SJSU Annual Program Assessment Form
Academic Year 2013-2014
Department: HUMANITIES
Program: CREATIVE ARTS BA
College: H&A
Website: <SJSU.EDU/CREATIVEARTS>
Program Accreditation (if any): NONE
Contact Person and Email: SHANNON ROSE RILEY (shannon.rose.riley@sjsu.edu)
Date of Report: June 1, 2014
Part A
1. List of Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
1. Perform interdisciplinary analysis of various forms of creative arts, attending to connections and
commonalities as well as differences, in both written and oral formats.
2. Understand and describe the arts as contested sites of cultural production and the role(s) of the arts
in the development and articulation of various social forms.
3. Demonstrate the ability to develop and use practice-based methodologies in research projects.
4. Identify, select, use and cite information sources appropriately.
5. Create class projects that demonstrate innovative thinking.
6. Collaborate effectively with other students in the completion of team projects.
Faculty decided on PLO content and criteria for assessing levels of mastery during the 2011-12
Program Planning process. Ongoing assessment of levels of mastery is monitored by the Creative
Arts Program Coordinator, Shannon Riley, who teaches several such courses.
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Social and Global
Responsibilities
Applied Knowledge
Intellectual Skills
Broad Integrative knowledge
PLO/ULG
1. Perform Interdisciplinary Analysis
2. Describe arts as contested social areas
3. Demonstrate method in research skills
4. Ability to identify . . . and cite
information
5. Innovative thinking
6. Collaboration
Specialized knowledge
2. Map of PLOs to University Learning Goals (ULGs)
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
3. Alignment – Matrix of PLOs to Courses
See Creative Arts Program Assessment Schedule (University assessment website)
4. Planning – Assessment Schedule
See Creative Arts Program Assessment Schedule (University assessment website)
5. Student Experience
We are at an early stage in changing the way PLOs and the ULGs are communicated to students as well
as in the way student feedback is considered in the creation of the PLOs. We are placing all of this
information on the department website, but that is a mere starting point. What instructors do in their
courses is more important. The Coordinator of Creative Arts will return from sabbatical in Fall 2014, and
the department curriculum committee will discuss with her strategies for introducing classroom
discussion of and activities related to helping students learn the PLOs of their major—as well as the
ULGs—early on in their curricular development. A new lower division course in Creative Arts, only
recently created, might prove to be an appropriate spot for this.
Part B
6. Graduation Rates for Total, Non URM and URM students (entire department)
7. Headcounts of program majors and new students (per program and degree)
Fall 2013
New Students
Cont. Students
Total
1st Fr.
UG Transf
New Creds
1st Grads
UGs
Creds
Grads
UGs
Creds
1
9
0
0
42
0
0
52
0
1
9
0
0
42
0
0
52
0
8. SFR and average section size (per department)
9. Percentage of tenured/tenure-track instructional faculty (per department)
Fall 2013
Humanities
% Tenured/Prob
Tenured
Probationary
Temp Lecturer
47.8%
7.918
8.653
0
Part C
10. Closing the Loop/Recommended Actions
As the Coordinator (and also sole tenured faculty member full time in the Creative Arts Program)
is on sabbatical this semester, the department curriculum committee will await her return to
share with her ongoing university developments in integrating program planning and
assessment (such as is evidenced by this new standardized annual assessment form) and the
specific data collected and findings from this academic year. Her contributions will be vital to
any decisions about modifications or tweaks to the program.
11. Assessment Data
Data was collected in Creative Arts 178 on both PLO 2 and PLO 3 from 15 students in this major.
For PLO 2, instructor Rue wrote: The assignment was to create group presentations based on
the students’ reading of T.V. Reed’s The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights
Movement to the Streets of Seattle (2005). We began with an overview lecture of what
comprises social movements, particularly how they bring about social change through repeated
public displays. The overall focus of the book charts how different artistic and cultural
expressions [music, drama, poetry, mural painting, film, graphic arts, internet] embodied and
amplified the message of various social movements [ie Civil Rights, Women’s, Brown Power, Red
Power Movements]. We divided into three groups. Each group covered 3-4 chapters. As a
seminar we constructed evaluative goals for the presentations. Presentations balanced history
with examples of the artforms involved. Another focus was pedagogy which challenged students
to involve the rest of the seminar in discussion and enactment as part of the presentations.
Each group was evaluated both verbally and written by the rest of the seminar using the goals
that the seminar had created.
For PLO 3, she wrote: The following assignment(s) was/were to related to this SLO:
Final Thesis Project Presentation: Each student developed a final thesis project as part of this
capstone experience. Part of the project included a presentation in front of the seminar.
Final Thesis Project Document: Each student developed a final thesis project as part of his or her
capstone experience. Part of the project included the implementation of the final work and its
documentation in some medium, such as a written thesis or thesis project video, etc.
Andrea Guel’s “Cosplay” project offers a good example. Her thesis was that Cosplay [costumed
play] can affect the confidence and body image of young women in the U.S. Her paper
complexified these categories of her thesis by adding race, class and gender as well as body size.
And her presentation/practice offered 5 guests in the classroom, including herself, all wearing
various costumes. Each person, including Andrea, spoke with pride about their cosplay character
concept, assemblage of the costume and what it felt like to publicly be seen as such characters.
Andrea, a most shy student, was dressed in a leotard, sheer hose, a plunging neckline, a crown,
high heel knee boots---all quite contrary to the quiet person she presents. She was embodying
and augmenting her thesis. This was dimension that gave evidence to her research inquiry.
12. Analysis
SLO 2. Understand and describe the arts as contested sites of cultural production and the role(s)
of the arts in the development and articulation of various social forms.
1. Numeric data: Out of 15 students, using a four tiered rubric for proficiency, 0 students
responded at an Emerging level, 2 at Developmental, 9 at Accomplished, and 4 at
Exemplary.
SLO 3. Demonstrate the ability to develop and use practice-based methodologies in research
projects.
2. Numeric data: Out of 15 students, using a four tiered rubric for proficiency, 0 students
responded at an Emerging level, 3 at Developmental, 4 at Accomplished, and 8 at
Exemplary.
13. Proposed changes and goals (if any)
For feedback on PLO 2, the instructor wrote: While most students expressed that they had
learned something about these social movements and their integration of the arts, two students
felt they had covered this material in other classes and found the narrative style of the Reed
book to be pedantic and wanted to suggest choosing a different book. With discussion, it was
decided to stay with the Reed book. However, this might be a cue to consider using several
books in the future, i.e. adding to a narrative history books of poetry and/or short stories that
play out the historical social movements as well as other mediums. I think this approach would
help to involve the seminar more thoroughly in the material that Reed covers. However, a
completely different approach could be to use a book like Reed’s with science fiction perhaps to
challenge students to think about how social movements in the future will use artistic and
cultural expression.
For feedback on PLO 3, the instructor wrote: The relationship between practice and research
for CA majors is crucial. I would suggest that the seminar could spend more time on unpacking
Dr. Riley’s article on the subject as well as the edited book that it comes from. There might be
more integration/braiding of practiced based research in the book[s] that the seminar would use
for group presentations. This integration could show models of how practiced based research
augments [not translates] research inquiry.
The Coordinator of Creative Arts, in consultation with the department curriculum committee,
will take this feedback under advisement.