First, assessment is one of the key issues facing colleges and universities today. It can measure student success. It can also serve indirectly as an evaluation tool for faculty instructional effectiveness. Panelists emphasized the importance of collaboration and teamwork among faculty members in the process. Second, students turn in their senior portfolios to professors and outside evaluators for written comments.
Students also present portfolios in a variety of new ways.
They can post electronic portfolios to the World Wide Web. They can give oral presentations to other students on campus, to outside evaluators, and to professionals in the industry. Third, there are new ways to evaluate students' oral communication competency. Instructors could use discipline-specific evaluation tools to assess students' public speaking skills. Hence, the criteria for an effective speech by a student of computer science would be different from those for an effective speech by a student of economics.