Closing the Loop in General Education: Adapting Current Models to New Accreditation Standards Timothy S. Brophy, Director of Institutional Assessment M. David Miller, Chair, General Education Assessment University of Florida Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education Conference, Salt Lake City, June, 2018

Let’s talk about you and your institution General Education on your campus: Your institution Who oversees it?

University of Florida Land Grant, Research Intensive, AAU Institution 55, 862 students (2017) 36,366 Undergraduates (2017) 16 Colleges – 10 colleges with general education courses Main Campus and UF Online

Florida Requirements for undergraduate programs Academic Learning Compacts SLOs in communication, critical thinking, and content General Education – three institutional outcomes Subject areas – composition, physical and biological sciences, humanities, social and behavioral sciences, mathematics Unique to UF: international and diversity

General Education Program Requirements Outcomes

Let’s talk about you and your institution General Education on your campus: What external regulations must you accommodate?

UF Institutional Assessment and Effectiveness Cycle Student Learning Outcomes/Program and Unit Goals Assessment Planning Implement the Plan and Gather Information Interpret and Evaluate the Information Modify and Improve Institutional Effectiveness Assessment

University of Florida General Education Assessment CYCLE GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE UF’s SLO Category definitions* UF’s Institutional SLOs for General Education *BOG Regulation 8.016 UF’S MASTERY/NON-MASTERY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ↕ GENERAL EDUCATION CORE COURSE-EMBEDDED ASSESSMENT AND MEASUREMENT Student mastery data reported to the General Education Committee; Biennial SERU data Data is reviewed, analyzed, interpreted MODIFY AND IMPROVE GENERAL EDUCATION New SACSCOC standard 8.2b SLO Categories: Content, Critical Thinking, and Communication General Education and Academic Assessment Committees review and approve the measures

Let’s talk about you and your institution General Education on your campus: How do you assess student learning in general education?

Assessment Input Dr. Brophy and Academic Assessment Committee conducted focus groups on assessment at UF – Major Findings included Faculty sent in data but did not receive anything back Faculty were not sure how to use data Recent Changes in SACSCOC require programs report how data is used for program improvement Consequently – Developed Visualization that is being piloted with General Education and other UF programs

Direct Assessment: Visualization Faculty from select general education courses provide assessment data This is visualized using Tableau General Education Visualized Data

General Education Effectiveness Direct Measurement : Student Achievement Data Positive Results Raises questions Indirect Measures : Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Biennial Undergraduate Survey Comprehensive Survey with Limited Items on General Education

Indirect Assessment: SERU (2015) Contribution of courses to your: Percent responding Significantly or Extremely Gen Ed Other Critical Thinking 25 35 Clear and effective writing 34 32 Appreciate, tolerate and understand racial and ethnic diversity 36 26 Read and comprehend academic material 28 Quantitative skills 68 Speak clearly and effectively 47 Understand international perspectives 57 48 Appreciate fine arts 33 40 Appreciate cultural and global diversity 37

Accreditation and Triangulation SACSCOC standard 8.2b - The institution identifies expected outcomes, assesses the extent to which it achieves these outcomes, and provides evidence of seeking improvement based on analysis of the results for student learning outcomes for collegiate-level general education competencies of its undergraduate degree programs. (Student outcomes: general education) Current challenge is to triangulate both direct and indirect assessment data and use this analysis to seek improvement – to close the loop

Our Next StepS Within the current framework: Develop Training Modules for Using Data to Improve Courses Develop Guidelines for Faculty to Use Data to Close the Loop New Program - QUEST (4 years) Curriculum enhancement – multidisciplinary courses in Arts and Humanities (Quest 1) and Natural and Social Sciences (Quest 2) Experiential education (Quest 3) and Capstone within major (Quest 4)

Follow-up Procedures to Include Item analyses – Reviewing Specific skills and items to better understand what students do best and still have trouble Incorporating other data into decisions – other measures of learning, student reactions and opinions Reviewing the curriculum and its relationship to the data Is instructor training needed to align teaching, curriculum and assessment

Follow-up Procedures to Include Is the measurement adequate or are changes needed? (item statistics or overall reliability and validity) Review SLOs and performance standards and expectations Consider subpopulation differences Consider prerequisites

New Program in Development: QUEST Quest Model

Let’s talk about you and your institution General Education on your campus: What activities and methods are being used at your institution to close the loop?

Questions?