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Issues in Teaching and Assessment of Courses in Rapidly Changing Areas Abstract

The past decade has shown an exponential growth in technology in all areas of the academic curriculum, and especially in the technology based fields. This growth has put great pressure on the academic community to preserve learning objectives and outcomes while still maintaining assessment criteria in the areas of current technology. Technology changes rapidly in the Computer Graphics field and the faculty find themselves continually updating and changing their courses to keep step with current changes in the technology, both in hardware and software. Course consistency in the form of learning objectives and outcomes is an important assessment measure. Many problems can arise in assessment while keeping up with the technology, to the point where some assessment measures may become obsolete. In response to that, this paper will explore a number of questions that deal with the issue of rapidly changing technology within the learning environment. This paper will explore teaching and learning styles, technology issues and how to develop a base for measuring and assessing courses in a rapidly changing environment as well as developing a standard for course consistency. A number of questions will be addressed including: How does an educator keep up, and what is the significance in teaching the “old” technology verses the “new” or “upgraded” technology? Which teaching styles lend themselves to this type of rapid change, and how do these styles affect student knowledge retention? How does an educator assess the technology skill level and set a base for continued course assessment? While examples specific to Computer Graphics Technology programs will be examined, comparisons to other technology programs will be presented as well.

Introduction

For our Computer Graphics Technology Program at Purdue University Calumet, we use assessment measures which include faculty evaluation, class critiques and written peer evaluations that individually addresses each level of technical, aesthetic and creative aspects of each project or assignment. Discussions or critiques first address the success of technical aspects, then move to the aesthetic aspects, and then the overall creative attributes of the students’ work. This type of evaluation is not only valuable for the students to comprehend each level and put their soft skills to work, but also provides valuable assessment feedback to the faculty.

The CGT program is relatively new, having been started in the year 2000 with 18 students, and having grown to its present size of about 200 majors. The program has faced many challenges, not only with the rapid growth of the program, but with the large number of updates and technological advances in that time period. C G T C la s s O ffe rin g

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Whittington, J., & Nankivell, K., & Colwell, J., & Higley, J. (2006, June), Issues In Teaching And Assessment Of Courses In Rapidly Changing Areas Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--994