Work in progress - blackboard tracking, can this be a method of ABET outcome I assessment

Assessment means for the outcome pertaining to life-long learning raises many questions including; what constitutes life-long learning; how will we demonstrate that our graduates recognize the need for and have the ability to lifelong learn; and last but not least, how will we measure this attribute in our graduates? Some researchers makes the statement that the "motivated person is a lifelong learner, and the lifelong learner is a motivated person". How can we measure motivation? The learning framework, constructivism, represents a paradigm in which learners construct knowledge for themselves and the basic premise is that an individual learner must actively "build" knowledge and skills (Bruner, 1990). What is more active than having to sign on to the class website, and take the time to link the various extra resources the professor has provided? This paper will describe an initial study to use Blackboard\´s tracking tool to assess this active construction of knowledge which can be linked to the "recognition of need for and ability to engage in life-long learning". This initial attempt at measurements will include tracking data for each student provided electronically by Blackboard, student opinion surveys including both tier one and tier two questions and a comparison with each students final grades. At the initial stage our plan does not create a validated predictive instrument, but tries to compare the grades of students who utilize the resources available on a very interactive Blackboard course Website to those who do not and infer that this will contribute to choices to engage in lifelong learning.