A Dialogic Approach to Implementing General Education Assessment at the Department Level

A quasi-experimental design found that an induction of nonhierarchical dialogue, called meta-assessment, about general education assessment at the program level increases faculty commitment to assessment in comparison to a control group. Full- and part-time communication faculty participated in a seminar about assessment. Results indicate that both faculty groups felt comfortable bringing up negative and risky topics about assessment during the seminar. Attending the seminar, moreover, improved the communication faculties' attitudes, confidence, and understanding of assessment in comparison to the control department. Moreover, communication faculty continued to have higher confidence and understanding compared to the control after completing assessment.