Assessing Complex General Education Student Learning Outcomes New Directions for Institutional Research, Number 149

One of the greatest challenges in assessing student learning in general education programs is addressing the tension between selecting easy-to-measure learning outcomes that have little value or bearing on our institutions' goals and selecting meaningful and substantial learning outcomes that are complex and difficult to assess. Many institutions that have recently replaced their cafeteria-style general education programs with general education programs that focus on complex student learning outcomes find themselves at a loss in attempting to gather evidence on student achievement of these outcomes for internal improvement and external accountability purposes.