General Education Annual Course Assessment Form
Course Number/Title ____RECL 111-Leisure, Culture and Identity
_________________________________
Results reported for AY _ AY 2013-14
Course Coordinator: Linda Levine
GE Area GE Area-S
# of sections _____1________ # of instructors ___1___
E-mail: ______ Linda.Levine@sjsu.edu
Department Chair: _______Anne Demers______________ College: __CASA_
Instructions: Each year, the department will prepare a brief (two page maximum) report that documents the
assessment of the course during the year. This report will be electronically submitted, by the department
chair, to the Office of Undergraduate Studies, with an electronic copy to the home college by October 1 of the
following academic year.
Part 1
To be completed by the course coordinator:
(1) What SLO(s) were assessed for the course during the AY?
SLO 1: Students will be able to describe how identities (i.e. religious, gender, ethnic, racial, class,
sexual orientation, disability, and/or age) are shaped by cultural and societal influences within
contexts of equality and inequality.
(2)
What were the results of the assessment of this course? What were the lessons learned from
the assessment?
90% of students met this objective with a B or better on Paper #1 Women and Leisure- a biographical
paper
In Paper #1 Women and Leisure, students choose a famous woman in leisure and highlight her
struggle and journey for equality in the US. Students focus not only on how her gender impacted her
level of acceptance and success but also how another important aspect of her identity such as sexual
preference, parental status, race, religion, size, ability, age, religion or class served as an inroad or
obstacle.
Though I was happy with the assessment results, I think that it would be good to have a little more
broad based information about how identities (i.e. religious, gender, ethnic, racial, class, sexual
orientation, disability, and/or age) are shaped by cultural and societal influences within contexts of
equality and inequality before they head into writing their more focused papers.
I decided to look for a better book that reflects the current 21st century leisure research and theories
to look at how identities are shaped by cultural and societal influences within contexts of equality and
inequality.
(3) What modifications to the course, or its assessment activities or schedule, are planned for the
upcoming year? (If no modifications are planned, the course coordinator should indicate this.)
In Spring 2015 I will be adopting Race, Ethnicity, and Leisure -perspectives on research, theory and
Practice. Race, Ethnicity, and Leisure examines the current theories and practices related to
minority leisure and reviews numerous issues related to these diverse groups’ leisure, including
needs and motivations, constraints, and discrimination. It is my hope that with the help of this
current text, we will be investigating issues such as types of recreation participation among
specific groups, recreation in specific environments, and factors affecting participation and
identity development. This is the first book of it's kind that I am aware of targetting
undergraduates so I am excited to see how they respond to it. Though this is a modification to
the course, I am not changing the assessment activities or schedule. In spring ‘15 I would like to get
familiar with the text to see if changes to the assessment schedule are in order.
Part 2
To be completed by the department chair (with input from course coordinator as appropriate):
(4) Are all sections of the course still aligned with the area Goals, Student Learning Objectives (SLOs),
Content, Support, and Assessment? If they are not, what actions are planned?
Yes. Everything is in alignment. Generally only one section of Recl 111 is taught by the coordinator, Linda
Levine, so she is very familiar with the relationship between course content and the GELOs.
(5) If this course is in a GE Area with a stated enrollment limit (Areas A1, A2, A3, C2, D1, R, S, V, & Z),
please indicate how oral presentations will be evaluated with larger sections (Area A1), or how
practice and revisions in writing will be addressed with larger sections, particularly how students
are receiving thorough feedback on the writing which accounts for the minimum word count in this
GE category (Areas A2, A3, C2, D1, R, S, V, & Z) and, for the writing intensive courses (A2, A3, and
Z), documentation that the students are meeting the GE SLOs for writing.
This course caps at 40 and the instructor is able to give thorough educational feedback in writing to each
student regarding oral presentations and all written work. There are in-class writing assignments as well as
major papers written for this GE-area S course that more than meet the word requirement. Linda staggers
when the papers are written so she can concentrate of giving extensive feedback for content as well as writing
skills. There is a mechanism for drafts and paper revisions. One RECL 111 student sent the following e-mail,
“Thank you for bringing my poor writing to my attention, and giving me a second opportunity to revise it. I
really appreciated this. It was an eye opening experience. I don't want people to reject me because I am a
weak writer. I'm going to work extremely hard so I can be taken seriously in the work force. I want to go far in
life and if that means taking extra writing classes or tutoring lessons so be it. The SJSU writing center is a great
resource that I wasn’t aware existed. Thank you again!! Warmest Regards, Lydia”