Assessing Learning in Interactive Courses
Abstract
The authors argue that a new paradigm for assessment, a learning paradigm, must be constructed to measure the success of new kinds of educational practices. They first review the literature that explores possible ways of gauging the effectiveness of skill-based courses and then present a case study of public administration graduate students in a public policy analysis course. Using two survey instruments, the Instruction Model-Learning Model Questionnaire (IMLMQ) and the Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness (SETE), they compared students' responses to the course when taught with traditional methods and with interactive methods. The results suggest that neither instrument effectively measures the kinds of learning promoted under the new paradigm. The authors call for new guidelines for articulating learning objectives so that achievement is apparent and measurable and for assessing the effectiveness of interactive courses.
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