Bus3 12
GE Area E Annual Assessment
Spring 2012
General Education Annual Course Assessment Form
Course Number/Title ___Bus 3 12___
Results reported for AY __11-12______________ # of sections ____3____ # of instructors _3__________
Course Coordinator: __Jackie Snell__________________ E-mail: _jacqueline.snell@sjsu.edu__________
Department Chair: __Wm Jiang_____________________ College: ___Business_____________________
GE Area ____E_____________________________
Assess GE CLO#3: Social Skills
This is the third year this course has been taught, so we are assessing each SLO for the first time.
Spring 2012 annual report
Short essays ask students to follow 5 rules of negotiation. They are taught this
in the context of talking about money in a relationship, but are also told these
are general rules for working with people, whether colleagues or negotiating a
large contract.
Sample question & rubric:
1. Jessica and Sam, the fictional young couple we met in class, who are engaged, want to
address an issue in their relationship. Jessica is still in college, completing her nursing
degree. Sam has completed his college education and is now working full time. Jessica
wants Sam to help pay for her tuition, but Sam thinks Jessica’s tuition should be her
responsibility. How could Sam and Jessica address this issue constructively? Write a short
dialogue (conversation) illustrating the five effective communication rules discussed in
class and in “Getting to Yes”. (1 pt ea. 5 points total)
Rubric, 1 pt each for:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Make an app’t
Start w/I statement
Interest not position
Facts not opinions
Invent win-win situations
Results:
Looks like we are doing as well as can be expected teaching this topic. We made a definite
improvement from spring 2010 to fall 2011 (explained in the next paragraph). One semester in AY 10-11
our guest speaker for this topic couldn’t make it. Mr.Blitzer and I presented the material, w/o most of
the interesting stories Dr. Lawrence had, but we had the class more interactive on the discussion
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GE Area E Annual Assessment
Spring 2012
between Sam and Jessica. By combining the middle scores, those doing OK/good, we see that the %
students who just didn’t get it clearly went down, those who were OK/good ALSO went down, so the
really big change is in those students who nailed it.
The table below shows little difference between fall and spring semesters in AY 11/12. In fall the exam
was given with the usual review before the exam. In spring I told the students (whomever attended
class on Wednesday – the large common lecture) that this question would be on the exam Monday.
Thus this gives a baseline for the amount of effort students will give to the exam. Even when students
were told this would be on the exam there was no change in the highest and lowest learning categories,
and a small, possibly significant change from “OK” to “good.”
Bus3 12
% of class achieving
GE Area E Annual Assessment
Sp10
n=25*
32%
Sp10
F11
n= 119
46%
Excellent (5 pts)
Good (4 of 5 pts)
32
48
39
OK (3 of 5 pts)
16
Needs work (2 or fewer pts out of 5)
20
14%
*2nd semester course was offered. Sample from 60 students enrolled
Spring 2012
F11
20%
19%
Sp12
n=92
46%
41
Sp 12
baseline
25%
16%
13%
Another way of looking at student communication skills is to look at the effect of students helping
others in their group to excel at doing the math problems.
Bus3 12 Area E SLO 1 & 2
3rd year follow-up report
1. Recognize the physiological, social/cultural, and psychological influences on their well-being;
2. Recognize the interrelation of the physiological, social/cultural, and psychological factors on
their development across the lifespan;
These have proven to be the most difficult learning objectives to satisfy in this course. We modified the
reading assignments, lectures, and activities each semester that we taught this course (6 semesters).
We chose to focus on stress to satisfy these learning objectives because money causes stress in a lot of
people. We base the content for these 2 learning goals on “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert
Sapolsky. He does an excellent job of presenting evidence that humans mainly die of long-term stress
related diseases (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, even cancer, have some relationship to stress).
However, the reading is pretty dense. I have used various combinations of excerpts from the book, or
other articles by Sapolsky, and “A Surprising Secret to a Long Life: Stay in School”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/health/03aging.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=surprising%20secret%20to%20a%20long%20life
&st=cse) .
With changes in the course, the questions on exams have changed. Table 1 summarizes the results.
Appendix 1 gives a sample of questions used over the semesters.
Explanation of the apparently better spring 2010 essay questions: We had very much smaller lab
sections (and for that matter, therefore, relatively small “large lecture” sections). One section in
particular scored well on this question. It happened to have been mine (Jackie) and I attribute it to a
couple of very interested students who asked good questions. I may have scored more leniently, as
well. The fact that students are showing better performance on the fill-in-the-blank questions in 2012
than on m.c. in 2011 suggests that we are doing better in teaching this material. I think that grasping
interactions among psychology, sociology, and physiology is difficult for most of our students and that
the essay question is simply asking too much. The fact that 47% of students correctly answered that an
SES gradient is bad when it is too large suggests that more students learned the most important lesson
of this segment of class than the essay question indicates.
Bus3 12
GE Area E Annual Assessment
Spring 2012
Table 1: Stress Question Analysis
Excellent
Good
acceptable
Needs work
2010 sp*
27.9%
16.4%
19.7%
36.1%
2011 sp**
38%
25%
38%
2012 sp*
16%
21%
23%
37%
2012 sp ***
53%
28%
7%
11%
*5 pt essay on final exam. 5pts = excellent; 4 pts = good; 3 pts = acceptable; 2 or fewer pt s= needs work
** Averaged across 11 multiple choice questions. 90%+=excellent;80-89% correct = good; 70-79%
correct = acceptable; <70% correct = not acceptable
*** Fill in the blank questions
Looking more closely at the fill-in-the-blank questions: Questions #3 and #5 separated the
excellent/good students from the struggling students (52% & 42% correct respectively). Most students
got 2 out of 3 ways to manage stress (94%) and most got 2 signs of stress correctly (93%). The remaining
three questions got 86-96% correct responses.
Part 2
To be completed by the department chair (with input from course coordinator as appropriate): (4) Are
all sections of the course still aligned with the area Goals, Student Learning Objectives (SLOs),Content,
Support, and Assessment? If they are not, what actions are planned?
All instructors use the same syllabus, schedule, assignments, and rubrics for grading. Papers are graded
on grammar, clarity, conciseness and coherence.
Wm. Jiang, Chair, Organization & Management
Date
Appendix A Sample Exam Questions
Spring 2010:
In your own words explain at least one way that was discussed in this class in which psychological stress
affects physiology (the human body and its parts).
Scored on 5 point scale, but given as extra credit:
Spring 2011:
1. In the United States, who is more likely to develop stress-related disease
a. Top executives
b. People with little control in their jobs
c. Married women
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GE Area E Annual Assessment
Spring 2012
d. Single men
Answer: b
2. Exercise helps to reduce stress. Which of the following is FALSE? Exercise:
a. Is best when you push to your limit
b. Reduces stress best when voluntary
c. Is best on a regular basis
d. Relieves stress for a couple of hours after the workout
Answer: a
3. Epinephrine causes which of the following?
a. Increase in heart rate, breathing, blood sugar, eye dilation
b. Increase in heartbeats per minute, breathing rate, and digestion
c. Decrease in heart and breathing rate; increase in digestion, fat storage
d. Decrease in heartbeats per minute, breathing rate, and digestion
Answer: a
4. According to the New York Times article, “A Surprising Secret to a Long Life,” why do researchers
think that education has such a strong association with longevity (a long life)?
a. Educated people are more likely to be able to afford health insurance
b. Education teaches nutrition, so educated people eat a healthier diet
c. Education teaches delay of gratification. “Living for today’” is one of the worst things for health
d. People who are healthy are likely to make more money
Answer: c
5. In "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers", Spolsky suggests that, in humans, ______ is related to higher levels
of physical and psychological stress
a. Poverty
b. Age
c. Education
d. All of the above
Answer: a
Spring 2012:
Short Essay:
What are the effects of large discrepancies in income and wealth (that is a steep SES gradient) compared
to moderate discrepancies? (5 pts)
Rubric:
 3pts if only wrote about poor vs wealthy, not about differences in gradient.
 4 pts get the effects of feeling poor vs being poor
 5 pts include effects on social capital
Some of the evidence presented in Chapter 17 “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert Sapolsky.
Large gradients lead to:
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GE Area E Annual Assessment
Spring 2012
1. Both rich and poor are less healthy than cities/counties/countries with moderate discrepancies.
2. Less social capital – belonging to groups that are bigger than self, sense that most people would
rather be fair than take advantage.
3. Rich would rather live in gated communities than contribute to public goods
4. Higher crime, esp in poor neighborhoods
Fill-in-the-blank questions
Question
1. Stress is good when __________________________________.
2. Stress is bad when ___________________________________.
3. The hormone that is most often measured as an indicator of stress is ______.
4. Are scary movies stressful? (yes or no) ___________________.
5. When is an SES (socioeconomic status) gradient bad? ______.
List 3 ways to manage stress:
6
7
8
List 2 signs that you may be under too much stress:
9
10
Rubric
best: short term
Best: long term
cortisol
yes
when it is too large
many good answers
many good answers