Introduction:
The department of Kinesiology at California Baptist University (CBU) currently offers a Bachelors of Science (BS) in Kinesiology with three potential areas of concentration. All Kinesiology majors take a series of lower and upper division core courses. Based on the chosen area of concentration, additional courses which are related to that specified area of concentration are taken. Prior to coming on campus for the review I was in contact with the department’s
Assessment Coordinator (Jan Kodat) and the Department Chair (Sean Sullivan). I arrived on campus for a review of the program on November 27, 2012. During my time I met individually with the Assessment Coordinator and the Department Chair. I also met with all tenure track faculty members within the department and two different groups of students. In each of the following sections I will give an overview of my impressions and thoughts regarding this area.
Curriculum:
Currently Kinesiology majors at CBU concentrate in one of three areas: Exercise Science,
Physical Education, and Sports Medicine. In order to graduate students must complete a total of 124 units. This includes 45-62 units of general education and 52 units specified for the
Kinesiology major. Generally, the requirements for the BS in Kinesiology are appropriate and will give the students a basic knowledge of the program. A few key thoughts will be provided here that the department can consider:
1.
Anatomy and Physiology: In the lower division core classes students are required to take Anatomy and Physiology 1 (BIO 153) however they are not required to take part 2 (BIO 163), except for the students who concentrate in
Sports Medicine. According to the CBU catalog part 2 of this class covers the circulatory and pulmonary system. These are two very important systems for
Kinesiology students to understand. Presumably the students are introduced to these while taking KIN 383, but if they have not had the basics of the system, the instructor for KIN 383 will have to spend time reviewing the basics instead of spending his/her time on how these systems work during and as a result of exercise.
2.
KIN 303: There seems to be confusion amongst the students in regards to the
Foundations class (KIN 303). According to the CBU catalog it is supposed to be a

review of the discipline, specifically discussing the historical, philosophical, and scientific foundations. The students I spoke with seemed to feel it was more of an introductory class to the major and a chance to see what options are out there for Kinesiology majors. If the class is truly taught this way, the department should consider changing the description in the catalog and calling it an
Introduction to Kinesiology, with a lower division number applied. In addition, some students expressed that this class was worth too many units and that it should be something that is taken very early in the program (as is ALH 101). It might also be that students were confusing ALH 101 with KIN 303, and some students were talking about one course while others the opposite.
3.
KIN 110-122: There are very few schools which require general activity courses for their Kinesiology majors. It makes sense that the students within the Physical
Education option have a background in a variety of sports, but this is often taught at a level of how to teach the sport instead of just a general activity. In addition, if the goal is to make sure that Kinesiology majors have at least some experience with a variety of sports, then playing a varsity sport should not be an acceptable alternative. Likewise when I performed a review of other universities with similar majors, I found none to require an activity course, unless it was part of the general education requirement. If keeping this requirement, the department should have clear reasoning.
4.
Labs: The department has laboratory space and equipment that could be used in several courses. There is no designated lab time scheduled into the curriculum.
Keeping most of the classes as 3 units certainly has advantages when working out class schedules and faculty load. However, having a designated lab time could be highly beneficial to students (specifically in KIN 353, 383, and 393). In talking with the instructors, it is evident that they try to give hands on laboratory experience, but this necessitates scheduling it during class time.
5.
Recommendations on Curriculum: The curriculum is fine as it stands, however it might be further improved. The following are things that the department should at least consider as they continue to move forward. i.
Seriously consider requiring both BIO 153 and 163 for all KIN students. ii.
Clearly define what the department wants to accomplish in KIN 303 and make sure this is clear to the students. iii.
Determine if the department wants to continue requiring activity classes for all majors. iv.
Consider adding a one unit laboratory component to courses in which laboratory equipment is available.

Faculty:
The Kinesiology department currently has six full time faculty members along with a full time lecturer. Five of these possess a doctoral degree. Faculty members at CBU are evaluated based on their success in teaching (60%), service (20%), and scholarship (20%). Therefore teaching is seen as a high priority at CBU. The full time faculty members typically teach 4, 3 unit classes each semester. A faculty member can be bought out of part of their teaching assignment if they have other sources of revenue to cover their time (i.e. external grant funding). However, in talking with the faculty it is unusual for a faculty member to be bought out of their teaching requirements.
1.
Teaching: As stated above, teaching is considered to be a high priority for faculty members. The effectiveness of the teachers is primarily through student evaluations.
The students have an opportunity to evaluate faculty members at the end of the term for each class. According to the department chair, it is generally expected that 85% of scores are in the very good to excellent category. In addition, faculty members have the option of asking for a peer-evaluation, if they feel this will help their teaching. This can go in their personnel file if they would like but it is not required. In talking with the students, they were generally pleased with the quality of education and their professors. Specifically they mentioned: a.
They felt like the CBU faculty were “some of the best teachers around” b.
Because of the relatively small size of the university the students said, “we really get to know our professors.” c.
Many students are happy enough with the program that they are planning on continuing to stay on for their master’s degree.
It appears that faculty members in the Kinesiology department take their teaching responsibilities seriously and strive to help their students learn.
2.
Scholarly Activities: This is an area where some of the faculty members struggle to excel. Part of this is because the university does not place a high priority on research and other scholarly activity. It is hard for faculty members teaching a full load of undergraduate courses to spend a tremendous time on research. I commend the department for trying to do some research and being involved with professional organizations (i.e. National Strength and Conditioning Association, American College of
Sports Medicine, National Athletic Training Association, and the American Alliance for
Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance). I will comment more on the place of research below.
Faculty members are given an ability to travel to professional conferences to present their research or as an attendee. The amount of money available varies from year to year, but it appears that no faculty member has recently been denied funding to attend

a conference. If the faculty member is presenting at the conference, the funding level has typically been 100%.
3.
Service: The faculty members seem to be adequately involved in service to the department, the university, and the community. Faculty members are expected to schedule eight hours per week for Office Hours. During this time they are expected to be available to the students within the department. In addition, the department makes an effort to get the students involved in service to the community.
Research:
There is always a debate in undergraduate programs on the place of research, both in terms of how much time the faculty member should emphasis research in their career and how much the students should be exposed to work on research. Many graduate schools like to see that their applicants have at least been exposed to research. With CBU typically expecting scholarly activity to be about 20% of the faculty member’s workload, it is difficult for a faculty member to develop a specific line of research and turn this into publications and potential external grant funding. However, it does appear that some research projects are conducted at the school, which allows the undergraduates at least some exposure to research, even if they are not directly involved in the data collection, analysis, and presentation. In addition, the research will likely help those who conduct the research to become more effective in their teaching.
In order to get more faculty members involved in research, it might be a good idea to discuss areas of common interest within the department and how faculty could collaborate on a research project. In addition, it would be to the benefit of faculty members to contact faculty from more research intensive universities who may be conducting research related to their interests. The CBU faculty member might be able to contribute to the project and begin to start developing their own line of research. In addition, this would allow faculty to not have to do everything themselves, thereby reducing their workload, while still giving them an opportunity to publish and enhance their abilities in research. The undergraduate students could be involved in a variety of ways. Some students might act as subjects, some might help with basic data collection, and an exceptional student might be able to get involved in analysis and presentation.
Student Learning Outcomes:
The Kinesiology department has developed a set of 10 Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) that are evaluated. Two SLO’s are specific to the Physical Education concentration and two are specific to the Exercise Science Concentration. Most of the SLO’s are related to a knowledge base or the demonstration of an ability related to their academic discipline. These are

evaluated as part of key classes in which students are evaluated according to a rubric developed by the department. The rubrics appear to be appropriate and a reasonable evaluation of the knowledge and abilities in the related SLO. Overall, the knowledge and abilities that are expected with the SLO’s are appropriate for an undergraduate program in
Kinesiology. Two SLO’s are related to performing a specific activity outside of the classroom:
1.
SLO 1: “Kinesiology students will demonstrate active involvement in their field through membership in at least one professional organization.”
2.
SLO 3: “Kinesiology students will demonstrate having worked at least fifteen hours as a volunteer in a teaching, coaching, officiating, ministry, or related position while enrolled as a CBU undergraduate.”
The goal of SLO 1 is to get 100% of majors to meet this goal by graduation. This will be difficult, because even though it is desirable to have a professional membership, and student membership is usually relatively inexpensive, it still requires an outlay of money. The difficulty is evidenced by the last survey conducted by the Kinesiology department (only 3 out of 92 surveyed students were members of a professional organization). It might be a good idea for the department to identify a class or classes where the instructor will make a concerted effort to inform the students of the benefits of professional membership. Another thing to consider is changing the SLO to having students identify some of the benefits of membership in professional organizations. This would likely lead to greater participation than what is currently experienced.
SLO 3 was recently evaluated (2010-2011). There were 59 surveys collected. Of these, 36 had completed the minimum of 15 hours of volunteer time. Of those students who did not complete the minimum number of hours, only four were seniors. Therefore it is likely that the majority of students will meet this SLO prior to graduation.
SLO 8 states: “Kinesiology students in the physical education emphasis will demonstrate mastery of physical education concepts, teaching methods, and learning styles prior to graduation.” This was also recently evaluated (2010-2011). Out of the 11 students evaluated on a comprehensive unit plan, 10/11 demonstrated competency, while 5/11 demonstrated mastery.
Overall, based on the evaluations that have recently taken place, the Kinesiology faculty members appear to have done a good job in preparing the students in the various SLO’s.
Student Perspective:
During my time at CBU, I had the opportunity to discuss the Kinesiology program with two groups of students, approximately 50 total students. Most of these students were Juniors and

Seniors, with approximately half of them spending their entire college career at CBU. Generally speaking the students were happy with the program. Some students liked certain classes, but not others. However, there was no consistency in this discussion, other than what the students called “Intro to Kines.” It appears that they were talking about KINE 303. The consensus was that it should be taken earlier in the program and that by the time they took it, they were already too far along in their program for it to help. (make it a prereq for other KIN 300 level courses?)
In addition, the Kinesiology department has obviously done a good job promoting the taking of certification exams, specifically the CSCS certification of the NSCA. There was somewhat less knowledge of ACSM certification. The department might want to make a concerted effort to make sure students are introduced to all the various levels of certification and the pros and cons of each.
Summary / Conclusion:
Overall, the Kinesiology department is doing an effective job of preparing their students for a career in Kinesiology and/or graduate school. The curriculum is appropriate and the faculty members appear to be committed to effectively teaching the students and helping them develop into professionals. The department seems committed to developing faculty members, giving them an opportunity to grow by attending and presenting at professional meetings. As with any program, there remains room for improvement. The specifics on this are noted in the sections above. The department has begun conducting exit interviews of graduates. I commend the department for taking this step and hope they will continue this effort to help further examine what can be done to strengthen the department.
The above analysis is a summary of my review based on conversations with the faculty and students at CBU, along with reading through their evaluation procedures and the curriculum requirements.
______________________
Bryan L. Haddock, DrPH, FACSM
Professor of Kinesiology
California State University, San Bernardino