General Education Assessment Committee
September 3, 2015
MSU, Room 312
Present: Mary Eicholtz (at-large teaching faculty), Krista Prock (at-large non-teaching faculty), William
Donner (SPRC), George Sirrakos (COE), Valerie Trollinger (VPA), Gil Clary (Office of Assessment), Kim
Shively (at-large teaching faculty), Varsha Pandya (CLAS), David Beougher (Academic Dean), Matthew
Delaney (Admin & Finance), Megan Luckenbaugh (Student Representative).
Absent: Patricia Derr (Gen Ed Committee), Janice Gasker (at-large teaching faculty), Stephen Hensler
(COB).
Eicholtz called the meeting to order, and introduced the new members of the Committee: Matthew
Delaney (Admin & Finance), David Beougher (Academic Dean), and Megan Luckenbaugh (Student
Representative). The committee members then introduced themselves. Eicholtz gave the new committee
members an overview of what this Committee is charged to do.
Minutes: Eicholtz introduced the Minutes from the April 28, 2015 meeting for approval. Motion to
approve made by Sirrakos; seconded by Shively.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be on Thursday, September 24th at 3 pm in MSU 312.
Website: Eicholtz announced the website has been updated. The By-Laws are available to view, as well
as the reporting templates. A few more changes are needed, and will be made as soon as possible – and
these will include updating of terms. Trollinger reminded the committee she will be on sabbatical
during the spring 2016, and she will ask Dean Mowder to appoint a replacement during that time.
Election of Vice-Chair: Eicholtz informed the Committee that Janice Gasker has resigned her position of
Vice-Chair because of responsibilities in the Social Work department related to the doctoral program.
She opened the floor for nominations. Krista Prock volunteered to accept the position. She was elected
Vice-Chair of GEAC by acclamation.
Eicholtz indicated we will need a new at-large faculty member to replace Gasker. Lisa Frye has been
contacted to assist in filling the position. We expect next month we will have a new at-large teaching
faculty member.
Summer Update: This summer some of the members met with Acting Provost, Anne Zayaitz. She would
like us to see how GEAC and GEC can work together and to recommend changes that may need to be
made. Patricia Derr of the GEC and Mary Eicholtz of GEAC are working together to create partnerships
with key members on campus to see how we can make changes regarding competencies, distribution,
etc. Discussion followed.
Eicholtz recommended we host training forums before the end of the semester to see if we can make
changes to assessment and general education.
Goal 1: There are eight domains. This year, we will look at entry-level courses. Eicholtz asked that if
you have not done so, please send her an email with your contacts and courses to be assessed. The
departments previously assigned to Gasker will need to be re-assigned. Pandya will contact Physical
Sciences, and Eicholtz will contact the Philosophy department.
Our next step is to instruct the assessors. Discussion followed. We should have the instructors identified
by the end of the semester. Eicholtz stressed we are not asking faculty to do anything more than what
they already do. We want them to assess what they already do. The online training module has been
updated for the 2015-2016 year. It was agreed we would have a group training session. We will
schedule training on Thursday, October 1st at 11 am and Tuesday, October 6th at 3 pm. Discussion
followed. We can also offer a department training session if that works better for the department
assessors.
VSA: Clary explained there was a directive from the Chancellor’s office to participate in the VSA. In PA,
14 SSHE institutions participate. It is a way to do some assessments, and we can show what kind of
impact we are having on our students. We perform the NSSE every other year, and the college portrait
is also done. About three years ago, we performed an ETS test in order to meet the requirements.
Unfortunately, we did not benefit from that assessment.
AAC&U led the way to identifying an alternate – VALUE rubrics. The templates we created are based on
the VALUE rubrics. For this project two outcomes will be assessed – written communication and critical
thinking. Provost Zayaitz is on board and has had conversations with Eicholtz, Prock and Derr. The
plan is to visit senior seminar and capstone courses. We need about 300 work products. It is acceptable
to include instructors, but a second rater will need to be involved too.
He asked that the committee read the hand-out provided and voice any concerns to him. He believes
benefits to us would be that we would have answers about how our students are doing. This is an
assessment of Kutztown University.
It will help this Committee so that we can understand best practices to conduct assessment. Graduate
students can conduct the assessments of the work products. We also need to perform “norming” of the
assessment. Provost Zayaitz is on board and has had conversations with Eicholtz, Prock and Derr. The
plan is to visit senior seminar and capstone courses. We need about 300 work products. It is acceptable
to include instructors, but a second rater will need to be involved too. Discussion followed. This would
be a way to find out what/how we do at the end. We need to get on a cycle of every three-four years.
The Deans, union and GEAC know about this upcoming process. We may perform a pilot assessment in
the fall and a VSA in the spring 2016.
Fall 2015 – collect data; and spring 2016 analyze data.
Meeting adjourned at 3:45 pm.
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9/14/2015