Assessing Visual Rhetoric- Problems Practices and Possible Solutions

The proliferation of computers in classrooms allows students to insertimages texts graphics movies and audio files easily into their electronicworks or documents. There is a sense that our culture is a visual culture butwhat does that mean in terms of assessment practice? What do we reallyvalue about images? What is the relationship between images and texts?This study examines the problems of assessment within a university level firstyear composition course. The analysis relies on a traditional groundedmethods approach and a concept mapping approach to mutually inform theresults and conclusions. The aim of the study is to uncover the actual criteriaand standards valued by instructors when confronted with the complexity ofthe new media compositions. The study is designed to be of interest toeducational professionals from administration with interests in assessmenttheory and practice to classroom instructors of any field whose students arenow submitting electronic compositions with texts and images.