There are many techniques that may be used to assess student learning outcomes. In a number of cases, these assessment techniques may be embedded in course assignments or activities as measures of students' achievement of program goals as well as their attainment of the college's general education goals. For more information, please e-mail George Gabriel, Coordinator of Academic Assessment at ggabriel@nvcc.edu or call him at 703-323-3129.

Internships, Field experiences, Clinical Evaluations
Internships, field, or clinical experiences are also ideal for assessing many program or major and general education goals. When these occur at the end of the program or major, they often serve as capstone experiences. It is especially useful to have external experts assess the performance of your students.

Authentic Assessment
In some courses, opportunities can be found to ask students to engage in a simulation of a real-life problem that they must solve using the knowledge and skills they have gained in the course. A single project can be structured to assess both mastery of course content and attainment of program or major goals as well as certain general education goals such as communication skills, life-long learning skills, critical thinking skills, and social and education values. For example, students might be asked to assume the role of a city council member who must make a decision concerning a controversial issue. Students might then be asked to research both sides of the issue and to deliver a persuasive peech or to write an action plan.

Ill-defined or Ill-structured problems
An ill-defined problem is one that is not highly structured and cannot be resolved with a high degree of certainty.Experts may disagree about the best solution. Examples:determining what really happened at Waco or solving the nuclear waste storage problem or predicting the effect of global warming or deciding if there is such a thing as global warming.Dealing with ill-defined problems requires the integration of many skills, abilities, areas of knowledge.