Students are required to do a senior project which requires integration of much of what they have learned in the program. The students do the project for a grade. A sample of these is submitted to the outcome assessment committee which prepares a narrative report detailing general strengths and weaknesses identified in these papers and recommendations for curriculum and program changes which arise from this evaluation. One way to assess student outcomes is to require students to demonstrate skills in certain areas. Assessment of Attitudes and Beliefs and Values.
Most programs have goals beyond the subject matter or content related goals.
Sometimes, attitude shift data can be useful in assessing these outcomes although it has relatively little diagnostic specificity. Some educational goals are changes in behavior. Americans are so used to polls, that most of them will be glad to tell you what they do and how often they do it. Unfortunately, this type of outcome often has less diagnostic specificity. This can be very time consuming.