This past year there has been an informal, grass-roots initiative on the part of a group of faculty who saw the need to discuss certain broad student learning outcomes in a more focused, interdisciplinary way. As a result, five “outcome centers” have formed: communication, ethics, problem-solving/critical thinking, creativity, and visual aesthetics.
The October 15 meeting of the Communication Outcome Center at 4:00 in 2030 Morrill Hall will feature a presentation by Tom Brumm, Associate Professor in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, who will demonstrate OPAL (Online Performance and Learning), a custom software package that ABE is using to assess student competencies.
Here are some background materials about ABE competency assessment and OPAL (PDF documents):
- Paper describing the development of the competencies: Assessing and developing program outcome through workplace competencies
- Paper describing the outcomes assessment process in ABE, with a little bit on our use of portfolios: Competency-based outcomes assessment for ag engineering programs
- Definitions and key actions for the 15 competencies currently used in ABE: ISU Workplace Competences
- How we use behavioral-based interviewing: Reflections on Competency Demonstration
If you have questions about the Communication Outcome Center, contact Don Payne, donpayne@iastate.edu (Director, ISUComm) or Sue Ravenscroft, sueraven@iastate.edu (Professor, Accounting).