ABSTRACT
Judy and Candyce’s story: At the end of every academic year, faculty from across campus come together to review ePortfolios from our first-year Freshman Inquiry for program assessment. Many students are able to demonstrate their learning through quality reflections and artifacts far beyond what many faculty would expect from first-year students. Such ePortfolios typically spark faculty curiosity. How were the students able to do it? Did our incoming students get brighter? On exploration, the reality becomes clear: Those students who demonstrate the best learning were in Freshman Inquiry courses where the faculty has carefully developed activities and assignments that allow them to practice and then demonstrate their learning. (By the way, doing program assessment in this way is a very effective faculty development activity. Seeing excellent student work motivates faculty to learn what they can do to achieve similar outcomes.)
