Assessing Student Groups

Hey J,

What about doing a qualitative assessment such as having each member keep a reflective learning journal either online with a simple tool like Tumblr, or if not online then in some sort of community journal they can share with each other.

My thought is that since they are older they might be more open and excited about sharing their learning from being a group member with others.

Jeanette,

Some of it will depend on your role and whether you are advisor or supervisor of the effort.  One of the big challenges for us is that you can't just direct a path for your students and in the same breath tell them they are in charge. 

If you are the advisor, you can still, however, coach them to put together a series of goals for their own learning experience and then get them to assess how well their experience addressed those goals.

If you are more of a supervisor...much easier. 

Cindy Kane

Thanks Tom and Cindy.

Tom, I'll have to give your idea some thought. I'm not sure I want to impose more "work" on these students.

Cindy, my role is more of a facilitator. It will be interesting to see how this all works out.           

We are implementing a "semesterly" (is that a word? oh well!) student club member survey which will be used to guage a variety of learning outcomes as well as satisfaction.  You may want to consider a short survey now and then at the end of the term to see where things are headed.