ONLINE OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT: USING ONLINE ASSESSMENT SOFTWARE FOR FOR OUTCOMES-BASED ASSESSMENT OF PROGRAMS AND STUDENTS

As more universities move toward Outcomes-based curriculum, the challenges of how to assess both academic programs and students must be addressed. Programs such as Blackboard's Outcomes software offer one approach to assessing program goals and course outcomes through the use of assessment rubrics. These programs can also be useful for assessing students as well, specially in writing and composition programs, where the traditional model of subjective content-based grading poses a unique problem to be solved in the shift over to more objective, outcomes based assessment of student learning. Online assessment can address this issue and provides a unique solution for providing rubric-based, objective grading of students and assessment of how well academic programs are meeting their goals.