Action Plan Summary for Program Review
Action Plan Activity Description
Describe with a brief summary an activity from your action plan.
Expand the role of IS coordinator from eight hours a week to 13 hours a week
(comparable to other coordinators) to include various assessment projects, marketing the
program to students, outreach of the program’s signature pedagogies to both the internal
and external communities. (These goals all relate to the college’s strategic plan.)
Resources needed:
List any resources that you will need in order to carry out this activity.
To accomplish the tasks outlined above, the IS coordinator will need access to additional
resources:
Assessment funds for:
1. longitudinal study of the effects of teaching in coordinated studies on IS faculty
2. longitudinal study of the long-term effects on students who participated in a
coordinated studies course – what skills and learning have stayed with them; how has
being in an coordinated studies course benefited them in their personal and professional
lives?.
3. assessment of general education learning outcomes and integrative learning outcomes
in coordinated studies courses and linked courses.
4. participation in the Washington Center Assessment Project (if our proposal is accepted,
this project will be funded by the Washington Center).
Marketing resources:
5. creation of an IS brochure for marketing in-house to students.
General promotional resources:
6. creation and implementation of an innovative outreach project to our external
community. The goal of this project would be to bring external community members to
North for “seminar nights” on good books in order to encourage participations to reengage in their communities at higher levels of awareness. This project will also help
raise awareness of the college’s innovative curricular programs and position North as the
academic choice for their sons and daughters!
Timeline -- planned
Give a general timeline for this aspect of the action plan.
2006-8
Participation in Washington Center Assessment Project
2007
Design and print marketing brochures about the IS program (if marketing funding is
available)
5/2003
Action Plan Summary for Program Review
2007
Implement first “Seminar Nights” on the campus for community discussions.
2007-09
Assessment of general education outcomes and integrative learning outcomes
2006-10
Two longitudinal assessment projects (if assessment funding is available)
Assessment
As you carry out the action plan, you will need to document and assess the effectiveness
of each activity. Briefly describe how you plan to assess this activity.
1. Expanding the program into other areas of the campus.
Integrative learning and the co-construction of knowledge are part of the reform
movement in education. The integrated studies program has already been approached by
the Executive Dean for Workforce Education who is interested in bringing integrative
learning into professional technical programs. Already, AS faculty are incorporating
linked courses into their schedules with innovative seminars for linked students. By
expanding the pedagogical principles into other areas of the campus, this will support the
awareness of administrators and other faculty of the importance of this program – not
only for student learning, but for faculty development as well.
2. Longitudinal Studies:
The longitudinal study with students who have already taken a coordinated studies course
will provide data to support the expansion of this program, as well as provide students
who are currently enrolled with a greater understanding of the validity and need for this
kind of integrative learning.
The longitudinal study with faculty will provide qualitative data (to support what we
already know from faculty logs and anecdotal data) to continue to build campus-wide
support of this kind of program and learning process.
3. Assessment of Gen Ed and Integrative Learning:
The planned assessment of gen ed learning outcomes, in both linked and coordinated
studies courses, will provide documented support of what students are already self
reporting – that they more deeply engage in and learn about the general education
outcomes in seminar modes and multi-faculty, peer-supported learning communities. As
IS faculty assess specific gen ed learning outcomes, they will design better rubrics for
assessment as well as more effective assignments.
The planned assessment of integrative learning will dovetail on the work of Vernoica
Boix Mansilla (Harvard, Project Zero) on how to assess interdisciplinary learning. Her
rubric and process, which the IS committee is familiar with, will be used to help faculty
5/2003
Action Plan Summary for Program Review
understand and therefore be able to articulate to students the importance and value of
interdisciplinary thinking in today’s complex world.
We will also be applying to be considered for the assessment project sponsored by the
Washington Center. This project provides ten colleges with financial support ($2,000) to
assess student learning in learning communities using the model of “The Evidence
Project” from Project Zero, Harvard University. The basic premise of this project is to
bring teachers together to develop the “kinds of conversations and processes that create
collective responsibility for assessing and improving instructional practices and learning
opportunities. Central to those conversations is collective inquiry into what counts as
evidence of true student learning.” Applications must be submitted by June 30, 2006.
Whatever knowledge is gained by faculty about student learning will be discussed and
integrated into course curricula.
Resources Needed for Assessment
If you will have data needs or resources related to the assessment, please identify those
needs here.
See Resources above.
5/2003
Action Plan Summary for Program Review
Action Plan Activity Description
Develop “How to Seminar” video to develop strong seminar skills in students, to
facilitate the learning curve in new seminar practitioners, to help faculty anchor effective
seminar skills, and to help place CS and seminar skills at the center of the college
pedagogy.
Video may also have value as a recruiting tool for the college, or for IS programs
specifically.
Resources needed
Funds for pre-production, production, and post-production.
Curriculum development grant ($4,500) – pending review.
Additional support from SOTL pledged.
We may request additional support from the Foundation for post-production,
Access to media services equipment, e.g. digital still camera, copying equipment for
existing tapes, other resources.
Timeline – planned
Pre-production: May- June, 2006.
Production: July 2006 (if we get funding from curriculum grant).
Post-production: July-August 2006 (if we get funding from curriculum grant.)
We hope to have this project finished by late September, 2006, if full funding is
available.
Assessment
Assessment of video production based on final product.
Assessment of value of video will be based on faculty observation of student acquisition
of seminar skills pre- and post-video, on student surveys on value of video from their
point of view, on dissemination of seminar skills throughout IS and other college
programs using video as teaching tool.
Assessment of video as recruitment tool based on showing video to prospective North
students and prospective IS students and tracking their responses. May be used by
faculty and advising.
Resources Needed for Assessment
Observation and surveys by faculty. Possibly observation by advising staff, if video is
used as recruiting tool for college or IS programs.
5/2003