Student Learning Assessment Program
Response to Summary Form
Undergraduate Programs 2014
Department: Family and Consumer Sciences, Family Services option
Level*
Comments
Learning
Objectives
Level 3, Family
Services
How, Where,
and When
Assessed
Level 2, Family
Services
Expectations
Level 2-3,
Family Services
Results
Level 2, Family
Services
How Results
Will Be Used
Level 3, Family
Services
Objectives are clear, programmatic, and measurable. Of the five
undergraduate learning goals, the following have been adopted by this
program: critical thinking, responsible citizenship, writing, and speaking.
This is a big improvement over previous plans that did not list as many
undergraduate learning goals. CAA/CASL have the goal of each of the
undergraduate programs adopting all of the undergraduate learning goals by
2016, so you may want to consider how you can incorporate quantitative
reasoning into your program.
The analysis of your program requirements and ways to assess your
objectives seems to have yielded fruitful discussions and changes in your
program. Collecting data from all required courses is an ambitious move, but
is an excellent practice that should provide important information related to
student learning. You have a solid plan for looking at what measures to use
to gather the most helpful data across your courses, so while you are influx
because of changes to the curriculum and the assessment plan, you have ideas
of where to go and how to gather what you need.
Expectations have been established for direct and indirect measures and may
be tracked over time. I like your idea to explain to students why you do
assessment and what your results tell you. I would imagine that there will be
some kind of analysis and reporting in many of their chosen fields as well.
Results are collected and analyzed. The potential CFLE designation sounds
like a promising move for the program; good luck pursuing this designation.
Asking your faculty to reflect on the assessment process and student learning
is an interesting way to close the feedback loop and provide additional insight
as well. Your plans to incorporate more information on policy analysis will
dovetail nicely with the civic component of responsible citizenship, so you
may find data related to that goal as well as your content objectives.
Feedback loop is in place and seems quite robust. Discussions related to what
assessment data tells you about student learning seem to be part of al faculty
meetings, which shows assessment of student learning outcomes is integral to
the education in your program. You have made curricular changes related to
these data, so that is excellent. Your team approach seems to be working well
with strong buy-in and collaboration.
Category
This program’s faculty had a great year for assessment of student learning. Kudos!
*
Levels should not be interpreted as grades or scores; they are stages of implementation based on patterns of characteristics described
by North Central Association/Higher Learning Commission. These levels are approximations based on the information provided in
the summaries. Please refer to the checklist on the assessment web site (www.eiu.edu/~assess) for the Primary Traits listed for each
level.