State of Assessment Report
May 27, 2004
Prepared by Jennifer Mihalick, Chair,
Faculty Senate Committee on Assessment of Student Learning
During 2003-2004, eight members from the faculty, one from the academic
staff, and an administration liaison, Assistant Vice Chancellor for
Curricular
Affairs Margaret Genisio, met monthly during the academic year. A
website
with reports and examples of assessment plans http://www.uwosh.edu/assessment/
was maintained by Jennifer Mihalick.
Status of Program Assessments
Grids showing the status of each program are attached to this report
(and
also appear on the website). Only a few majors do
not
yet have an assessment plan: Athletic Training, Management
Information
Systems (graduate program), Music Performance, and Religious
Studies.
Once an assessment plan is approved, departments are asked to report to
the
FSCASL once every two years. In 2003, 28 programs submitted
status
reports which were reviewed by committee members. In addition
several
programs (including Art and English) consulted committee members on
revisions
to their assessment plans. The following programs have not sent
status
reports in the past three years: Bachelor of Liberal Studies,
Fitness
Management, Human Services, Nursing (graduate), and Physical Education
Teacher
Preparation.
Most programs have been collecting data for several years, and are
learning
how to interpret the results. Many have changed their original
assessment
plans. More than 50% of the programs report that assessment data
have
been used to change the curriculum.
General Education Assessment
The 1995 plan was revised by the committee in order to improve the
collection
of data for general education courses. The revised
plan appears as an attachment to this document. Departments
teaching
general education courses are asked to identify which of the ten broad
goals
are applicable to their subject, then define more specific learning
objectives
which can be assessed in their courses. Instructors are
encouraged
to use existing course assignments or exams as assessment
instruments.
Members of FSCASL will be available to assist with implementation of
assessment
plans for general education courses, and examples
will be added to the FSCASL website. The Department of English
has
recently developed an assessment plan for Theme Based Inquiry Seminars.
Assessment of student learning in general education courses is valuable
because
instructors collect information they can use to improve their
courses.
However, the committee members are also interested in assessment of the
overall
general education program, to provide data for the COLS Curriculum
Committee
and the Academic Policies Committee's General Education Subcommittee
(APGES)
which have the responsibility of approving new general education
courses.
Some information can be obtained from the "National Survey
of
Student Engagement" and "Faculty Survey of
Student
Engagement". Next academic year the FSCASL will research
standardized
exams designed to assess student learning in general education, and
find
a method to ensure that a broad group of students will take such an
exam.
Pilot studies at UWO and other institutions have demonstrated that
students
will not volunteer to take an exam, and that offering incentives such
as
pizza or bookstore gift certificates is not effective.
Possibilities
to be explored include requiring an exam before seniors can register
for
classes, or making it a graduation requirement (as at UW Green Bay).
Preparation for NCA accreditation
The University's 10 year accreditation review by the North Central
Association
will take place in 2007. In March a subcommittee of the
FSCASL
met Dr. John Taylor, Director of Program to Evaluate and Advance
Quality
at NCA Higher Learning Commission, to discuss how the University
Assessment
Plan meets the expectations for accreditation. He predicted
that
since the assessment plan has been operating for many years, the
evaluators
would be most interested in learning if feedback to the curriculum is
occurring.
The FSCASL will ask departments to highlight this area in their future
reports
to the committee.
Current and former members of FSCASL are on the University's NCA Higher Learning
Commission
Accreditation Preparation Committee and some of its
subcommittees.
Data on student learning collected by FSCASL will be included in the
University's
self-study document.
Grids Showing Status of Assessment Plans:
College of Business
Administration
College of Education and
Human Services
College of Letters and Science
College of Nursing
back to assessment home page
last updated June 3, 2004