Pierce College Library: Core Abilities Web Starting Points

Internet Resources for Core Abilities and Outcomes Assessment

Pierce College's Core Abilities
Outcomes Assessment
Critical Thinking and Problem-solving
Effective Communication
Information Competency
Multiculturalism & Diversity
Responsibility

Pierce College Core Abilities

Pierce College Abilities: Each of Pierce College's core abilities is defined and criteria for assessing each are clearly stated on this page.
Core abilities: Pierce College's description of our five core abilities.
Learning and Student Success Resources at Pierce College: This page is designed to provide faculty, staff and administrators with information about instruction, outcomes and assessment in the Pierce College District.
Bibliography of Library resources about Outcomes/Assessment: Select sources in Pierce College Libraries about outcomes and assessment.

Outcomes Assessment

Internet Resources for Higher Education Outcomes Assessment: This is a terrific, annotated list of web pages about assessment. (Maintained by University Planning & Analysis at North Carolina State University.)
Assessment Forum: The American Association for Higher Education's Assessment Forum maintains this list of links related to assessment. (Maintained by AAHE Assessment Forum.)
Student Learning Outcomes: Recommended Reading for Faculty: An excellent list of web sites about outcomes assessment is maintained here. (Maintained by Western Washington University's Office of Institutional Assessment and Testing.)
Assessment: This page of the Deliberations on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education web site links to resources about assessment. Most of these are articles or bibliographies leading to additional resources. (Maintained by Deliberations.)

Critical Thinking and Problem-solving

Helping Students Assess Their Thinking: A thorough list of "parts" of thinking leads the authors into describing how you can help students assess their own thinking. Although written with K-12 students in mind, this is useful for any instructors starting to assess critical thinking. (Written and maintained by Richard Paul and Linda Elder)
Critical Thinking Glossary: The title says it all! This is a glossary of terms related to critical thinking. (Maintained by the Foundation for Critical Thinking.)
Library of the Center for Critical Thinking: Links for further reading about critical thinking are divided here into categories like: Fundamentals of Critical Thinking ; The Role of Questioning; and Micropublications. (Maintained by the Foundation for Critical Thinking.)

Effective Communication

See our Composition Links on our Humanities Starting Points web page.
See our Speech Links on our Humanities Starting Points web page.
See our English as a Second Language Links on our Student Resources Starting Points web page.

Information Competency

Materials for working on Assessment IC components: Most of the documents available on this page are from a Pierce College faculty workshop on information competency. (Maintained by Lynn Olson at Pierce College Libraries.)
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education: This site opens with a definition of "Information Literacy" and then provides information on Information Literacy and Information Technology; Information Literacy and Higher Education; Information Literacy and Pedagogy; Use of the Standards; Information Literacy and Assessment; and Standards, Performance Indicators, and Outcomes. (Maintained by American Library Association's Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) division.)
Promoting Information Literacy through Class Assignments: The title of this page clearly states its objectives. This is a good, brief overview of how assignments can promote information competency. (Maintained by Dorcas Erickson of California State University, Chico.)
Best Practices for Creating Effective Library Assignments: Very clear tactics are described for creating research assignments that effectively teach information competency. Remember, working with library faculty as you develop assignments is one way to ensure these things happen. (Maintained by Tiffini Travis of California State University, Long Beach.)

Multiculturalism and Diversity

General
Cultural Sensitivity in the Classroom: Tips are included here that should help people maintain cultural sensitivity as they teach. (Maintained by Center for Teaching & Learning at Western Kentucky University.)
Diversity Resources, Kresge Library: Sources on this site are geared towards "academic research and social support" for a variety of ethnic and cultural groups. (Maintained by Dana Keyse, Reference Librarian and Diversity Liaison at Oakland University's Kresge Library.)
Multicultural Pavilion: Multicultural Education Paths: This is an amazing list of links to web sites related to multicultural education. It's definitely worth looking at! (Maintained by Dr. Paul C. Gorski of EdChange.org.)
DiversityWeb: Self-promoted as "the most comprehensive compendium of campus practices and resources about diversity in higher education that you can find anywhere." Worth looking at! (Maintained by DiversityWeb.)
Diversity Central: This is a wonderful collection of articles related to diversity. In the Diversity Store you can purchase additional articles, reports, resource kits, training manuals and a lot more. Another useful feature is the Diversity Events page. (Maintained by GilDeane Group, Inc.)
ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education: On this site, ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)provides documents and links to other documents about "the development and education of urban children and adolescents of diverse ethnic groups." Maintained by the Institute for Urban and Minority Education [at Teachers College, Columbia University] for ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education.)
Transcultural and Multicultural Health Links: Links to resources about how different groups of people view health issues. You can view links by "general" resources (bibliographies, essays, government offices, etc), ethnic group (from Alaskan Native to Vietnamese), religious group (from Amish to Seventh Day Adventist), and "other" populations (women, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered, and refugees). (Maintained by Ellen Bosman of Indiana University Libraries.)
Articles on Affirmative Action: Links to recent articles related to Affirmative Action in Washington State and beyond. (Maintained by the Washington State Department of Personnel.)
Diversity Timeline: This is an excellent "overview of segregation and integration, cultural and gender diversity in American history, from the 1600s through today." (Maintained by PBS.)
Crosspoint Anti-Racism: Search by country or subject to access links related to anti-racism that covers the fields of Human Rights, Anti-Racism, Refugees, Women's rights, Antifascism, Shoah, and more!; (Maintained by the Magenta Foundation.)
African-American
Africana.com: Promoting "understanding of black history and culture" is the goal of this site. News stories (worldwide) take center stage, but you can also find biographies of famous black people, radio stations featuring "black" music, and original articles are written "to present accurate, interesting, entertaining, and socially constructive information and commentary reflecting the diverse concerns of people of African descent." (Produced by the co-editors of Microsoft Encarta Africana and Maintained by Africana.com Inc.)
AFRO-American Almanac: This site covers cultural, political, and social facets of African-American history from the beginning of the slave trade, through the Civil Rights movement, to the present. You can find traditional folk tales, commentary and speeches, the text of 26 related books (including works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Henry David Thoreau), historical documents, brief biographies on important figures, and synopses of key historical events. Not to mention polls, trivia games, and a collection of related links. (Created and maintained by Dr. Jack Powell and Donald E. Jones II.)
Black Facts Online: Using this online database of facts about black history, you can search through the database by keyword or date, see facts about what happened on this date in black history, join a black facts listserv that sends you a fact a day. (Created and maintained by Inner-City Software.)
BlackPressUSA.com: This web site features news exclusively from African-American journalists and Black community publications. Most stories are from the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) News Service. The site includes daily national news, local news, news links, and press releases; a searchable history section with articles and cartoons from black newspapers and journalists of the past, a black history time line, and black history links; and an op-ed page with letters, essays, and current cartoons. (Maintained by National Newspaper Publishers Association.)
African American Women Writers of the 19th Century: This is a collection of over 50 published works by 19th-century black women writers. The databse is full-text and is searchable by key word. You can search each individual title or the entire database for any keyword. Search for "family" or "religion" to see what these women had to say about such matters. (Maintained by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library.)
Arab-American
Arab American Action Network: Here you'll find information about the Arab-American experience. There is information geared towards educating non-Arab Americans about this culture and also support services and information for Arab-Americans. (Maintained by Arab American Action Network.)
Arab American Institute (AAI): AAI is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization for people of Arab descent interested in the democratic process. Especially useful to those unfamiliar with Arab culture is the page called "About Arab Americans." (Maintained by Arab American Institute.)
100 Questions and Answers about Arab Americans: This is a great overview of the differences between Arab Americans and non-Arabs. The site was created because, as is said on this web site, "misunderstanding ultimately hurts each one of us." (Maintained by Detroit Free Press.)
Asian-American
Asian-Nation: The author of this site hopes to make it a "one-stop information source on the historical, political, demographic, and cultural issues that make up today's diverse Asian American community." (Maintained by C.N. Le of University at Albany, SUNY.)
Bookmarks for Asian Communities: Here, a thorough list of links is organized into categories like Non-Profit Meta-Sites, Commercial Meta-Sites, Sites about Asia, Organizations and Media, Gender Issues, Children, Inter-racial, Government, Immigration, and so much more. This is a brilliant starting point for Asian and Asian-American resources. (Maintained by Corliss Lee of InfoPeople)
Asian American Community Links: This is another list of links with categories like Arts, Civil Rights Advocacy, Community, Educational, Media, Professional, etc. (Maintained by Wataru Ebihara.)
Hispanic-American, Latino, Chicano
Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC): Organized like Google and Yahoo, this list of links is very thorough. Categories include topics like Countries, Economy, Government, Reference (biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias), Regional Resources, Society and Culture. (Maintained by the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.)
Hispanic Dropout Project: Information about this U.S. Department of Education project, as well as its findings and suggestions are on this site. Much of the information is about pre-college education, but correlations can be made. (Maintained by National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition.)
National Community College Hispanic Council (NCCHC): Stated on their web site, their mission is to "to organize and operate for educational purpose as they pertain to: quality and effectiveness of education for Hispanics in the United States; the enhancement of our pluralistic society, and ; the development of the nation's total human resources." (Maintained by National Community College Hispanic Council (NCCHC).)
University Latino Magazine: This sets out to be a college guide for Latinos. (Maintained by University Latino Magazine.)
Recommended US Latino Websites Diversity & Ethnic Studies: A thorough directory of links to Latino web sites. It covers "Chicano (Mexican American), Puerto Rican, and Cuban American Web resources, as well as sites that pertain to Salvadorans, Dominicans, Colombians, and Guatemalans residing in the US." (Maintained by Susan A. Vega García of Iowa State University.)
Hispanic College Fund (HCF): The title says it all! (Maintained by Hispanic College Fund.)
Hispanic Scholarship Fund: Again, the title says it all! (Maintained by Hispanic Scholarship Fund.)
Native American, Indigenous, American Indian
Cradleboard Teaching Project: This site presents Social Studies core curriculum units from a Native / First Nations / Aboriginal perspective "in the disciplines of Geography, History, Social Studies, Music and Science." (Maintained by Buffy Sainte-Marie and the Nihewan Foundation.)
Exploring Native Americans Across the Curriculum: "Blast stereotypes with across-the-curriculum activities for students of all ages" is the challenge presented to you in this article from Education World. The author provides tips for presenting a "balanced portrayal of Native Americans today -- their history, their culture, and their issues." (Article by Gary Hopkins for Education World.)
International Brotherhood Days: This site is about much more than International Brotherhood Days, it includes quite a few useful articles, like: Interesting facts on America's First Peoples ; Famous Native American people of the 20th century ; Your heroes are not our heroes ; Heroes history forgot ; and more. (Maintained by Mike Kohr.)
Native American History and Culture - Resources: Links on this page are divided into categories like Selected Exhibitions and Recommended Reading. Included here are links to cultural centers, museums, and individual reports. (Maintained by Smithsonian Institution.)
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest Digital Collection: As their home page explains, "this site provides an extensive digital collection of original photographs and documents about the Northwest Coast and Plateau Indian cultures, complemented by essays written by anthropologists, historians, and teachers about both particular tribes and cross-cultural topics. Find information about specific tribes and also cross-cultural topics (like assimilation through education). Thousands of photographs are on this site and are very well-organized. (Maintained by the University of Washington.)
Native-American Texts From the Modern English Collection: Read or search through texts written by selected Native American authors. (Maintained by Electronic Text Center at University of Virginia.)
NativeWeb: This is definitely the place to begin if you are looking for information on Native or Indigeous peoples. It covers the arts, history, geneology, news, science, business and much more. The goal of this site, which it achieves, is to "disseminate information from and about native or Indigenous nations, peoples and organizations around the world; to foster communication between native and non-native peoples; to conduct research involving native peoples' usage of technology and the Internet; and to provide resources, mentoring, and services to facilitate native use of this technology." The site has won several awards for its contents and design. (Maintained by NativeWeb.)
Gathering of Nations: This non-profit organization's site has the following goal: to "promote Native American Indian culture & tradition, and dispel stereotypes created about Native people." On the site you'll find photographs, music, links to Native American commercial sites, and more. Pay special attention to the Learn! section, which includes book reviews, recommended reading, information about Pow-wow dancers, articles). (Maintained by Gathering of Nations, Ltd.)
Internet Resources on Native Americans: Although the background makes some text on this site difficult to see, the content is extremely valuable. This is a great place to start searching for Native American (NA) resources online. It provides links to other sources divided into the following categories: NA History; NA Art; NA Texts; NA Literature; NA Nations; Mesoamerica; Aztec/Mexica; Inca; Maya; Olmec; NA Languages; Bibliographies; Newsgroups; Listservs; and Software. (Maintained by Richard Hooker, Washington State University.)
First American Education Project: This project's original mission was to increase Native Americans' the involvement in the political process. However, the project, and their site, now includes a lot of educational information: publications and links to other information. There's some useful WA state info here, as well. (Maintained by First American Education Project.)
Native Sites: This thorough site is divided into sections based on tribe and location. It provides links to official sites of Nations, Tribes, and Villages, as well as to unofficial sites. (Maintained by Nihewan Foundation, compiled by Lisa Mitten.)
Storytellers: Native American Authors Online: Connect to authors sites, view a calendar of upcoming readings and appearances, read book reviews of Native American authors' works, and read some traditional myths and stories. The author sites that are linked to are constructed by the authors themselves or with the author's cooperation and collaboration. (Maintained by Karen M. Strom.)
Gender Studies (Gender roles, Gender identity, Transgender issues)
Integrative Topics in Psychology: Gender Differences: This page was designed to supplement a psychology course taught by its author, but is a very good starting point for researching gender differences and gender identity. It covers definitions related to the topic, theories on the development of gender identity (nature or nurture), development of genitalia, hormonal affects on genitalia and gender identity, controversies about the biological basis of sexual orientation. This site is heavily cited with outside sources - leading you to a lot of related articles, books, and web sites. (Maintained by Dr Paul Kenyon of University of Plymouth's Department of Psychology.)
Trans-gender/vestite/sexual - & Intersexual: One of the most thorough collection of links around, this site includes the following categories: Transgender / Transvestite / Transsexual ; Lesbian & Bisexual Women ; Homo-Negativity / Phobia ; Identity Formation & Coming Out ; Counseling & Therapy ; Professional Education ; Bisexuality ; Public School Issues ; Religion & Spirituality ; Homosexuality: Biological or Learned ? ; "Of Colour " : North American & International ; Male Youth Prostitution ; HIV-AIDS ; Gay & Bisexual Male Suicide Problems ; Drug / Alcohol Use / Abuse / Addiction ; GLBT History ; Community Attributes & Problems ; Couples / Families / Children / Adoption / Spousal Violence ; The Elderly. (Maintained by Pierre Tremblay and Chris Hooymans.)
TransBiblio: "A Bibliography of Print, AV, and Online Resources Pertaining to Transgendered Persons and Transgender Issues" that is annotated (with very clear descriptions of resources) that can be viewed by type of resource (for example, cross-dressing, biographies, intersexuality, cinema studies, etc). (Maintained by Betsy Kruger, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.)
Transgendered (Google): This leads you to collections of sites about transgender-related topics like Arts, Coming out, Crossdressing, Family, Female-to-male, Male-to-female, Health & wellness, Genderqueer, Religion & spirituality, and many more categories. (Maintained by Google.)
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual
Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy: This site includes explanations of scientific research on homophobia and hate crimes, HIV/AIDS stigma, and other topics of concern to lesbians and gay men. (Maintained by Prof. Herek of University of California at Davis' Psychology department.)
Handouts for Educators: The Safe Schools Coalition provides these handouts available for free download. Offerings include titles like "An Administrator's guide to handling anti-gay harassment" and "Making school safe: What exactly are employees required to do." (Maintained by Safe Schools Coalition.)
Campus PrideNet: This site aims to be a "national online community and resource network committed to student leaders and campus organizations who work to create a safer campus environment free of homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, heterosexism and genderism at colleges and universities." (Maintained by Campus PrideNet.)
Stop The Hate! Program: This Program "supports colleges and universities in preventing and combating hate on campus as well as fostering the development of community and serving as the premiere source of anti-hate educational resources for higher education." (Maintained by Association of College Unions International (ACUI).)
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Studies (Google): This leads you to collections of sites about topics related to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Studies like History, Orientation vs. Preference, and Queer Theory. (Maintained by Google.)
Disabilities
See also our Developmental Disabilities links in our Vocational Starting Points.
Teaching College Students with Disabilities: This annotated list of online resources for teaching students with disabilities is quite thorough! (Created by Al Cavalier of the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Maintained by Center for Teaching Effectiveness)
A Systematic Approach for Assisting Students with Learning Disabilities in Postsecondary Education: This article explains a system for assisting students with learning disabilities, called "PRISM." (Written by Peggy Wallert and Carol Puffer. Maintained by LDOnline.)
LD Online: This site for educators and other professionals, as well as parents, includes articles about and links to web sites about learning disabilities. (Maintained by LD Online, a service of The Learning Project.)
Religions
See also our Religion links in our Humanities Starting Points.
Pluralism Project: This project studies and documents religious diversity in the United States. Their site provides links to directories of religious centers, news articles, sites about religious traditions, and sites by and about religious groups. (Maintained by the Pluralism Project at Harvard.)
Beliefnet: This amazingly inclusive site covers many faiths (including non-faith/non-beliefs). It provides information in the forms of articles, advice from experts, discussions, quizzes (you can take their online quiz to find out which denominations your beliefs coincide with best) and more - written by a variety of experts, scholars, and believers from a variety of viewpoints. It's a great starting point for any kind of religious research. They're careful to note: "We are independent. We are not affiliated with a particular religion or spiritual movement. We are not out to convert you to a particular approach, but rather to help you find your own. " (Maintained by Beliefnet, Inc..)

Responsibility

Fostering Learner Self-Responsibility: In this excerpt from A Brief summary of the best practices in college teaching, the author explains qualities that he considers "practices that constitute excellence in college teaching." Besides "Fostering Learner Self-Responsibility," he also covers the following: Lecture Practices, Group Discussion Triggers, Thoughtful Questions, Reflective Responses to Learner Contributions, Rewarding Learner Participation, Active Learning Strategies, Cooperative Group Assignments, Goals to Grades Connections, Modeling, Double Loop Feedback, and Climate Setting. (Compiled by Tom Drummond, North Seattle Community College.)
Facilitating Responsibility for Learning in Adult Community College Students: The abstract printed at the top of this ERIC document follows... Community colleges enroll over 2.5 million adult students, defined as those age 25 and older. In 1997, nearly a third of community college students were age 30 or older; 46 percent were age 25 or older (Phillippe, 2000). Attracting the enrollment of adult students, however, is only the first step in helping them achieve their educational goals. Adult students, particularly if they are the first in their families to pursue postsecondary education, are often unfamiliar with how to succeed in the community college (Valadez, 1993). This digest will review adult students' learning expectations and needs, followed by recommendations for community colleges to facilitate responsibility for learning in adult students. (Maintained by ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges.)
Ethics and Social Responsibility Scoring Rubric: Although this is just a simple rubric for assessing students' responsibility, faculty might find it useful in defining behaviors that demonstrate the presence or absence of students' social responsibility. (Maintained by Portland State University.)
Self and Peer Assessment as a Means of Teaching Professional Responsibility: This page is a paper about a workshop titled "Are There Innovative Ways to Teach Professional Responsibility?" given at Sydney University in 1996. (Maintained by Archie Zariski of Murdoch University School of Law.)


Questions/Comments about this website to: Lynn Olson, lolson@pierce.ctc.edu. Last Revised 3/7/2005. kkells