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Launching E‐Portfolios: An Organic Process Call for Contributions Editor's Notes: Envisioning Learning Promoting Student Affairs Buy‐in for Assessment: Lessons Learned Working at Assessment Making the Case for Formative Assessment: How it Improves Student Engagement and Faculty Summative Course Evaluations From the States Assessment on Steroids: Colombia's National Testing Program     

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Expanding Assessment Perspectives: The Importance of Student Leadership in Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Call for Contributions Empowering Faculty and Students with Assessment Data Including Faculty in Accreditation Preparation: Boon or Bane? Relating Students' Grades and Measures of Specific Outcomes Assessment Measures: The AAC&U VALUE Rubrics Community College Strategies: Creating Change and Buy‐In for Assessment through Faculty Learning Communities     

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“Just Right” Outcomes Assessment: A Fable for Higher Education Call for Contributions Editor's Notes: Helping Faculty Members Learn Focus on the Bottom‐Line: Assessing Business Writing Including Students in Student Assessment Using Curriculum‐Embedded Assessments of Student Learning: Establishing a Model for Internal Benchmarking Assessment Measures: ExamSoft® Examination Management     

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ARTICLES Assessment Trends: A Ten‐Year Perspective on the Uses of a General Education Assessment Jana M. Hanson and Lavonne Mohn Editor's Notes Trudy W. Banta Assessment on a Budget: Overcoming Challenges of Time and Money Cynthia Tweedell Junior Faculty Members' Involvement in University Assessment Min Liu Beyond the Grade: Developing Opportunities for Course‐Embedded Assessment Jeff King COLUMN From the States: Regional Accreditation Redux Peter T. Ewell FEATURE Recommended Reading Chris Mayer     

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ARTICLES A Model for Integrating Assessment Across an Undergraduate Political Science Major Shala Mills, Bryan Bennett, C. B. Crawford, Lawrence Gould Editor's Notes Trudy W. Banta What Is a Rubric? Merilee Griffin The Internal Consultant Model for Assessment Kristi L. Lewis, Peter J. Swerdzewski The Art of Making Assessment Anti‐Venom: Injecting Assessment in Small Doses to Create a Faculty Culture of Assessment Philip I. Kramer COLUMN Assessment Measures Gary R. Pike     

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ARTICLES Postsecondary Assessment: Faculty Attitudes and Levels of Engagement Tara Eisenhauer Ebersole Editor's Notes Trudy W. Banta Where Learning and Assessment Meet Mark W. Lencho, Michael J. Longrie, Stephen J. Friedman The Degree Specification Project: A Case Study in Departmental Outcomes Assessment Daniel A. Weinstein, Beverly Schneller COLUMN Community College Strategies Richard Haney, Debralee McClellan F EATURE Resources Susan Kahn     

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Assessment Annotations: A Simple and (Almost) Painless Way to Document Assessment of Student Learning Editor's Notes: Program Review as a Catalyst for Change Mining Faculty Complaints for Valuable Assessment Clues Practical Tips for Assessment in Practice An Improvement Strategy for General Education     

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ARTICLES A Snapshot of Chemistry Faculty Members' Awareness of Departmental Assessment Efforts Mary Elizabeth Emenike, Jacob D. Schroeder, Kristen L. Murphy, Thomas Holme Engaging Colleagues' Final Examinations: Learning From a Hong Kong Model to Promote Mindful Practice Bradley A. Gangnon, Constance C. Milbourne Any Questions? Mary Lou D'Allegro Connecting Assessment to Resource Allocation: A Demonstration Project at Queens University of Charlotte Jamie B. Slater, Timothy E. Burson, John A. McArthur COLUMN Assessment Measures Gary R. Pike     

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Effective Leadership Assessment: A 360‐Degree Process Call for Contributions Editor's Notes: Accentuating the Positive in Our Work The Broadcast Education Association's Model Rubrics Project: Building Consensus One Rubric at a Time Building a Better Course‐Evaluation Process Assessing Deep Learning: Using a Portfolio to Evaluate Gains in Critical Inquiry among First‐Year Students The Role of an Institution‐Level Assessment Committee in Faculty Professional Development Initiatives First‐Year Composition and Fall‐to‐Fall Retention     

Applying the ECTS System to the Childhood Education Teaching Degree in Andalusia

This article presents the research conducted as part of a Pilot Experiment regarding the application of the ECTS to the Childhood Education Teaching Degree taught at the University of Cordoba (Spain). It analyses the Experiment, which was carried out in the Education Faculty over the course of three academic years (2004/05, 2005/06 and 2006/07). The research questions were: (1) How much do the students taking part in the Pilot Experiment know about the different competences? (2) How much time do the students need to prepare each subject? and (3) What are the methodological skills used by lecturers as a means of improving autonomous learning? Several tools were used: Initial Student Assessment for the ECTS Pilot Experiment in Childhood Education, and three Likert Scales: a) Competence Assessment Scale for UCO's Childhood Education Teaching Degree, b) Competence Achievement Assessment Scale for UCO's Childhood Education Teaching Degree, c) Assessment Scale for Subject Methodology in relation to the Application of ECTS and the organisation of Focus Groups. The most important conclusions were: (1) The specific professional competences established in the educational profile of this degree course are very highly rated by the students; (2) According to the students, the workload for certain subjects, in terms of the number of hours devoted to them, is excessively high and not proportional to the number of credits they account for, and (3) There has been an acceptable level of exchange among teaching staff regarding the instruments and methodological strategies used to promote students' autonomous work.     

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Can Assessment Loops Be Closed? A Pop‐Culture–Inspired Assessment of Intercultural Awareness: Reflections from Health Care Education How a Research Faculty Becomes Interested in Assessment A Pedagogical Approach to Assessment Assessment Measures: Developing Surveys of Student Engagement     

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SLO‐Based Grading Makes Assessment an Integral Part of Teaching Call for Contributions Editor's Notes: Assessing Assessment's ROI Assessment Plans: A Tool for Sanity Lessons from Multiple Institutional Assessment Measures of Specific Student Learning Outcomes and Satisfaction Assessment Measures: The ACT Engage Survey Community College Strategies: Student Learning Assessment: A Program‐Level Model     

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Introduction Levels of Institutionalization Overview of the Volume Intended Audience The Four Domains of Scholarship: Toward a Rethinking of Scholarly Role Performance Perspectives on Scholarship Before Boyer Contemporary Perspectives on Boyer: Concurrence and Criticism Assessment of Faculty Scholarship in Boyer's Four Domains The Scholarship of Application Service to the External Environment Service to the Institution The Function of the Scholarship of Application in the Scholarship Action System Faculty Engagement in the Scholarship of Application The Scholarship of Discovery The Function of the Scholarship of Discovery in the Scholarship Action System Faculty Engagement in the Scholarship of Discovery The Scholarship of Integration What Is the Scholarship of Integration? The Function of the Scholarship of Integration in the Scholarship Action System Faculty Engagement in the Scholarship of Integration The Scholarship of Teaching Perspectives on the Scholarship of Teaching The Teaching Portfolio Post-Boyer Perspectives The Function of the Scholarship of Teaching in the Scholarship Action System Faculty Engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching Factors Affecting the Institutionalization of a Broader Definition of Scholarship Factors Affecting Structural Level Institutionalization Factors Affecting Procedural Level Institutionalization Factors Affecting Incorporation Level Institutionalization Approaches to Altering the Academic Reward System Essential Attributes of Tenure and Promotion Systems Administrative and Faculty Involvement Criteria for Altering the Assessment of Scholarship Specification of Forms of Scholarship for the Four Domains An Initial Recommendation Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Study and for Institutional Policy and Practice Summary and Discussion of Findings Conclusions Recommendations for Institutional Policy and Practice Recommendations for Further Study Closing Thoughts Appendix A: Faculty Professional Performance Study Appendix B: The Inventory of Scholarship     

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Introduction What's Driving Your Instructional Cost? Faculty Compensation Faculty Productivity Financial Commitment to Tenure Summary Are There Cost Savings in Academic Libraries? Acquisition Costs Technology Impact on Academic Libraries Outsourcing in Academic Libraries Summary Can Plant Operations and Facilities Continue to Be Ignored? Deferred Maintenance Outsourcing Energy Management Summary Is Research a Facilitator or Barrier to Cost Containment? Sponsored Research University-Sponsored Research Direct and Indirect Cost Factors Summary Can University Student Services Remain Viable with an Increasing Cost Structure? Student Aid Administration Student Activities Supplemental Educational Services Summary External Cost Factors: Are States' Policies for Higher Education Institutions Helping or Hindering Cost Containment Opportunities? Assessment and Accountability Performance Funding and Budgeting Restructuring Summary Conclusion and Recommendations Summary of Chapter Issues (Were the Questions Answered?) Final Comments Notes     

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ARTICLES Took Survey. Got Shirt: Using Effective Educational Practices to Maximize NSSE Response Rates Matthew L. Feldmann and Keli Jackson My Own Worst Enemy: Five Ways My Best Intentions Impair Assessment Jeremy D. Penn Repairing a Broken Assessment System Christie Hill Magoulias Assessment in Times of Turbulence: Using Assessment Tools to Understand and Change Processes in Student Services Jennifer Massey, Bruce Griffiths, and Nanci Corrigan COLUMNS Assessment Measures: The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Surveys Gary R. Pike Community College Strategies: Improving Faculty Ownership of General Education and Its Assessment Rose Mince, Lynne A. Mason, and Nancy Bogage     

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Closing the Loop: How an Assessment Project Paved the Way for GE Reform Call for Contributions Value‐Added? Committing to Quality: Guidelines for Assessment and Accountability in Higher Education Creating a Cadre of Assessment Gurus (at Your Institution) Assessment as a Communication and Management Tool for Presidents and Trustees Assessing Institutional Assessment: One Institution's Progress in Developing Quality Assessment Practices From the States: Learning and Accreditation: The Elites Push Back     

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The Power of Many: Building Capacity for Assessment Through Cross Institutional Collaboration Call for Contributions Building a Culture of Assessment in the Arts and Sciences A Practical Approach to Assessing Implementation Fidelity A Fatal Flaw in the Collegiate Learning Assessment Test From the States: Having it Both Ways: Massachusetts's Approach to Statewide Assessment     

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ARTICLES Lessons Learned: Assurance of Learning Is Primarily About Learning, Not Assurance Iris Berdrow Transforming Course Evaluations into a Meaningful Measure of Student Outcomes Achievement Christopher A. McCullough Assessing Student Understanding in and Between Courses in Chemistry Jennifer Claesgens, Kathleen Scalise, Mark Wilson, Angelica Stacy Have You Been Flossing? An Analogy for Educational Program Assessment Marcus Jorgensen Assessment of Progress for Undergraduate Majors in Small Departments: A Faculty‐Student Assembly Kenneth R. Albone COLUMN Community College Strategies Rosalie V. Mince, Tara Eisenhauer Ebersole     

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Student Interpretation of Selected Degree Qualifications Profile Outcomes Call for Contributions Editor's Notes: Ingenuity: A New Super Skill, a New Assessment Challenge, a New National Conversation Applying Qualitative Techniques to Assessment in Student Affairs Developing and Implementing a Multidisciplinary Approach to Assess CT in General Education Assessment Measures The Updated National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)