Assessment
The Office of the Campus Writing Coordinator, in conjunction with staff in the Office of Assessment and Research Studies in the Division of Undergraduate Education and faculty across campus, regularly conducts research into and assessment of writing pedagogies, curricula, and programs throughout UCI. The goals of such assessment include the following:
to foster dialogue about effective writing pedagogies across the disciplines;
to develop and share best practices in writing instruction;
to raise the level of scholarly and pedagogical discourse about writing and writing instruction;
to assist faculty in developing discipline-based writing pedagogies;
to promote research into writing studies as a significant scholarly enterprise.
The following documents are reports of recent assessments of various UCI writing programs and courses that have been completed within the last five years.
Comparison of Lower-Division Programs: English Composition and Humanities Core: This project, a two-day reading assessment of random samples of HCC and Composition capstone research papers, established that HCC and Composition Research essays were comparable in level of writing achievement on twelve selected writing outcomes.
English Composition Student Survey Report: The purpose of this survey was to determine first-year students' perceived self-achievement of the Composition Program learning outcomes as a function of course enrollment history.
Initial assessment report for the First-Year Integrated Writing Prgram
Two-Year Retrospective Assessment Report of the First-Year Integrated Writing Program: This project, a reading assessment of random samples of FIP capstone research papers, established FIP students' levels of writing achievement on twelve selected writing outcomes.
Upper-Division Writing Student and Faculty Survey Report: The purpose of this study was to gather evidence about the efficacy of W courses from the perspective of both faculty instructing the courses and students currently enrolled in these courses as part of a larger effort to assess undergraduate writing at UCI. Both surveys were modified versions of the surveys used previously by the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) for a comprehensive review of the upper-division writing requirement at UCI.
Upper-Division Writing Assessment Pilot
Peer Tutor Program Report, 2007-2008
Peer Tutor Program Report, 2008-2009
We are currently in the process of developing, implementing, and reporting on a variety of other assessments, including an assessment of upper-division writing samples and a comparative analysis of the three major lower-division writing programs: English Composition, Humanities Core, and the First-Year Integrated Program. Other collaborative assessment projects include the following:
2009: Lower-Division Writing Campus-Wide Writing Assessment
The purpose of this multi-faceted study (student and faculty survey, syllabi collection and archive, student focus groups, and reading assessment of random paper samples) is to determine students' perception of and level of achievement in UCI's lower-division writing courses; level of achievement will be measured using the Student Learning Outcomes for the Composition Program. The study will also collect data faculty perception of which student learning outcomes are emphasized in their classes and which student learning outcomes are most important in their disciplines.