ABSTRACT
If the programmatic assessment of student learning outcomes was universally acknowledged as being necessary, important, and positive, then it would not need to be defended. Whatever the historical roots of or problems with the current accountability and assessment movements, accountability and assessment appear here to stay. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the assessment movement continued to pick up steam, at least three other challenges faced media education: calls for the reinvention of undergraduate education, the convergence of communication technologies, and the philosophical and theoretical ferment in the communication field. Assessment can help a unit be self-reflective about what is done and why it is done. It can mean discovering the strengths and weaknesses of programs and the teaching and learning process. Assessment plans should specifically detail how the data collected from the direct and indirect measures will be used to improve curriculum and instruction over time.
