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Diversification Outcomes Assessment
Revised Diversification Assessment PlanJanuary 2005 Based on faculty feedback to the plan presented in December 2004, the Assessment Committee created a pre-post-test design to assess General Education. The plan below includes the following parts:
Diversification Assessment Plan: A Pre-Test/Post-Test Design
Overview Entering first-time students will take an exam during their first semester at UHM (0-16 credits earned); they will take the same exam during their senior year (108+ credits). Faculty committees will create the exam questions and assess the student responses. The GenEd Assessment Coordinator and Institutional Analyst will oversee the tracking of individual student progress. The results will guide us as we make improvements in course designation processes, hallmarks, and pedagogy.
Background UHM is slowing moving from a teacher-centered culture to a student-centered culture. We are not solely looking at traditional measures of student achievement such as grade point averages, retention rates, and course evaluations. We have turned our attention to direct measures of student learning. The Diversification Assessment Plan will provide us with information about how well our students are meeting our Diversification learning objectives. It will guide efforts to increase the likelihood that students meet our learning goals. The plan meets WASC requirements. The Diversification objectives are aligned with two points of the UH Mānoa Strategic Plan:
The Diversification objectives are aligned with UH Mānoa’s General Education Program which states that the Diversification requirement will “assure that every student has a broad exposure to different domains of academic knowledge.”
Assessment Plan
STEP 1—ESTABLISH Educational OBJECTIVES STATUS: COMPLETED Learning Outcomes. After completing the Diversification requirement, students will be able to 1. use the terminology of theories, structures, or processes in the different areas of the Diversification requirement 2. identify the concepts, models, practices, or issues of concern in the study of these structures, or processes 3. understand the quantitative and/or qualitative methods employed in the study of structures, or processes of these areas STEP 2—CREATE LEVELS OF ACHIEVEMENT & CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS STATUS: DRAFT COMPLETED; NEEDS TESTING Three Faculty Assessment Committees (one for each main area of the Diversification requirement) will identify levels of achievement through a scoring rubric (1=below expectations, 2=meets expectations, 3=exemplary) and representative samples of student responses Criterion for success=90% of students score “2-meets expectations” or “3-exemplary” in the three areas STEP 3—IDENTIFY INDICATORS (EVIDENCE) STATUS: NOT COMPLETED Faculty Assessment Committees create the GenEd Diversification Exam. The exam will likely include short-answer questions tied to the Diversification objectives. STEP 4—USE OF RESULTS STATUS: NOT COMPLETED Possible uses of results:
Assessment Plan: Timeline of Activities
Resources Needed to Assess General Education and Create a Culture of EvidenceAdministration: Support and Promote National experts and faculty from institutions at which general education assessment is taking place agree that the chief executive and chief academic officers need to support and promote assessment efforts. Coordination & Education General Education assessment committees will need a resident expert to serve as a statistician, consultant, facilitator, coordinator, and disseminator of information. The expert can also serve as a consultant to departments that are carrying out departmental-based assessment.
Logistics Logistical and staff support are needed because over 2,200 first-time students enter every year. 2,300 students graduate with a bachelor’s degree every year. An institutional analyst is needed to create Banner reports and extract student information. Student workers needed to enter exam results and update databases. Admissions & Records liaison needed to coordinate the distribution of exam materials in first-year packet and to coordinate data transfer. Exam proctors needed to administer exams (because of space limitations on campus.
Admissions Liaison: modification of duties to include assisting with the GenEd Assessment Plan (cost??!!); coordinate the distribution of exam information to new students; assist the institutional analyst as needed to gather accurate new student information and senior information Institutional Analyst Pay Band B (annual salary approximately $52,000) Faculty Involvement General education assessment requires two types of faculty involvement: (1) undergraduate faculty need to be willing to give up one day of classes during which the GenEd Diversification exam will be administered; they need to be willing to participate in discussions about assessment results and how to use those results to improve student learning; (2) a small group of faculty members who teach general education courses need to serve on assessment committees The first type of involvement can be secured through support of the Office of the Chancellor. The second type will initially require a significant amount of faculty input and expertise: DAC members will be responsible for creating the exam and scoring rubrics, training faculty members, assessing student work, making recommendations based on exam results, and participating in faculty development workshops. The faculty members willing to engage in assessment efforts at this level will be compensated. Exam Scoring18 faculty experts who teach undergraduate Diversification courses ($1,600/faculty member; total of $28,800 January-December 2005); responsible for initial creation of GenEd Diversification Exam
NOTE: The Writing Placement Exam costs about $9 per student. This cost includes materials, student worker cost, and reader costs. (Readers are paid $20/hour to assess exams). It does not include the costs associated with the academic support personnel who are responsible for test development, reader training, statistics, reports, website updates, etc. Assessment takes time and effort. Regardless of the assessment plan selected, faculty members are responsible for creating the assessment tool, setting standards, and assessing student work.[1] After results are available, the faculty are responsible for making changes to improve student learning. The pre/post-test design and the common assignment design both require faculty and staff involvement. The pre/post-test design requires more faculty and staff time because test development is difficult and individual student tracking requires constant attention by dedicated personnel and coordination across offices.
Issues Involved with a Pre/Post-Test Design
[1] Alternatively, the faculty can decide to purchase a commercial test such as ETS’s Academic Profile. This transfers the burden of test creation and scoring to an outside entity. However, two main challenges will exist: (1) student motivation issues and (2) faculty resistance to “teaching to a test” that they did not create.
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General Education Office · 2545 McCarthy Mall, Bilger Hall 104 · Honolulu, HI 96822 · (808) 956-6660 · gened@hawaii.edu © 2006-2008 University of Hawai`i at Mānoa |
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