. Develop data about the degree to which our programs are achieving these outcomes.
4. Develop data that we can use to adapt and improve our programs to achieve desired outcomes.
5. Develop data we can use to implement appropriate innovations in pedagogy.
6. Develop data we can use to provide required assessment reports to the University.

Composition of Major Area Committees and Committee Responsibilities

Communication Studies has a total of eleven majors, concentrations and options. For each of these areas, a separate assessment committee of at least three faculty members shall be constituted. At least two members of each committee shall be faculty who teach in that area and one member shall be a faculty member who teaches in another area. Each faculty member will be expected to serve on at least one area assessment committee. Members from outside the Department or University may be included if the faculty members of the area assessment committee feel that is appropriate. In such cases the committee will not require a Department faculty member from another area.

In Communication Studies major areas, each area assessment committee will be responsible for assessing both the core outcomes and the area-specific outcomes that are currently adopted. Initial core and area outcomes are attached, but it is understood that these outcomes may be refined as the assessment process warrants. Journalism and Government/Journalism majors will be assessed using the separate core and area outcomes for those majors. These outcomes may also be refined as needed.

Initial Program Assessment Measures

Initially program assessment will employ two measures: a survey of graduating seniors and an assessment of a sample of student portfolios. The Department Assessment Committee will prepare the graduating senior survey(s) with input from each area assessment committee.

The Assessment Process

Beginning in the Fall, 2000, semester, incoming majors in Communication Studies and Journalism will be required to keep a portfolio of their work. Portfolios might include papers, projects, products from classes or internships and creative works. Portfolio requirements will be developed by each area assessment committee and may include specific requirements from major core and area core classes. For example, all Communication Studies majors may be required to include papers from ComS 100B while a Mass Communication student may also be required to include a paper from ComS 150. Students in Digital Video might logically be required to include one or more video productions. Developing portfolio requirements will be the first order of business for each area assessment committee, and that will need to occur in the Spring, 2000, semester.

The first full assessment cycle will occur during the Spring, 2002, semester. At the end of that semester a random sample of seniors graduating in each area will be required to provide their portfolios to the area assessment committee. The Department will also administer the graduating senior survey to all graduating seniors. The area committees will convene in the Fall, 2002, semester to assess the degree to which the evidence from the portfolios and surveys demonstrates that area students have achieved the core and area outcomes. Area committees will develop preliminary assessment standards for the first evaluation cycle. These standards may be refined in succeeding cycles based on the experience of the first cycle.

Area Assessment Committee Reports

Each area committee will provide a report to the Department Assessment Committee that answers the following questions:

1. In what areas did the evidence suggest that students typically meet or exceed the assessment standard?
2. In what areas did the evidence suggest that students typically fail to meet the assessment standard?
3. What should be done in the areas of curriculum, teaching practices, resources or use of technology to increase the percentage of students who meet or exceed area standards?
4. What outcomes does the area committee feel might be refined or added to those in effect during this cycle?

The Department Assessment Committee will prepare a summary of these reports which will be forwarded to the Chair and to appropriate committees. For example, for areas where assessment reveals that curriculum changes might improve outcome attainment, findings will be reported to the Curriculum Committee for consideration of curricular changes to improve programs and increase student achievement of objectives.

While the initial plan will involve the use of senior surveys and portfolios, it is not meant to preclude other means of assessment. Faculty are encouraged to use "flashlight" assessment techniques or other means to assess the degree to which their students are achieving the desired outcomes for a particular class.

The assessment outcomes of our programs are complex, dynamic and not easily reducible to observable phenomena. Our overall desired outcome is the development of educated persons who have the ability to function as competent citizens and as competent workers in their chosen fields. For the purposes of this assessment plan's initial stage of implementation, the following outcomes are proposed. It is important to recognize that the proposed outcomes are limited in scope and reflect only part of the Department's overall desired outcomes. They are meant as a beginning, not as a final or fixed list.

Proposed Core Assessment Outcomes for Communication Studies Majors

Students graduating in Communication Studies should be able to:

1. Construct well reasoned arguments, avoiding fallacious reasoning.
2. Competently evaluate communication research.
3. Design and present effective messages.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Journalism Majors

Students graduating in Journalism should be able to:

1. Design and present effective messages.
2. Research, interview, write, and edit for all journalism formats.
3. Demonstrate a working knowledge of ethical and professional standards for journalists.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Criticism and Public Communication Option

Students graduating in the Critical and Public Communication emphasis should be able to:

1. Identify and evaluate rhetorical elements in public messages (visual, oral and written)
2. Demonstrate knowledge of basic rhetorical and critical perspectives from classical and modern traditions.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Interpersonal/Small Group Option

Students graduating in the Interpersonal/Small Group communication emphasis should be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the major theories of interpersonal and small group communication.
2. Identify communication skills needed to effectively work with others individually and in group settings.
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the elements of confirming and empathetic communication.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Intercultural and International Communication Option

Intercultural communication provides tools for successfully navigating an increasingly diverse society: messages across and between national boundaries. Students graduating from the Intercultural and International Communication emphasis should be able to:

1. Recognize and explain commonly accepted taxonomies for describing cultural variability and communication styles.
2. Develop an understanding of the basic skills for communicating with people from different cultures and recognize barriers to effective intercultural competencies.
3. Understand the patterns of information exchange among major global regions and the role of governments.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Public Relations Option

Students graduating in the Public Relations emphasis should be able to:

1. Analyze audiences and design effective messages for target audiences and secondary audiences.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of systems theory as it applies to public relations practitioners in their roles as boundary managers.
3. Demonstrate competency in communication skills appropriate to the practice of public relations (writing, interpersonal and presentational).

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Mass Communication Option

Students graduating in the Mass Communication emphasis should be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the history of systems of American mass communication.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the contributions from social scientific research that explain the historical progression of mass communication theory, patterns of media use, and their consequences.
3. Demonstrate knowledge of the critical analyses of the social and ideological functions of mass communication relative to political and economic structures.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for the New Media Option

Students graduating in the New Media Option should be able to:

1. Discuss the social, political, economic and technical implications of new communication media.
2. Identify major issues associated with adoption of new communication media.
3. Explain the impacts of new media on interpersonal, organizational and mass communication.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Organizational Communication Concentration

Students graduating with a concentration in Organizational Communication should be able to:

1. Comprehend and explain theories of organizational communication
2. Conduct appropriate research in order to analyze communication in organizational settings.
3. Comprehend and demonstrate principles of effective leadership, group process and communication networks in organizations.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Digital Video Option

Students graduating in the Digital Video concentration should be able to:

1. Comprehend and explain video production process and the aesthetic, writing and creative talents needed for the process.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the communication processes that use video aesthetics and production skills to achieve communication objectives.

Proposed Assessment Outcomes for Multimedia Option

Students graduating in the Multimedia concentration should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a professional level of competency at writing, creating content and authoring multimedia products.
2. Demonstrate understanding of the communication processes that employ technical skills and aesthetic talents to achieve communication objectives.