Introduction

Rising tuition and the advent of online learning alternatives are compelling geoscience departments to define and quantify the value of their degrees (Arum and Roksa, 2011). Because the value of a college education is multidimensional, no single metric can capture it in its entirety. For example, course evaluations have long served as the primary means of assessment in higher education. But course evaluation data provide limited, and sometimes contradictory, insight into the overall value of an academic degree, particularly because most evaluations focused more on teaching rather than learning (Benton and Cashin, 2012; Denson et al., 2010; Renshaw, 2014).

Manuscript received 1 June 2015; accepted 21 Dec. 2015

doi: 10.1130/GSATG253GW.1