Most faculty are required to have evaluations done by students in two classes each year using the standard UM - Western student evaluation instrument. Some faculty have students do evaluations in other classes as well using either the standard instrument or another of their choice. As a part of our Tech Prep articulation agreements with secondary schools, competencies for articulated courses are defined and then reviewed on a regular basis. The competencies are written and reviewed by secondary and postsecondary teachers in collaboration with members of local business and industry. Competency gain is measured in all COMS101 sections.
Instrument reliability is completed on the testing instrument.
As a part of the Southwest Montana Tech Prep Consortium, we share a Business Advisory Committee with the Butte College of Technology. We are in the early stages of developing an external advisory committee for the Department. A Computer Science Advisory Committee helped design the Computer Science minor for the BS in Secondary Education at The University of Montana - Western. We have implemented portfolio assessment for our students in many of our classes, including Introduction to Computers, Advanced Microcomputer Applications, Advanced Database Management, Multimedia, Business Information Systems, and Systems Analysis and Design. We are in discussions about requiring a capstone portfolio before a student graduates with a BA in Business and Communications.