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Communication Assessment

Communication assessment is the process communication educators use to determine whether their students have learned what they intend for them to learn. Assessment uses basic research techniques in order to collect data about student learning. Federal mandates require that colleges and universities engage in assessment. There are several elements central to assessment including learning goals, how assessment is conducted, measures of assessment, interpreting assessment, and using assessment data to improve student learning. This entry first looks into two reasons why assessment is important: obtaining accreditation and establishing learning goals. Next, various methods of conducting, measuring, and interpreting communication assessment are reviewed. The entry concludes with an examination of how communication assessments can enhance student learning.

Accreditation

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) requires that assessment be conducted at colleges and universities to attain accreditation. Accreditation is a process by which the quality of colleges and universities is evaluated by their peers using predetermined standards. The CHEA requires that institutions identify learning goals essential to general education and individual disciplines, develop measures to assess those goals, measure learning for each goal, and then use that data to improve student learning.

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation

The CHEA comprises several organizations that accredit institutions of higher education in the United States. There are regional, faith-based, career-related, and programmatic accrediting organizations. Most degree-granting institutions are accredited by one of the regional organizations: Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges/Western Association of Schools and Colleges (AACJC-WASC), Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), Higher Learning Commission (HLC), New England Association of Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (NEASC-CIHE), Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)/Commission on Colleges, and WASC Senior College and University Commission (WASC-SCUC).

Each of these accrediting organizations requires assessment to be conducted at the institution in order to be accredited. Assessment is usually required for general education as well as for each program. Evidence must be supplied to the accrediting organization that demonstrates consistent attention to assessment across the college or university. These assessments must be tied to learning goals established by the institution. Learning goals must be explicit and a measure for each goal must be identified.

Learning Goals

Learning goals can be established by the individual institution and individual programs of study. Establishing learning goals is best determined through faculty discussions. This process does take time, but it is important for faculty to thoroughly discuss all possible goals they have for student learning and come to an agreement rather than for learning goals to be established from the top-down. One source of information that programs in communication can use to establish their goals is the National Communication Association (NCA), which endorses learning goals central to the education of any communication student.

The National Communication Association

The NCA has a number of learning goals established for various types of classes that are central to the discipline of communication, including the basic communication course. The reports NCA provides about learning goals are a starting point for programs of communication to determine their own learning goals. What follows are two types of reports that NCA produced in 2013.

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