Designing Effective Assessment

Fifteen years ago Trudy Banta and her colleagues surveyed the national landscape for the campus examples that were published in the classic work Assessment in Practice. Since then, significant advances have occurred, including the use of technology to organize and manage the assessment process and increased reliance on assessment findings to make key decisions aimed at enhancing student learning. Trudy Banta, Elizabeth Jones, and Karen Black offer 49 detailed current examples of good practice in planning, implementing, and sustaining assessment that are practical and ready to apply in new settings. This important resource can help educators put in place an effective process for determining what works and which improvements will have the most impact in improving curriculum, methods of instruction, and student services on college and university campuses.

Trudy W. Banta has written or edited 15 published volumes on assessment, contributed 26 chapter to other published works, and written more than 200 articles and reports on the topic.?She is the founding editor of award-winning Assessment Update, a bimonthly Jossy-Bass periodical published since 1989. The?recipient of seven national awards for her work,?Banta has consulted with faculty and administrators in 46 states and numerous countries?on the topic of outcomes assessment and has developed, coordinated, and given invited addresses at numerous national and international conferences.

Elizabeth A. Jones is professor of higher education leadership at West Virginia University. She has conducted assessment research supported by NPEC that resulted in the publication of two books and served as the principal investigator of a general education assessment project supported by FIPSE. Jones has published numerous articles pertaining to assessment and has presented at national conferences.

Karen E. Black directs the program review process for Indiana-University Purdue University Indianapolis, serves on numerous campus committees including the Program Review and Assessment Committee, teaches for the Organizational Leadership department, and works closely with the North Central Association accreditation on issues for the campus. Black coauthored Assessment in Practice (Jossey-Bass, 1996), serves as the managing?editor of Assessment Update, and?has written several articles on assessment in higher education.