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engaging in the first serious and substantial dialogues about global affairs in their lives.
If these dialogues spill out beyond the electronic classroom, the Global Challenge can
reasonably be said to have been a success.
THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE: ASSESSMENT
In Fall 2002 a learning outcomes assessment plan for The Global Challenge was
drafted by an ad hoc committee of instructors and assessment experts. The committee
was charged with developing a comprehensive assessment process and a package of
instruments for the Global Challenge program, which had just entered its second year.
The entire assessment package was implemented on a pilot basis in Spring 2003. The
validity of certain portions of the assessment package was tested in Fall 2003. Based on
these findings, a slightly reconfigured assessment package is scheduled to be
implemented in Spring 2005.
The Global Challenge assessment plan covers six areas of global competency,
each addressing a major set of learning objectives with a different assessment tool or
tools:
1) Global knowledge/analysis objectives -- Students should have a basic working
knowledge of major global issues, including health and population concerns, global
conflict concerns, and environmental concerns. Students should have a basic working
knowledge of the scientific method and the fundamentals of moral inquiry and analysis.
Students should also be able to apply knowledge of the scientific method and moral
reasoning to concrete global issues. The ad hoc committee recommended a pre- and
post-assessment using a two-part objective multiple choice instrument. Part I of the
Convention