Drs. Amy Gaffney and Jason Helms have begun their efforts to organize a large-scale assessment of student work from the C&C I and C&C II courses. Both courses work together to make up Outcome #2 in the UK Core program. Outcome #2 is jointly taught by faculty and lecturers from the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Communication & Information Studies.

    Drs. Gaffney and Helms seek more detailed information about student performances in these courses and are prepared to evaluate work from 400 students in order to analyze the progress made from entry to exit in the outcome. Using a skill-based rubric written by a group of faculty associated with the courses, the researchers will seek to find the strengths and weaknesses of the student performance in the classes. Dr. Gaffney explained that this research will not only be used to make improvements in the program but she has also received permission to publish her research and assessment processes.

    Large-scale assessment, such as this, is difficult to manage. A similar assessment was completed last summer but the process was cumbersome and time intensive. Using the Bb Outcomes system to gather student work and package it in such a way so that rubric results could be easily gathered will save Drs. Gaffney and Helm and their assistants from many hours of tedious work.