General Education Assessment Committee
April 28, 2015
MSU, Room 324
Present: Krista Prock (at-large non-teaching faculty), William Donner (SPRC), George Sirrakos (COE),
Mary Eicholtz (at-large teaching faculty), Valerie Trollinger (VPA), Gil Clary (Office of Assessment),
Kim Shively (at-large teaching faculty, Varsha Pandya (CLAS), Janice Gasker (at-large teaching faculty).
Absent: Brent Penny (Admin. & Finance), Rayne Palmer (Student Representative), William Dempsey
(Academic Dean), Patricia Derr (Gen Ed Committee), Stephen Hensler (COB).
Prock called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone in attendance to the final meeting of GEAC
for the 2014-2015 academic year. She discussed the GEC and the model definition for visual literacy
and how it can be included in the model. Prock spoke with Derr of GEC and Derr reports there is no
consensus with what they want to do. They talked about Meta literacy. GEAC had defined all the
domains previously based on the VALUE rubric. It is not outlined in the by-laws who will define the
general education goal. Discussion followed. GEC will have to decide what they want to do about a new
definition and go through the governance process. Then GEAC can step in.
Minutes: Prock introduced the Minutes from the April 10, 2015 meeting for approval. Motion to
approve made by Shively; seconded by Donner. All in favor to approve the Minutes as written.
Meeting Dates in the fall: Prock indicated the tentative dates for the fall 2015 semester will be on the
2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 3 o’clock. Meeting dates will be finalized once all faculty teaching
schedules are set.
Trollinger informed the committee she will be on sabbatical in the spring 2016 semester. She will find a
substitute for the committee.
Curriculum Map for assessment: Prock used the curriculum map to choose courses to be assessed in the
fall 2015 semester. Prock has been in touch with David Beougher, Acting Dean for the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences, who has agreed to work with the committee and to assist with responses from
LAS. Michele Kiec, Associate Dean of the College of Visual & Performing Arts will do the same.
Some of the chairs have been contacted to let them know about the assessment. Not all departments
have responded. The contact letter previously created by GEAC will be updated for the faculty required
to perform assessment, copying the chairperson. Training is the same as in previous semesters.
Discussion followed. Training will be offered in the spring during finals week in RL 103, in the fall, as
well as the assessors may train on their own using the PowerPoint. A complete list of courses assessed
should be submitted during the first week of classes.
It was suggested that the next round of assessment, we assess the end (or capstone) courses for students
who are being assessment now. We could develop a bank of random student work. If we have
exemplars, then we would have a look at what the students are learning in the long term.
Assessment workshop: Clary is trying to find someone to speak at the assessment workshop scheduled
for the end of August. He had a conversation with Ann Ferren of AAC&U. As he was talking with her,
she said she didn’t think we needed to hear from AAC&U because of the progress we’ve made in the last
five years. She thinks we have reached a plateau, but perhaps we should try to get to the next level. She
suggested some people, who could help us get to the next level. Several questions remain about
assessment at Kutztown. It was suggested that perhaps we could use these questions at the workshop in
August and will need to use them for the faculty buy-in. Clary encourages input from the committee to
enrich the newsletter and the workshop.
Assessment Newsletter: Clary indicated he would like to publish another newsletter prior to the end of
the semester. Once he has a final version, he will circulate it and ask for feedback from the committee.
Discussion followed.
Before the meeting adjourned, Mary Eicholtz, incoming chair of GEAC presented Krista Prock, outgoing
chair of GEAC with a framed, signed general education poster and gift certificate from the committee to
say “thank you” for all the hard work she performed as chair of the committee.
Meeting adjourned at 11:45 am.
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5/06/2015