COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR)
Revised 08/01/2011
Course Prefix, Number and Title: COM 285 Communication Disabilities and Film
School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts/Humanities
Submitted by: Olivia Biondi
Contributing Faculty: Nancy Faires
Academic Year: 2011-2012
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
Students will be able to discern
and distinguish bias regarding
those with disabilities.
Assessment Measures
In the boxes below, summarize
the methods used to assess course
outcomes during the last year.
Assessment Results
In the boxes below, summarize
the results of your assessment
activities during the last year.
Students will research and write
an accurate, well composed five
page paper regarding current
discrimination against those with
disabilities.
Page 1
Use of Results
Effect on Course
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:
COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR)
Course Prefix, Number and Title: COM 285 Communication Disabilities and Film
School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts/Humanities
Submitted by: Olivia Biondi
Contributing Faculty: Nancy Faires
Academic Year: 2011-2012
Course Outcomes
Outcome # 2
Students will critically analyze
the influence of film media on
how communication disorders
are viewed.
Assessment Measures
Students in each class section
will write a five-page paper
discussing and analyzing the
viewpoints presented by film
media on those with
communication disorders.
Assessment Results
Use of Results
Effect on Course
23 students completed the
assessment in the 1 section of
COM 285 offered at TMCC. For
the purposes of this assignment 1
film was required viewing:
Listen to Your Heart (Warner
Brothers, 2010). One of the lead
characters in the film is a
college-aged female who is deaf.
The assigned 5-page paper was a
2-part analysis: the first was an
in-depth examination of the
depiction of the communication
disorder in this particular film;
the second was an analysis of
such depictions in general, basing
this response on films and/or film
clips the class had viewed to
date.
Overall, the results of this
assessment indicate a very solid
understanding of the influence
film media has on how
communication disorders are
perceived by the viewing public,
but there is always room for
improvement. One of the
challenges facilitating this
particular class in an online
setting is that there are no livetime discussions of film that can
involve the whole (or even most)
of the students taking the course.
Given the students’ strong
understanding of how
communication disorders are
commonly depicted and the
categories of stereotypes these
depictions most frequently fall
into, a live-time discussion could
be beneficial as it could allow for
more subtle points of these
portrayals to be explored as a
class, and might encourage
students to ask more provocative
questions.
No, the results of this assessment
will not prompt a revision of how
this unit is taught. Based on the
overall high passing average and
the fact that 100% of the students
who completed the assessment
passed, there is no current need
for a revision of the teaching or
structure of this course.
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COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR)
Course Prefix, Number and Title: COM 285 Communication Disabilities and Film
School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts/Humanities
Submitted by: Olivia Biondi
Contributing Faculty: Nancy Faires
Academic Year: 2011-2012
Course Outcomes
Assessment Measures
Assessment Results
Use of Results
Both parts of the essay relied
upon Colin Barnes’ “10
Stereotypes of the Disabled” (an
academic paper dissecting the
most common stereotypes
applied to disabilities in film) and
Miriam Lerner’s “Narrative
Function of Deafness,”
specifically, on the most common
depictions of deafness and
hearing impairment in film and
television. The essay question
was phrased as follows:
Write a 5-page analysis of the
film Listen to Your Heart,
identifying and explaining the
impact of any stereotypes it
contains, how it fares as a
depiction when compared to the
rest of the films/film clips on
deafness you've watched this
semester, and, finally, what
broader implications can you
make about the way deafness
tends to be treated in film.
The students collectively passed
with an average score of 91%.
The low score was a 67% and
the high was a 100%.
As some of these films are online
on YouTube, this might be a
possibility. I’d encourage future
professors of this course to
consider arranging 1 “live-”film
viewing, where all students are
watching the film online at the
same time, to take place with a
concurrent or consecutive livechat discussion.
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Effect on Course
COURSE ASSESSMENT REPORT (CAR)
Course Prefix, Number and Title: COM 285 Communication Disabilities and Film
School/Unit: School of Liberal Arts/Humanities
Submitted by: Olivia Biondi
Contributing Faculty: Nancy Faires
Academic Year: 2011-2012
Please enter your name and date below to confirm you have reviewed this report:
Title
Name
Date
Department Chair/Coordinator/Director
Nancy Faires
12/23/2011
Armida Fruzzetti
8/10/2012
John G. Tuthill
8/27/2012
Dean
Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Services
8/
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