Assessing media education is a formidable task because both assessment and media education are complex and controversial concepts. Assessment, which can take place at the individual student, class, sequence, program, department or unit, and university levels, is questioned in terms of reliability, validity, relevance, and cost. Media education, which has been challenged at a number of schools, finds faculty and administrators in the midst of soul-searching about how to clearly articulate its missions and purposes to a broader audience. Departments are under increasing national, state, and institutional pressure to get assessment procedures carried out quickly, but there is an obvious danger in rushing to implement assessment strategies before establishing what is essential in media education. In communication education in general, the "what" of assessment is often discussed in terms of skills, attitudes, affect, values, and knowledge. People assess students to determine what they know, think, feel, value, and can do. Here it is suggested that one of the places to start defining what students should learn from their media education is by identifying outcomes. Outcomes can be assessed in a variety of ways, but first they need to be developed and clearly articulated.

The chapters in this component of Assessing Media Education are valuable for those who need to know how to develop an assessment plan.

The chapters included in this component of Assessing Media Education are intended for those who have already developed an assessment plan and identified key student learning outcomes, and who need more information on how to measure the outcomes both indirectly and directly.

Designed as a handbook, this text provides media, speech (public speaking, interpersonal, small group, and organizational communication), and theatre educators with both the theoretical and practical ammunition to fight the assessment battles on their campuses. The philosophical implications of accountability are balanced with concrete, specific, and usable assessment strategies. Stressing student, faculty, course, program, department, and institutional assessment, this book's aim is to provide, in one place, information that will help diverse and complex communication programs face the growing challenges in assessment. The book is divided into three sections: background and foundational information for assessment; broad assessment strategies that apply to a variety of media, "speech," and theatre courses and programs; and context-specific assessment strategies. While covering a host of topics, it: * provides an overview of assessment and suggests how it might impact communication education, * discusses the elements of program assessment and how linkage of mission statements with outcomes can lead to strong, innovative programs, * compares and contrasts regional association requirements and presents a specific how-to strategy for writing outcome statements, * discusses teaching evaluation and argues that we need to identify the "what" of teaching before we try to measure the "how," * looks at creative ways for formative and summative course evaluation that starts with the creation of an explicit syllabus, * discusses the use of capstone courses as a way of evaluating not only their major but also how students have integrated their "total" educational experience, * suggests the variety of ways that interpersonal communication can be assessed and calls for future research that stresses the "knowledge" component of learning, * reports on a strategy for developing small group communication assessment measures, and * provides media, speech, and theatre faculty and administrators with the background, understanding and tools to build stonger programs and develop better courses and educational experiences for their students.

This component of Assessing Media Education is intended for those who would like to know how other schools have grappled with implementing assessment initiatives, and who have used assessment to improve their programs.

This component of Assessing Media Education is intended for those who would like to know how other schools have grappled with implementing assessment initiatives, and who have used assessment to improve their programs.