4/16/07 Assessment of the Core – Humanities with Writing Charlyne L. Walker Director of Educational Research and Evaluation, Arts and Sciences

4/16/07 Assessing the Major SACS requires us to assess all degree programs bachelors through doctorate as part of Institutional Effectiveness FIU has been assessing our degree programs since Recent changes in SACS has moved us toward more direct measures Departments assess programs in a variety of ways Sample IE document

4/16/07 Humanities with Writing Core Category Description In these courses students strengthen the critical reading and writing skills needed to succeed within the University and beyond. Students interact analytically with, and respond critically to, primary and secondary texts in the humanities and learn to integrate the ideas and words of others into their own writing.

4/16/07 Humanities with Writing Core Category Description By writing informed essays, students develop the ability to present ideas logically and sequentially and to provide balanced exposition and critical examination of complex events, positions, arguments, or texts. In these courses students learn to use writing as a form of inquiry in reflecting critically upon central topics in the humanities, such as individual, moral, and social values; historical perspectives and events; culture and the arts; philosophy; and religious beliefs and practices. Students address themes centered on the traditions; shared values and myths; literary, artistic, historical, and philosophical traditions; and cultural standards and common values which underlie contemporary societies and their historical antecedents.

4/16/07 Humanities with Writing Core Category Competencies Students will be able to:  Interpret and explain in an organized, critical, and analytical fashion the meaning and structure of various texts in the humanities.  Explain, interpret, evaluate, elaborate, and describe in an organized critical and analytical fashion the context, history, influence, and structure of one or more of the following: Architectural, interior, and landscape design Religion and society Philosophies/historical and contemporary Cultures of the ancient world Major world civilizations American history Ibero-American history Morality and life Contemporary Europe History of Ideas Intellectual History

4/16/07 Objectives and Measures There should be objectives for the courses in course syllabi As objectives are developed, we may be asking for you to include them into course syllabi As measures are developed, you might be asked to include them into course syllabi to let students know what measures are being used This is not a “short term” solution for the 2010 SACS visit The measures must be on going as part of SACS requirements beyond 2010

4/16/07 Types of Direct Measures Embedded questions  Set of locally developed questions intended to measure specific student learning outcomes  Placed within tests of all sections of the same course  Used to track cognitive or skill development through a program, sets of embedded questions, with each expecting a higher level of proficiency than the previous, may be used across sequential courses Papers or short answer questions using rubrics – a rubric is used to standardize the grading of work

4/16/07 Types of Direct Measures Locally developed exams - exams produced by faculty within a discipline Pre/Post Test - a locally developed test that measure students’ incoming and post program levels of knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes to measure students’ gains You can find more types of measures at

4/16/07 Examples of Objectives and Measures from UCF EUH 2000 Western Civilization I - Students will be able to gather, synthesize, and analyze information from appropriate resources and be able to critically evaluate information and sources for accuracy and credibility. Measures:  1.1 EUH 2000 Western Civilization I - Professors and instructors will collect portfolios of work conducted by randomly selected students. Each portfolio will be determined grouped in one of three categories: "excellent," "satisfactory," or unsatisfactory. Faculty on the assessment team will evaluate the examinations, essays, and other work to determine whether each student demonstrates an ability to meet the "quantitative" factors of this learning objective, specifically can students gather, identify, and present significant information.

4/16/07 Examples of Objectives and Measures from UCF EUH 2000 Western Civilization I - Students will be able to gather, synthesize, and analyze information from appropriate resources and be able to critically evaluate information and sources for accuracy and credibility. Measures:  1.2 EUH 2000 Western Civilization I - Professors and instructors will collect portfolios of work conducted by randomly selected students. Each portfolio will be determined grouped in one of three categories: "excellent," "satisfactory," or unsatisfactory. Faculty on the assessment team will evaluate the examinations, essays, and other work to determine whether each student demonstrates an ability to meet the "qualitative" factors of this learning objective, specifically can students analyze information, appreciate the significance of that information, and array it into cohesive arguments or narratives.

4/16/07 Examples of Objectives and Measures from UCF LIT 2110 World Literature I - Be able to use textual evidence to support a claim (or reading/interpretation) of a text Measures:  48.1 LIT 2110 World Literature I - Faculty submit writing samples from 6 students; this sample must be from the first half of the semester (before midterm/withdrawal deadline). These writings can take a variety of forms, (discussion posts, first week diagnostic essay, "essay" quizzes, essay midterm question, short papers), but the assignment must be graded or the assessment will be invalid. The rubric we designed during Winter Workshop '05 will be used to evaluate student essays.  48.2 LIT 2110 World Literature I - Faculty submit a second set of writing samples, this time from the last half of the course (after the midterm through the final). Faculty will submit samples from the same six students selected for the first half of the assessment, so that we can also measure growth. Again, the writings can be discussion posts, "essay" quizzes, final exam essay questions, short papers, etc). We will use the same rubric to assess this second sampling.

4/16/07 Examples UCF General Education Historical and Cultural Foundation ew_2006_07.asp?program_ID=1239 UCF Assessment Plans for asp?group=visitor