Assessment of General Education at American University June 2013 A new program of General Education went into effect at American University in 2013, calling for new assessment plan for student learning in gen ed courses. This memo and the attached materials describe the new assessment processes. The new Gen Ed program is designed to help students reach eight broad learning outcomes: After completing the General Education Program, students will be able to LO1: Demonstrate aesthetic sensibilities through critical reflections on the nature and history of beauty and art (Aesthetic Sensibilities). LO2: Show mastery of communication skills by interchanging ideas and information through writing, speech, and visual and digital media (Communication – oral and written). LO3: Apply the skills of critical inquiry through systematic questioning and analysis of problems, issues, and claims (Critical Inquiry). LO4: Demonstrate understanding of diverse perspectives and experiences through acquiring knowledge and analytical skills to understand a variety of perspectives and experiences, including those that have emerged from the scholarship on age, disability, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and social class (Diverse Perspectives). LO5: Exhibit innovative thinking by venturing beyond established patterns of thought in imaginative and creative ways (Innovative Thinking). LO6: Exhibit ethical reasoning through assessing and weighing of moral and political beliefs and practices, and their applications to ethical dilemmas (Ethical Reasoning). LO7: Demonstrate information literacy by locating, evaluating, citing, and effectively using information (Information Literacy). LO8: Demonstrate quantitative literacy in applying mathematical, statistical, and symbolic reasoning to complex problems and decision‐making (Quantitative Literacy). These learning outcomes provide the basis for ongoing assessment of student learning in Gen Ed starting in 2013‐2014. For the next four academic years, two Learning Objectives will be examined each year. Student learning will be measured using both measures carefully designed (or selected) and implemented by faculty assessment teams. Faculty assessment teams will be three‐person subgroups of AU’s General Education Committee. One team, known as Team A, will guide the first to learning outcome assessments in 2013‐2014. The next year’s two assessments will be led by Team B, which will have a completely different membership. The third year will be led by Team C, and the fourth year by Team D. Names of specific individuals are provided on the timeline for Teams A through C. The membership of Team D will be drawn from members of the Gen Ed Committee who will not be appointed until the years 2014‐2016. Because of the essential roles of critical thinking and communication skills in general education for all undergraduates, we chose to assess these two learning outcomes—Critical Inquiry and Communication‐‐ during the first year of assessment, 2013‐2014. Several well‐developed measures are available for these two outcomes, facilitating research design for this first round of assessment and allowing the Gen Ed Committee to become familiar with assessment processes as they deal with outcomes on which there are high levels of agreement among faculty in terms of learning and of measurement. The sequence of assessment activities and assessment team responsibilities appear in Table 1, the Timetable for Gen Ed Assessment, attached to this document. The left‐hand column lists each learning outcome, and the right‐hand column lists the membership of each assessment team. Columns in between show time progression from Spring 2013 to Spring 2016, indicating the semester in which each outcome will be the subject of data collection, data analysis, and of curricular changes suggested by assessment data. For example, data on Critical Inquiry was collected in the Spring Semester of 2013; it is being analyzed in the Fall of 2013; and the results of that analysis will be put into action in the Spring of 2014—that is, if Team A finds that a lack of critical thinking, some strategies will be activated to address student needs in this area. Student work will be sampled for the assessment of each learning outcome. Currently there are some 130 courses approved for General Education at American University. Table 2 shows how many courses in each of our five curricular areas claimed to fulfill each of the Gen Ed learning outcomes. This table indicates that a wide variety of courses is available for participation in the assessment of each learning outcome. The goal of the assessment of Gen Ed is to determine student progress toward achieving our University‐
wide learning outcomes. In all activities, the Gen Ed Committee, Faculty, and staff will ensure that no assessment data is linked to individual students; that no student results are linked to faculty performance; and that assessment results only will be reported in aggregate terms so that students, faculty, and courses are not identified publicly. Outcome
Critical Inquiry
Quantitative Literacy
Spring2013
Fall2013
Spring2014
gather data* ECON200 and ENVS150
analyze, report, recommend
implement changes
Fall2014
analyze, report, finalize method, rubric, gather data recommend
ANTH 225 PHYS230 IBUS200 PHYS220
Spring2015
Fall2015
Spring2016
Fall2016
implement changes
Spring2016
Assessment
Team
Units
represented
Tschemplik, Pearson, Vilanova
PHIL, ARTH, WLC
Larkin, Gabriel, Adams
PHYS, SOCY, PERF
PHIL, PERF, HIST
Aesthetic Sensibilities
finalize method, rubric
analyze, report, gather data ARTS210 JWST210 recommend
SPAN210 JLS215 PSYC220 implement changes
Tschemplik, Gabriel, Giandrea
Communication Skills: Oral and Written
finalize method, rubric
analyze, report, gather data recommend
ARTH210 LIT240 SISU211 GOVT210 CHEM230 implement changes
Klein, Gumbrewicz, KSB, JLS, CHEM
Hartings
Diverse Perspectives
finalize method, rubric
analyze, report, gather data recommend
GDES230 COMM270 SOCY235 AMST240
implement changes
Tschemplik, Wigfall‐ PHIL, SIS, SOCY
Wms, Adams
Information Literacy
analyze, report, finalize method, rubric, gather data recommend
JLS225 COMM280 PUAD260 BIO200
finalize method, rubric Innovative Thinking
Ethical Reasoning
Vilanova, Bair Van WLC, PHIL, LIT, Dam, Tschemplik, GOVT, KSB
Gumbrewisc, Klein
implement changes
analyze, report, finalize method, rubric, gather data recommend
PHIL 105, PHIL220 implement changes
gather data LIT245 analyze, report, SOCY215 ANTH215 recommend
HIST210 PHYS200
implement changes TBD in AY 2015
TBD
TBD in AY 2015
TBD