Five Types of General Education Assessment
1. GE Program Assessment
In response to recommendations by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Higher Learning Commission, the GEC developed a GE program assessment plan in the 2004-2005 academic year. The GEC developed a rubric for the assessment of student papers, a course sampling design, and an implementation plan.
The rubric (soon to be posted here) is designed to operationalize the tripart goals of GE (critical thinking, logical reasoning , and effective communication) using a 4-point scale in the evaluation of the student papers.
Faculty members elected to serve on the GEC represent all six curricula units (five colleges with the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences divided into behavioral sciences and humanities). Each of these GEC members selected the 300-level courses in their units taught by full-time faculty members. The faculty members and their chairs are scheduled to be contacted and provided with a explanatory document outlining the assessment procedures. Many or most of the students will have taken their GE courses by the time they reach this level (all GE courses are 100 and 200 level).
The participating faculty members will submit these papers along with the student questionnaires to the GEC for analysis. After applying the rubric to each paper and aggregating the data, the GEC will produce a program report; this process will be repeated annually.
The course sampling will be concluded and faculty contacts will be made in the Summer of 2005 and the first pilot program assessment will commence in Fall 2005; these data will be analyzed in Winter 2006 and so forth.
The GEC will utilize these reports in its overall planning process as it engages in the assessment of comprehensive program quality.
2. Departmentally-Generated Assessments:
These course embedded assessments capitalize on departmental faculty expertise in their substantive GE areas. Departments that have courses in the program first submit assessment plans to the GEC, which then provides written feedback.
Assessment plans specify the ways in which student learning (in terms of both the GE program’s main goals and the course’s category-specific objective) will be measured. After plans are approved by the GEC, departments are asked to submit annual reports on their assessment work for each GE course based on the plan; the GEC offers written feedback.
Over the past two academic years, most of the GEC feedback involved recommendations to assess students at more than one time in the semester so that longitudinal comparisons can be made concerning progress toward the GE goals. Feedback also urged departments to summarize the semester’s assessment activity in a brief report and to be sure that the students are assessed in the context of the GE tripart goals, the category’s student learning objective, and the criteria listed in the GE category.
The GEC maintains both plans and reports as open files in the Office of the Dean of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, Wickes 358. Rebecca Clifford maintains these files.
Members of the GEC have met with departments and faculty members on request and the GEC is always willing to provide assistance with the assessment process. The GEC is continually looking for ways to make the assessment reporting process easier. The guidelines for assessment plans and assessment reports, as well as GEC in-person consultation meetings, reflect these efforts.
The GEC also disseminated to department chairs a suggestion for using VSpace software in the assessment process.
The annual departmental GE assessment reports are due in to the Chair of the GEC in September of the subsequent academic year. For example, reports for the current academic year, 2003-2004 will be due on Monday, September 20, 2004. This deadline is also announced on the university e-mail system to all members of the campus community. All reports must be submitted as e-mail attachments in Microsoft Word format. The GEC no longer accepts hard copies of assessment reports.
As of Winter 2004, SVSU has completed two full academic years of GE departmental course assessment. The 2001-2002 period is summarized in the GEC’s first year-end report which is linked to this site (password protected). The GEC is in the process of preparing a year-end report for the 2002-2003 academic year and it will be posted in April or May of this year.
The GEC is pleased to observe that many departments have documented through assessment that their courses are meeting the goals of the GE program, the student learning objective listed for the particular category, and the bulleted criteria in the category.
The data generated from these GE departmental assessment course reports are for use by the academic program or department. The GEC merely exercises general oversight of the process, but the substantive findings of the report are for the department’s use to make changes in the course, if needed, based on the results of the annual assessment. In the fifth academic year of the course’s term in the program, the GEC will look at these data longitudinally to make a decision to retain or not to retain the course in the GE program after the department applies for renewal. If the department shows that the course is meeting the goals, student learning objective, and criteria in the particular GE category, then the course will receive a renewal for the next five years, and this is second type of assessment.
Links
3. GEC Longitudinal Analyses of Departmental GE Course Assessment
After the expiration of the five-year term for a particular GE course, departments participating in general education request renewal of their GE course(s) and, at that point, the GEC will examine the departmental assessment data; renewals will be based on these data. These written applications (memos) for renewal should contain a summary of the course assessment data for the five years. If this information is not included, the GEC will refer back to the conclusions of the actual course assessment reports on file and render as much analysis and interpretation of the outcome results as possible. We urge departments to clearly illustrate, in longitudinal format (comparisons of results from year to year) the student performance outcomes or results (as measured against the GE goals) over the past five years in the written renewal application.
4. Standardized Testing: Benchmarking FTIC (First-Time-In-College-Freshman)
The standardized testing to benchmark samples of SVSU FTIC was started (piloted) in Fall 2001 when Kim Good was Director of Assessment. The tests included sections directly relevant to the goals of GE. Testing was conducted with a larger sample beginning in Fall 2002, collaboratively arranged by the Assessment Office, Academic Affairs, and Enrollment Management. Sandra Nagel conducted the data analyses for that academic year and issued a report. The GEC requested testing for Fall 2003 and this was administered as well. These data are currently being analyzed under the supervision of the SVSU Office of Assessment.
The GEC has found that the standardized testing is useful for benchmarking SVSU student perspectives, and learning outcomes, against student performance samples statewide and nationwide. The full reports for the previous testing are attached. While the GEC has found these data to be useful, we have discontinued this type of testing.
Links
- Benchmarking Reports on Standardized Testing Data
5. GEC Comprehensive Assessment to Make Recommendations
The GEC is responsible for assessing the overall quality of the GE program in terms of course offerings, number of sections scheduled, and “assessing the assessments” (#1-3). The GEC chair reports on this effort to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and also makes recommendations.