1. Products & Assessments UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
NW Bio 2018
On the Road to a Sustainable Programmatic Assessment Plan for the Biological Sciences Department
California State University, Sacramento
Robin Altman, Shannon Datwyler, Kelly McDonald
VISION – Develop a sustainable assessment plan guided by Vision and Change
MAIN GOAL – Engage faculty in background work to develop this sustainable assessment plan
Photos should be at least 300dpi, but not more than 5-12 mgs each. Your poster is set to be enlarged 200% so do not change the page size to fit another poster size. Posters (3’ x 4’) will be printed at WWU using the same purchase order at the same time. Please your poster as a PPT file to by Joann Otto at WWU by Friday, April 13, 2018, by 5 pm. Please contact Joann Otto with questions about poster printing. Also please put your institution “logo” on your poster.
Please note that this template is provided to simplify your effort to prepare a poster for the NW Biology meeting. You can change the font size, colors, column widths, add photos, institutional logos, graphics, etc. This template can also be used as a starting point and you can be as creative as you want in your poster. However, we would like to have all of the posters the same size and we will be printed at the same time, at the same print shop in order to easily pay for printing with one purchase order.
ACTIONS
BARRIERS & CHALLENGES
Products & Assessments
Biological Sciences Department faculty revised or wrote student learning outcomes (SLOs) for all core courses in the Department
Faculty aligned SLOs with V&C Core Concepts and Competencies
Administered Concept Inventory for V&C Core Concepts (BioMAPS from University of Washington)
Faculty trained in assessment of critical thinking (Critical Assessment Tool (CAT) from Tennessee Tech University)
SLOs for nine core courses
BioMAPS administered to 1st cohort of 80 students across two semesters
All eight concentrations represented
2nd cohort currently in progress
Departmental plans for growth/change
Lack of expertise and training in SLO development:
Overcome by providing training and support for faculty during SLO writing process
Competing demands on faculty time
SUSTAINABILITY
RESOURCES & ALLIES
Education of faculty in SLOs, assessment, strategic planning
Sustainable Departmental Curriculum & Assessment (C&A) Committee
NW-PULSE: webinar on assessment, resources distributed through website and PULSE Fellows
SLOs
Assessment
Allies/Support
Existing SLOs
BioMAPS
PULSE Network
VALUE Rubrics
Department C&A Committee
Current Education Grants and Assessment Tools (CAT)
University Administration
Intra- and Extramural Data
Faculty brainstormed Departmental values and priorities to draft a strategic plan (Systems Thinking approach)
FUTURE GOALS
Using SLOs, Department C&A Committee will develop curriculum map
Further analysis of BioMAPS data; leverage results to close assessment loop
Develop additional assessments (V&C Competencies and exiting Senior Survey)
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
STRENGTHS & LEVERAGE
Fortuitous alignment with emerging University priorities:
Program reviews/accreditation
Course approval process
Strategic planning
Department assessment experience
Diverse, collaborative, data-driven faculty
University-wide emphasis on evidence-based teaching practices
This work was supported NSF RCN UBE award #