Assessing oral presentations and writing skills

At the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, engineering, science, social sciences, and humanities programs have been working jointly toward a convincing, effective, and practical means of assessing oral presentation and writing skills. In 2002-03, our faculty developed writing and oral presentation rubrics as well as a digital archival tool to help our institution achieve those goals. In this interactive session, presenters describe and define the digital archival tool and assessment rubrics used at SDSM&T. In so doing, they enrich participants' understanding of the assessment process by helping them: (1) learn about the construction and use of digital archival tools; (2) learn about the construction and use of rubrics; (3) assess writing samples using a rubric; (4) learn about cross-disciplinary collaboration, classroom application, and campus wide assessment; and (5) discuss their concerns, experiences, and observations relating to assessment as an instructional method to increase student learning. Participants leave with experienced advice on creating assessment tools, insights into the advantages and pitfalls of cross-campus faculty collaboration, and examples of how one rubric can be used in a variety of disciplinary settings.