@Jeff. I wonder if an assessment of your target audience would go deep enough to determine the cultural backgrounds of everyone taking the course? If you were creating a course for an organization in the Middle East, for example, you would know not to use the thumbs up but it might not be so obvious in other situations.
@ David, when it comes to scored assessments I agree that you are evaluating the results. I guess my thinking with the thumbs up/down is that you are aren't just evaluating a response - you are criticizing it. I'm not particularly PC so this shouldn't bug me but it does.
I agree with you entirely that the outcomes need to be clear and that the best ones should show the consequence of an action.
@Nicole - thanks for being a good sport. Your example was nicely done by-the-way.
@Tom - you are joking right?