Western Carolina University
(Environmental Health)
(Department of Health Sciences)
(College of Health and Human Sciences)
Annual Assessment Report for 2007-2008
Primary Contact Name/Info:
Burton R. Ogle, Ph.D., Program Director – bogle@email.wcu.edu - 828-227-3517 – G-11 Moore Hall
Student Learning
Outcome(s) Assessed in
2007-08
Effective Communication
Method(s) of
Assessment
For the 2007-08 school year, five
upper-level environmental health
classes – ENVH 312 Solid and
Hazardous Waste Management,
ENVH 310 Water Quality, ENVH
375 Toxicology; ENVH 457
Industrial Hygiene, and ENVH 493
Noise and Hearing Conservation,
incorporated a writing/presentation
assignment of similar type, length
and structure (referred to as
communication skills assignment).
The writing/presentation assignment
included a research component, a
technical writing component, and a
formal oral presentation component.
The two faculty coordinating the
courses used identical evaluation
criterion, including a student peerevaluation. The assignments were
made approximately mid-way
through each semester and students
were required to post and respond
to peer postings (in WebCAT),
various research rubrics as the
semester progressed. At the end of
the semester, the students prepared
a formal technical report and a
formal presentation. The faculty
coordinators met and compared
evaluations of students among all
five classes to help determine
effectiveness of the assignment
(some measured improvement in
communication skills). The students
were compared across two
semesters and up to five courses.
Results of Assessment
Implementation Plan
Evaluations of communication skills assignments
were audited by the two faculty coordinators for all
five courses and the following observations were
made:

All students appeared to have
improved their comfort level with public
speaking.

Written communication skills appeared
to improve more significantly for
students who were in classes with
“Writing Fellows” assigned to help
mentor the student’s written work.

Students in group presentations did not
show as much improvement as those
participating in individual presentations

Approximately 20% of students made
significant progress over the two
semesters.

Almost 80% of the students showed
moderate improvement in one or more
communication skills

Less than 5% of the students
demonstrated no improvement.

The student peer evaluations were
consistently higher than the faculty
assessments.
The Communications Skills
Assignments will be continued
for the following school year.
Results of the communications skills assignment
were overall very positive. The students could
see for themselves that they were more
comfortable with public speaking by the end of the
second semester. Lesser progress is indicated for
written assignments than for public speaking. The
WCU Writing Fellows Program can have a highly
positive effect on writing skills.
Writing Fellows will be
requested for as many of
these courses as possible.
Even though lesser progress
appeared with group projects
over individual projects, the
group projects will be
continued, in that they provide
an additional, different
learning component.
The faculty coordinators of
this assessment will modify
their evaluation form as
necessary to improve
assessment.