COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR) Revised 08/01/2011 Course Prefix, Number and Title: ANTH 101-Introduction to Cultural Anthropology School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts Submitted by: Thomas J. Kies Contributing Faculty: Academic Year: 2011-1012 Complete and electronically submit your assessment report to your Department Chair/Coordinator/Director. As needed, please attach supporting documents and/or a narrative description of the assessment activities in your program or discipline. Course Outcomes In the boxes below, summarize the outcomes assessed in your course during the year. Outcome #1 Key Concepts: Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism. Assessment Measures Assessment Results Use of Results Effect on Course In the boxes below, summarize the methods used to assess course outcomes during the last year. In the boxes below, summarize the results of your assessment activities during the last year. In the boxes below, summarize how you are or how you plan to use the results to improve student learning. Based on the results of this assessment, will you revise your outcomes? If so, please summarize how and why in the boxes below: Essay and short answer responses from all course sections in fall 2011 and spring 2012. Total course sections=16. Measure 1—Cultural Relativism 2009-2010— 87.17% 2010-2011—83.83% 2011-2012—86.53% One issue with 101 sections is the variety of instructors teaching the course and the wide array of means of assessment used by these instructors. We might borrow from Psychology who has implemented standard assessment techniques in all 101 course sections. A similar technique might improve assessment efforts. This outcome does not need revision rather we need to further contemplate how to best improve student learning of the concept. Sharing of teaching resources, developing a common assignment, or increasing time spent on this area all may contribute to increasing scores in 2011-2012. A slight increase is noticeable from 2010-2011. Cultural Relativism is a core concept of anthropology and there is more work to be done especially in light of the fact that we are still below the 2009-2010 results. Page 1 COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR) Course Prefix, Number and Title: ANTH 101-Introduction to Cultural Anthropology School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts Submitted by: Thomas J. Kies Contributing Faculty: Academic Year: 2011-1012 Course Outcomes Outcome # 2 Social vs. Biological Construct of Race. Assessment Measures Essay and short answer responses from all course sections in fall 2011 and spring 2012. Total course sections=16. Assessment Results Measure 2—Race Social Construct 2009-2010— 79.28% 2010-2011—80.98 2011-2012—75.51% A decrease is noticeable within findings of this measure. The drop of 5.47 percentage points illustrates a strong need for reinforcing this concept within our classes. The variance is significant though ranging from 56.3 to 97.1. Outcome #3 Cross Cultural Comparison on Key Anthropological Topic. Essay and short answer responses from all course sections in fall 2011 and spring 2012. Total course sections=16. Measure 3—Cultural Comparison 2009-2010—85.18% 2010-2011—72.44% 2011-2012—77.73 An increase of 5.29 from the previous year is noticeable. Though this is still significantly lower than the average from 2009-2010. Use of Results Effect on Course In one course section, a significant number of enrolled and active students did not complete the assignment as it was only 10% of the total grade. Perhaps increasing the weight of such assignments would increase the student participation and improve the lower sections. During spring semester full-time instructors shared a common assignment and future standardization may help to rectify the decrease present in our finding. A common measure would be a better starting place for comparative analysis individually and collectively of this measure. Improvement is positive. Interestingly the majority of outliers include online courses and one specific live section of the course 101 1003 Fall at 56.7%. Revision of outcome warranted. Revise outcome/measure during the 2012-2013 Program Unit Review. Several faculty question the ability of 101 students to have the proper preparation to address this measure sufficiently. Others claim that his measure is difficult to assess because it is purposefully vague to cover the breadth of anthropology. Page 2 COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR) Course Prefix, Number and Title: ANTH 101-Introduction to Cultural Anthropology School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts Submitted by: Thomas J. Kies Contributing Faculty: Academic Year: 2011-1012 Course Section Assessment Note: Percentages represent the number of students reaching benchmarks Measure I Measure I Measure II Measure II Measure III Measure III 60% 70% 60% 70% 60% 70% 101 1001 Fa 85.7 85.7 97.1 97.1 96.7 93.3 101 1002 Fa 94.4 88.9 96.7 96.7 93.5 93.5 101 1003 Fa 67 67 83 83 75 56.7 101 1004 Fa 100 90 90 80 87.7 87.7 101 1005 Fa 100 86.7 93.3 70 93.3 80 101 1007 Fa 100 100 78.1 68.1 87.5 65.6 101 1008 Fa 91.4 84.3 71.4 67.9 78.6 60.7 101 1009 Fa 93.8 93.8 75 75 62.5 56.3 101 1001 Sp 101 1002 Sp 101 1003 Sp 101 1004 Sp 101 1005 Sp 101 1006 Sp 101 1007 Sp 101 1008 Sp Averages 90 100 100 83.3 94.4 93.5 87.5 91.7 92.04 86 100 78.6 83.3 83.3 83.9 81.3 91.7 86.53 93.05 100 76 58.3 69.4 89.3 81.3 66.7 82.42 77 88 76 58.3 69.4 78.6 56.3 66.7 75.51 95 100 100 91.7 86.1 75 87.5 75 86.57 Page 3 95 100 82.1 69.4 86.1 71.4 87.5 58.3 77.73 COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR) Course Prefix, Number and Title: ANTH 101-Introduction to Cultural Anthropology School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts Submitted by: Thomas J. Kies Contributing Faculty: Academic Year: 2011-1012 Please enter your name and date below to confirm you have reviewed this report: Title Name Date Department Chair/Coordinator/Director Thomas J. Kies 5/17/2012 Dean Armida Fruzzetti 8/10/2012 Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Services John. G. Tuthill 8/24/2012 Page 4