Examples

Business

BCM 225: Spreadsheets I  

Assessments— We assessed the two SLOs with three assessments: (1) students completed an excel spreadsheet project, which was evaluated with a three-point analytic rubric whose emphasis was on formulas, functions, formatting, and the printed product; (2) students also were expected to score at least 70% on the 34 T/F and multiple choice midterm, and (3) for both SLOs, students took a survey in which they assessed their own abilities.

Action Plans—Students achieved the SLOs in all areas except one question on the survey. Only 60% of students felt prepared to go on to the next level. As a result, we reconfigured the class so that students would do more projects that require them to apply the skills covered in the class. We also reconfigured the grading so more emphasis was on the projects and less on the quizzes and homework. The next time we administered the survey, students reached the benchmark in regards to feeling prepared to go on to the next level.

FCS 310: Nutrition  

Assessments—We used the same three assessments to assess all four of our SLOs, which made for more efficient assessment. Students took a comprehensive pre-post test; we identified which questions pertain to which SLOs for the assessment. Students also completed a visual and oral presentation, which was assessed with a 100 point checklist with ten criteria. And third, students assessed how well they mastered the four courses’ SLOs with a survey.

 Action Plan-- Students achieved the benchmark for all but one of the SLOs, the latter of which was negligible. However, we will review the questions for clarity and revise or replace accordingly.

WELL 701: Massage Therapy 1  

Assessment—The assessed learning outcome covers activities in several segments of WELL 701: therefore, we designed an assessment method that would take all relevant student activities (quizzes, practical palpation exams, etc.) into account. Scores on all activities were aggregated and converted to a performance percentage. We were very gratified to find that the standard we set (90% of students would achieve an aggregated percentage of 70% or better) was exceeded!

Action Plan-- While the fact that no student scored below 80% tells us that we are doing a good job with this learning outcome overall, the fact that we created a broad, combined measure does not allow us to assess how well each segment of student experience is contributing to the overall good performance. Though we will likely focus on assessments of other course learning outcomes in the near term, we could refine assessment of this outcome in the future by designing methodology that focuses on each segment of student experience. By focusing in this way, we would gain more detailed information about which parts of our instructional model are strongest and which parts could be strengthened.

Kinesiology

Dance 350: Cardio Dance  

Assessments—The SLOs range from technical mastery to choreography to fitness, and as such, require multiple assessment methods. Many of our assessments evaluate progress and achievement of personal goals since students are at different skill and experiential levels. Progress can be evaluated in multiple ways: actively participating in and attending class so as to practice, and being able to make self-corrections. In order to improve, students critique their own performance that is videotaped, and then are later evaluated based on the changes they’ve implemented.

No Action Plan Needed— The criterion was met for all of the SLOs.

FITN 106: Varsity Conditioning  

Assessments—Students are to be able to identify and build individual / team skills related to conditioning programs for specific sports , evaluation of various techniques, use of equipment, scientific knowledge of conditioning, and improve / maintain acceptable and healthy body composition, flexibility, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility. The assessments were oriented to individual students being able to demonstrate improvement in most categories over the course of the class, one for the individual student, and the other a Division Fitness Test (PEEP) that measures weight, blood pressure, flexibility, body composition, BMI, muscular endurance and cardiovascular efficiency. Students also are examined visually in order to make sure they assimilated concepts and can apply those concepts to a sport specific setting. Students more than surpassed the benchmarks.

No Action Plan Needed— The criterion was met for all of the SLOs.

INDV 101+105: Beginning and Intermediate Archery  

Assessments-- The same assessments were used for both the beginning and intermediate classes. The first SLO pertained to employing proper shooting technique. For the assessment, students had six opportunities to hit the target or within range and attain a given minimum score. They also completed a survey in which they assessed their abilities. For the second PSLO, they were expected to identify risk factors for heart disease and stroke, and apply general fitness/well-being principles to their own lifestyles. To demonstrate their understanding, they took a quiz, and to demonstrate application of these principles, they assessed their own habits.

No Action Plan Needed— The criterion was met for all of the SLOs.

Language Arts

ENGL 846: Reading and Writing Connections  

Assessments-- Using a rubric, we evaluated a text-based essay assignment that all participating sections assigned. This essay covered all of the SLOs—essay writing, critical thinking, integration of sources—except the metacognition SLO, which we have since inactivated since the information it yielded was obvious.

Action Plans-- Because students struggled with writing a strong thesis and adequately developing their ideas, we dedicated departmental meeting times to share instructional strategies. With the assessment of other composition courses, the department is now working on a departmental rhetoric so as to highlight best practices and adopt a common language around the teaching of writing.

JOUR 300: Newspaper Production  

Assessments: Students in JOUR 300 (now JOUR 320 and 330) were assessed twice during the course of the 2012 semester on how well they were able to recognize and evaluate sources for news articles. Students were asked to look at a selection of news stories in the context of doing their bi-weekly critique of the print version of their newspaper and then to identify who the expert sources were in each. This exercise helped them to key into not only what sources actually are, but also what kinds of sources are considered expert. (For example, the ASSC president would be considered an “expert” in a story on the opposition to plus/minus grading, since Associated Students officially weighed in on this topic. A random student on campus would not be an “expert,” but would still be useful as a source representing campus reaction.) Interestingly, students in JOUR 300 reached the benchmark for the SLO in the first assessment, but not the second. However, on closer analysis, the sample size for the second assessment was smaller than it should have been.

Action plan: The next time the assessment is conducted on this SLO, the assessment will be done in class to ensure originality of answers and to ensure that all students in the class participate in the assessment.

Science / Math / Technology

BIOL 101: Our Biological World  

Assessments-- The Department has consistently developed General Education Biology courses (numbered BIOL 100–199) to provide students with a scope of information that will help them to objectively deal with the events and responsibilities of daily life. The primary goals of these courses are to promote scientific literacy and therefore good citizenship. SLOs for these courses are essentially identical and include specific information and problem-solving skills necessary to make decisions regarding personal nutrition, environmental resources, and health care.

We created SLOs for these courses based on the unifying themes in Biology including evolution, scientific methodology, and ecology that could be used to assess all of the 100-level courses. We created assessment criteria that set the bar high for ourselves to encourage us to promote scientific literacy for all. Most of the 100s have completed several SLO assessment cycles:

Several common issues recur in examining reasons why students are not meeting the various standards. These include:

• Students are under prepared coming into the introductory level courses. However, more importantly they come in saying "I don't like science" or "I don't do well in science."
• Students do not integrate information from several sources when they are writing essays, research papers and other assignments that require this skill. It is apparent that students write the first response to googling the question—regardless of whether the response addresses the question.
• Students have difficulty solving problems that require a multi-step process and/or quantitative skills.

Action Plans-- While continuing to incorporate the importance and fun of understanding sciences some mitigations in progress:

• Divide challenging (quantitative) concepts into step-wise problems that guide problem solving.
• Incorporate more assessment measures that allow students to work collaboratively. (This was popular in Spring 2012 and resulted in increased scores.)
• Require students to analyze why each possible answer to a multiple-choice question is or is not correct.

MATH 811: Fundamentals of Mathematics  

Assessments— This was the math department's first attempt at the SLOAC. We identified Number Sense as our most important SLO and set out to assess it using several final exam problems scored with a rubric.

Action Plans-- Upon looking at the results we observed several things and made changes accordingly:

• In creating our criteria, we worded it to measure individual student performance rather than aggregate averages among students.
• We realized that the criteria was set unrealistically low and have put more experienced thought into criteria for subsequent assessment plans in this and other courses.
• In looking specifically at results on certain problems we saw that two common errors were to leave out units on answers that require them, and to leave fraction answers un-simplified. We have since added reminders to students both in the instructions on exams, but also have adjusted the instructions in exercises throughout the textbook.
• Students are struggling with estimation. We are continuing to look for ways to explain and gives students opportunities to practice estimation.
• We did not give the students opportunities to look at and use the scoring rubric before taking the exam. We now show the students at the beginning of the semester and throughout the semester how certain problems are graded.

MATH 120: Pre-Algebra  

Assessments-- In the spring, we analyzed the results and we determined that only 13% scored an average of at least 3.5, only 25% at least 3, and only 56% at least 2.

Action Plans-- Since the results were so dismal, we decided to repeat the same assessment in fall 2011 with the same criteria but with the following changes:

• We took out the radical model agreeing that they are the least important and come at the end of the semester and that many instructors had to de-emphasize them.
• We made more of an effort to remind students of the SLOs when the pertaining topics were covered rather than mostly only at the beginning of the semester.

The results in fall 2011 were much better, although still well below the criteria. We will continue to look for ways to improve student learning in this difficult topic and will most likely assess this SLO in the future to see if changes have improved their success.

Social Sciences / Creative Arts

ADMJ 120: Criminal Investigation  

Assessments—We used the same three assessments to assess all three of our SLOs, which made for more efficient assessment. First, students took pre/post tests because we wanted to see how much knowledge students gained from being in the class. Secondly, students wrote an essay that was evaluated with a rubric. And last of all, students took a survey in which they assessed their own abilities.

No Action Plan Needed— The criterion was met for all of the SLOs. We now have a benchmark with which to compare future assessments, and at this point, we don’t plan to make any changes until we assess again and note any drops in achievement.

ART 411: Ceramics  

Each semester I assess one SLO using direct measures including a project rubric of one completed art project, a critique rubric for the presentation of the students' artwork, a research paper, and a quiz. I also use an indirect assessment method of an exit survey related directly to the class SLOs. This assessment plan is tailored specifically for Ceramics I. The Art Department faculty are going to work next on creating an assessment plan like this one, that can be used across all studio mediums. This will help us to create a template that will aid our adjunct instructors in completing assessments and enable us to map trends among the studio arts classes.