DEPARTMENT DISCUSSION OF COMPREHENSIVE GENERAL EDUCATION DATA -­‐ SUMMARY FORM General Education Comprehensive Pilot Data – Fall 2012 through Fall 2013 General Education, MyCore, data have been collected during the two-­‐year pilot (2012-­‐2014). The General Education Council and the Office of Planning and Assessment request your assistance in reviewing General Education data, specifically your department data collected so far (Fall 2012 through Fall 2013). Since the purpose of assessment is improving student learning, the data we have collected must be examined by people who teach and are in the position to make sense of it—that is, the data should be analyzed by the relevant academic departments. The assessment summary also becomes a valuable resource for a department’s five-­‐year review and accreditation process when required. Your department summary is due Friday, May 10, 2014. What the General Education Council is asking departments to do with their own data? •
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Have a departmental conversation about the data. Questions provided on page 2 may be helpful in starting the departmental conversation. A person or committee might do the initial analysis, but everyone should be involved in the discussion at some point. For example, faculty teaching different sections of the same course may discuss the data from that course, and share the conclusions from that course assessment with the whole department. Consider what the data suggest about action to be taken—in instruction, curriculum, course structure or description, or assessment practice. Write a short summary using the form provided on page 3 for yourselves (as part of your department assessment plan) and to provide the GEC with some feedback to help us help you in the future. Please make sure the summary is shared with all faculty in your department. Post the written summary to your department TracDat account or e-­‐mail your short summary to Dr. Jerrold Harris, the Office of Planning and Assessment, who can post the document for your convenience. Please contact Dr. Jerrold Harris if you need assistance with TracDat (jharris@bloomu.edu or x4080). If you have questions regarding the process, please contact Dr. Ralph Feather (rfeather@bloomu.edu or x4276). *** For information regarding General Education -­‐ http://bloomu.edu/general_education/council 1 QUESTIONS DEPARTMENTS MIGHT ASK ABOUT THE DATA Each department chair will receive a .pdf document that includes Excel charts showing courses, their SLOs, and associated rubrics. Each chart offers a slightly different angle on the data. Charts 3 and 4 may be the most interesting for discussions about student learning. Questions about student learning: •
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Which areas seem to be most challenging for students? Of these, which should we as a department be attempting to improve at the general education level? Do the data indicate areas of strength or weakness in meeting SLOs? Do students score better on certain kinds of skills? For instance, how do scores on rubric elements associated with skills like memorization compare to scores on rubric elements associated with application or analysis? Are there areas at the General Education level that are the same areas that students struggle with in more advanced courses? What are the implications of these data for teaching in non-­‐
general education courses? Is anything surprising in these data? Where is it consistent with perceptions based on experience, and where does it differ? Questions about the courses, their SLOS, and their associated rubrics: •
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Are the rubric elements the most appropriate ones for the course? Do they match the SLOs? Are the SLOs appropriate and meaningful? Are they really getting at what is most central to the course? Are they developing the thinking skills we want students to have? Questions about standards—about what we mean when we score student performance: •
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As a department, how are we using the rubrics? As a department, are we in agreement about what the different performance levels mean? As a department, what do we mean by “capstone”? Do we expect to see capstone level work in the courses we have collected data for? How is our use of the rubric connected (or not) to grading of individual student performance? As a department, what are the implications of the way we are using the rubrics? Does the way we are using them help us to see student learning? Questions about the assessment process: •
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How cumbersome was the assessment process? As a department, how valid do we think the data are? How useful are the data? How could it be made more useful—or what data would be preferable? Questions leading to action: • As a department, what do these data suggest we might want to do? 2 DEPARTMENT DISCUSSION OF COMPREHENSIVE GENERAL EDUCATION DATA -­‐ SUMMARY FORM Please read the information and instructions provided to assist your department’s discussion about your General Education data before completing this summary form. Thank you for submitting your department summary by Friday, May 10, 2014. Department: _____________________________________________________ Date of this report: _______________________________________________ Date of Departmental Discussion/Meeting: ___________________________ 1. Upon reviewing and discussing your departmental data, what insights were gained about student learning, your course SLOs, assessment rubrics and/or the assessment process? 2. What action(s) based on these data is the department considering? (This might be an action related to improving instruction or emphasis within the courses, or a change to the curriculum. It might be a possible change to the rubric (is this the right rubric? or the courses’ SLOs (are these the right SLOs?) 3. After participating in the General Education two-­‐year pilot data process, what suggestions and/or recommendations do you have for the General Education Council’s consideration? 3