Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in Higher Education

This book examines important advances and offers a realistic image of the state of the art in student learning outcomes assessment in higher education―a field close to the core of nearly every higher education institution. Producing sound information on what students know and can do is critical to higher education practitioners and future social prosperity. Spanning international, national and institutional developments, the book presents methodological and empirical insights, highlights research challenges, and showcases the enormous progress made in recent years.

The book will be of interest to researchers in education assessment and neighbouring fields, and stakeholders like institutional leaders, teachers and graduate employers looking for better insight on returns, governments searching for information to assist with funding and regulation, and members of the public wanting more clarity about outcomes and public investment. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

Hamish Coates is a Professor of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research and development focuses on improving quality and productivity. He has initiated and led many successful projects, and was Founding International Director of OECD’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO).

Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia is Chair of Business and Economics Education at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. She has published widely on empirical educational research in vocational and higher education. She is a member of many national and international advisory and editorial boards and serves as an expert consultant to ministries, foundations, and international journals.

Hans Anand Pant is a Full Professor and chair of Research Methods in Education at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany. He is also CEO of The German School Academy, an institution for school development and teacher training founded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The focus of his work is on educational reform, innovation transfer, educational large-scale assessment, and validity issues in competence testing.