Measuring the Impact of Religious-Oriented Courses on Spirituality/Religiosity-Related Outcomes in Higher Education

Students enrolled in university-level religion courses tend to be instructed in and assessed on their course content knowledge. Generally there is not an emphasis on religiosity/spiritualityrelated outcomes. Although content knowledge is important, such an exclusive focus eclipses amore complete religious instructional experience. If this additional emphasis is to be included, assessments need to be designed and developed to show progress in this area. This study represents an attempt to develop an instrument that targets the impact university religion courses have onspecific-student religiosity/spiritual outcomes. A survey of 20 items (4 scales) was administered to 608 freshmen enrolled in eight sections of the same course. The results provided initial evidence to support claims of score reliability and validity.