A Multicomponent Approach to Conducting Outcomes Assessments of English Language Support Units

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Second Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract

In response to a call by writing-center researchers and professionals since the 1980s for rigorous scientific assessment, this paper reports on a project that is the first to implement a multi-component assessment of a writing center based on a year-long gathering of data from multiple sources, including the writing center’s usage profile, users’ perceptions related to writing, learning outcomes-based evaluations, and a campus-wide satisfaction survey. In addition to the value of the findings from this project and its implications for writing-center research and practice, information about the procedures involved in implementing this multi-component assessment approach may be useful to administrators, researchers, and practitioners in academic language-support units across institutions of higher education.

Author

• Li-Shih Huang, University of Victoria