General Education Assessment Report: Fall 2017 Attributes Committee (GEAC) SUNY Oneonta

GEAC Membership Gayane Torosyan, Communication & Media (Chair) Paul Bauer, Economics, Finance and Accounting Kirsten Hilpert, Dietetics Angeliki Kazas- Pontisakos, Mathematics Michael Koch, Philosophy Priti Tiwari, Chemistry & Biochemistry Steve Walsh, Management, Marketing and Information Systems Eileen Morgan- Zayachek(ex-officio) Amie Doughty, English

Attributes Assessed Fall 2017 · American History (AM3) · Other World Civilizations (OW3) · Western Civilization (WC3) · Foreign Language (FL3) · Critical Thinking (CT)

Why Assessment? SUNY/ Middle States mandate To measure student learning To measure program effectiveness To provide feedback to faculty and Senate Image from UConn (http://assessment.uconn.edu/why)/)

5 Fall 2017 Observations On average, only one third of all faculty selected for assessment has returned their reports Participation was much lower than the desired 20% of students Only 9% of the student population has been assessed in Fall 2017 GEAC needs assistance reaching departments and faculty with reminders

Summary of American History (AM3) Assessment for Fall 2017 6 Summary of American History (AM3) Assessment for Fall 2017 About 62% of students assessed for this SLO have exceeded the expectations of their instructors About 21% of all students assessed have met the expectations Approximately 12% have approached the expectations Only 5% of students assessed did not meet expectations

Summary of Western Civilization (WC3) Assessment for Fall 2017 Learning Outcome % Exceeding % Meeting % Approaching % Not Meeting % Exceeding/ Meeting Students will demonstrate knowledge of the development of the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc., of Western civilization, and relate the development of Western civilization to that of other regions of the world. 19.3 45.0 17.0 13.9 64.3

Summary of Other World Civilization (OW3) Assessment for Fall 2017 Total offered = 37 courses Number selected = 11, but 2 were incorrect in identifying instructor Max enrollment = 1237 Max enrollment of selected = 330 or 26.68%

Poor quality reporting: Using multiple data sources that reflected a final grade vs the specific SLO area assessment measure not effective, and performance criteria were not defined Based on the 2 poor quality reports 80% of students met or exceeded

Good quality reporting: Developed specific assessments that evaluated students’ competency in the SLO area. Defined the performance criteria. Provide clear outcome results Closed the loop with thoughtful insights/changes if necessary Based on the 2 good quality reports 85% of students met or exceeded

Summary of Foreign Languages (FL3) Assessment for Fall 2017 Only one class was assessed Results cannot be generalized

1212 Shortcomings Current GenEd assessment methods do not work well for some of the skills associated with attributes, for example - Critical Thinking Inconsistency of our charge: perception among faculty that GEAC is evaluating courses rather than attributes In the light of limitations of course-based assessment, perhaps consider the possibility of involving departments for increased oversight Consider an outcome-based assessment program rather than a disciplinary distribution system

1313 What’s Next? Workshops dedicated to assessment training and discussion (as part of “closing the loop”) Forms emphasize use of assessment data to inform teaching and learning and to help guide improvement of general education Please announce in your departments: Fall 2018 drop-in workshops scheduled Thursday, April 26 From 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon IRC B-19

Next GenEd Attribute to Assess BS3: Basic Communication = COMP 100