Queensborough Community College Department of Social Sciences Individual Course Assessment Report Date Submitted: May 13, 2013 Course No. /Title: PSYC 290 (SS‐590) States of Consciousness Course Description (from QCC Catalog): Examines theory and research related to various states of consciousness. Topics include ordinary consciousness, sleep, dreaming, hypnosis, meditation, biofeedback, sensory restriction, consciousness‐altering drugs, and parapsychology. General Education Objective (GEO8) Assessed: Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human behavior, social institutions, or social processes. Individual Course Objectives (ICO) Assessed: ICO 1: Students will demonstrate factual knowledge regarding the classification and comparison of different states of consciousness. ICO 2: Students will analyze, interpret, and integrate this knowledge within the larger framework of mind, philosophy, religion, and other disciplines ICO 3: Students will differentiate various kinds of self‐knowledge ICO 4: Students will evaluate the efficacy of various models of mind and consciousness and draw conclusions regarding their personal views. ICO 5: Students will draw inferences from scientific research ICO 6: Students will discriminate between adaptive and maladaptive expressions of altered states of consciousness. Curricular Objective (CO) Assessed: None Participants No. Sections Assessed: 1 No. Students Assessed: 22 Course Assessment Method See Appendix A for PSYC 290 (SS 590) States of Consciousness – Outcomes Survey Course Assessment Results: Narrative Summary One section of PSYC 290 (SS 590) representing a total of 22 students completed a course evaluation in the Spring 2013 semester. The survey asked the respondents to indicate whether they agreed with each of nine statements designed to measure either a General Education objective, an individual Course objective, or both. For ease of scoring all 10 items were keyed so that “agree” signified that the objective was met. As shown in the General Education Objectives and Individual Course Objectives Results Tables presented below, analysis indicated agreement, though to varying degrees, ranging from 82% to 95% with all 9 statements across the 9 statements. Statement #3 “This class helped me to understand how to classify and compare different states of consciousness, e.g., our ordinary waking consciousness; different states of waking consciousness like daydreaming and hypnosis; and the unconscious mental processes seen in sleep and dreams” received the highest agreement vis‐à‐vis the General Education Objective (95%), and statements # 6 “This course helped me to tell the difference between various kinds of self‐knowledge, as, for example, knowledge obtained through dreams, through meditative experiences, and through mystical experiences” received the lowest agreement vis‐à‐vis the Individual Course Objective (82%) and #7 “This course helped me to evaluate how various theories of mind and consciousness relate to me and to my personal views on these topics. E.g., can meditation help one in a secular or a spiritual way? Can hypnosis be useful in treating psychological and medical disorders? To what extent is the placebo a factor in psychotherapy?” received the lowest agreement regarding both the General Education Objective as well as the Individual Course Objective (82%) A comparison of results in the General Education vs. Individual Course Objectives Table indicates that overall student agreement was not significantly different (mean agreement of 88% vs. 87%) I. General Education Objective (GEO) Results Gen Ed Objectives Results Summary Table – GEO8 Survey Agree Question N #1 86 #2 91 #3 95 #4 86 #7 82 GEO8 Mean___88 II. Individual Course Objectives (ICO) Results Individual Course Objectives (ICO) Results Summary Table ____________________________ Individual Course Survey Agree Objective Question N(%)_ __ICO1________3_______ 95___ __ICO2________5_______86___ __ICO3________6_______82___ __ICO4________7_______82___ __ICO5________8_______91___ __ICO6________9_______86___ ICO Mean 87 Conclusions How did PSYC 290 (SS 590) fare in helping students achieve the General Education and Individual Course objectives? If we apply the grading standards of QCC in translating numerical grades to letter grades, we can see the following: Regarding General Education objectives, grades ranged from B‐ (Question #7) to B (Question #1 and Question #4) to A‐ (Question #2 and Question #3). Overall mean is a B+. Regarding Individual Course objectives, grades ranged from B‐ (Question #6 and Question #7) to B (Question #5 and Question #9) to A‐(Question #5). Overall mean is a B+ It should be also noted that only one student disagreed with one item. This was ICO 6 Question #9 which stated that “This course helped me to discriminate between the adaptive vs. maladaptive expressions of different states of consciousness, e.g., the benefits vs. the dangers of sensory deprivation, use of psychoactive drugs.” In addition nine students indicated that they neither agreed nor disagreed with one or more of the questions. These responses may be attributed to two factors: (1) ambiguity of assessment statements; (2) the instructors inability to fully meet general education and individual course objectives. Action Plan Description of action plan for addressing issues raised by course assessment project. Timetable for action plan implementation. The data presented in this report indicate that students expressed general agreement with both the General Education Objective as well as the Individual Course Objectives. In order to ensure even further future goal attainment here, the following suggestions are offered: 1. Future assessment outcome surveys should make sure that students understand the statements themselves. The present survey attempted to addressed this by providing ample examples for each item. 2. Psychology faculty could integrate the assessment goals within the course materials. 3. Psychology faculty could include assessment items on each exam given during the semester to evaluate the extent to which goals are being met.