Assessment of General Education Social Sciences Knowledge and Skills Area

1
Assessment of General Education Social Sciences
Knowledge and Skills Area
SUNY General Education Assessment
Conference November 13, 2003

• Presenters
• Frances Dearing, Assessment Coordinator
• fdearing_at_monroecc.edu
• Wanda Willard, Assistant Professor, Psychology
• wwillard_at_monroecc.edu
•  Susan J. Belair, Chair, Anthropology/History/Poli
  tical Science/Sociology
• sbelair_at_monroecc.edu

2
PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

• MCCs Assessment Liaison System
• Assessment Liaison Experience General Education
  Social Sciences
• Faculty / Department Chair Perspective
• Conclusion
• Group Discussions
• Creative ideas to build faculty ownership of
  assessment

3
History of Assessment Monroe Community
College 1990 Assessment
SUNY
President
Assessment Committee
Committee Liaison
Committee Liaison
Committee Liaison
Committee Liaison
Department Assessment Coordinators
Department Assessment Coordinators
Department Assessment Coordinators
Department Assessment Coordinators
4
Monroe Community College Assessment
Organization 2000 Current
Vice President Academic Services
Dean Curriculum Program Development
Assessment Coordinator Office of Outcomes and
Assessment
Discipline Assessment Liaisons General Education
Program Assessment Liaisons Career Programs
Faculty Assessment Committees
Faculty Assessment Committees
5
Discipline Assessment Liaisons

• General Education
• Ten Knowledge and Skills Areas
• Two Competency Areas
• One Liaison per Area
• Three Year Rotation Cycle

6
Program Assessment Liaisons

• Career Programs
• Seventy Career Programs
• One liaison per three to five related programs
• Seven year rotation cycle

7
ASSESSMENT LIAISON RECRUITING CRITERIA

• Recommendations from Vice President of Academic
  Services, Deans and Department Chairs
• Achievement of tenure and college contributions
• Evidence of team building interpersonal skills
  and tenacity
• Demonstrated/or potential leadership and
  accountability
• Possesses a sense of humor
• Knowledgeable of faculty and administrative
  politics

8
ASSESSMENT LIAISON INCENTIVES

• Release time (3.0 hours) for two semesters
• Support and guidance from Assessment Office
• Advice and feedback from Institutional Research
• Availability of internal and external assessment
  training
• Recognition from College for promotions and/or
  personnel file

9
Assessment Liaison Experience

• General EducationSocial Sciences

10
General Education Social Sciences Assessment

• 2 campuses
• 3 extension centers
• 6 departments
• 33 courses
• 59 faculty members
• 127 course sections
• 4,836 enrolled students

11
Departments Represented and Diversity of
Courses Assessed

• Anthropology
• Economics
• Geography
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Sociology

• ANT 102 Cultural Anthropology
• ANT 201 Native American Peoples and Culture
• ECO 101 Introduction to Economics
• GEG 102 Human Geography
• POS 110 Introduction to Political Science
• PSY 101 Introductory Psychology
• SOC 101 Introductory Sociology
• SOC 200 Social Problems

12
Benefits of Assessment Liaison System

• Administrative support
• Assessment Coordinator, Office of Assessment,
  release time, training, support of division deans
  and senior administration
• Effective and ongoing dialogue among faculty
• course and curriculum development

13
Benefits (cont.)

• Establishing course learning outcomes
• to better match SUNY General Education Social
  Sciences learning outcomes
• Streamlining curriculum
• evaluating courses that meet/do not meet the
  requirements of SUNY General Education Social
  Sciences

14
Benefits (cont.)

• Better understanding of the difference between
  teaching objectives and student learning outcomes
  
• teaching objectives what instructors should
  teach in a given course
• student learning outcomes what students
  actually learn in a course
• Greater appreciation of faculty commitment to
  teaching and learning

15
Challenges of Assessment Liaison System

• Developing common learning outcomes among diverse
  courses and disciplines
• Determining assessment measures to be used, given
  diverse courses and educational philosophies
• course-embedded
• grade-dependent

16
Challenges (cont.)

• Designing assessment measures to better
  correspond with needed statistical information
• frequency distributions per learning objective
• Including adjunct faculty in assessment process
• different campuses and extension sites
• evening and Saturday courses

17
Challenges (cont.)

• Managing and overseeing complete assessment
  process for social sciences
• number of courses, faculty, departments, and
  sites involved
• insuring that courses not offered during current
  assessment cycle are assessed in subsequent
  semester
• timely reporting of results

18
Keys to Assessment Success

• Faculty involvement and ownership
• six faculty members, each representing a separate
  discipline
• opportunities for input from all faculty

19
Keys to Success (cont.)

• Clarification of purpose of assessment
• to improve student learning outcomes
• it is learning outcomes, not individual students
  or faculty, being evaluated

20
Keys to Success (cont.)

• Organization skills
• committee members with effective organization
  skills
• Communication skills
• ongoing and frequent communication at all levels

21
Keys to Success (cont.)

• Knowledge about assessment principles and best
  practices
• reliability/validity
• writing behavioral objectives
• terminology
• course-embedded
• objectives versus outcomes
• diversity in assessment techniques

22
Keys to Success (cont.)

• Recognition that assessment is a continuous
  process
• assessment results should lead to meaningful
  change in courses and/or curriculum

23
General EducationFaculty Perspective

• Philosophy of Assessment
• Original Process
• Department / Discipline
• multiple courses in one department/discipline
• multiple general education areas in one
  department/discipline

24
Cheerleader

• DAL Selection
• faculty involvement
• faculty motivation
• faculty ownership
• release time
• Discipline Representative Selection
• no release time

25
Responsibilities

• DAL / Discipline Representatives
• department configuration
• discipline configuration
• workload issues
• tool development, administration and collection
• results and reporting of results
• implementation of changes
• maintain faculty ownership over the process

26
Discipline RepresentativesFall 2002

• Objective development
• Tool development
• Tool administration
• full-time/part-time/adjunct faculty
• multiple campuses
• off-site locations
• Data collection
• Results analysis
• Reporting

27
Discipline RepresentativesSpring 2003

• External reporting of results
• Internal reporting of results
• changes to
• tool and/or
• curriculum
• re-administration of assessment tool
• reanalysis of results

28
Assessment Liaison System

• Evolutionary System
• Administrative Support
• Faculty Collaboration
• Faculty Incentives
• Faculty Ownership

29
Helpful Words

• Outcomes assessment is not one more thing we
  have to do. Its the only thing. Its the only
  way of knowing if students are learning what we
  think we are teaching. Without outcomes
  assessment, we must take it on faith that
  students are learning what we are teaching.
• Diane Halpern
• Keynote Address Best Practices in
  Assessment in Psychology Education
• Atlanta, GA
• September, 2002

30
Creative Ideas to BuildFaculty Ownership

• What assessment strategies have been successful
  at your institution?

31
Closing

• Comments
• and
• Questions

32
Contact Information

• Frances Dearingfdearing_at_monroecc.edu
• Wanda Willard
• wwillard_at_monroecc.edu
• Susan J. Belair
• sbelair_at_monroecc.edu
• www.monroecc.edu