General Education Writing Across The Curriculum Retreat Session II: The State of Writing at UNLV: Preliminary Findings October 6, 2006

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General EducationWriting Across The Curriculum
RetreatSession II The State of Writing at
UNLV Preliminary FindingsOctober 6, 2006
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Goals for the Session

• Describe preliminary findings from the Review of
  Undergraduate Writing
• Discuss as a group possible conclusions that we
  might draw from the preliminary findings
• Begin to explore the following questions
• What are we currently doing about
  writing/communication at UNLV?
• What else do we need to do about
  writing/communication at UNLV?

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State of Writing at UNLV

• Review of Undergraduate Writing
• Current writing requirements and practices
• Current quality of undergraduate writing
  abilities
• Faculty and student attitudes about writing
• State of other modes of communication (speaking,
  visual, digital)
• Produce Report--end of Spring 2007 semester

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Sources of Data

• First-Year Composition Program
• Department Chair Survey
• Writing Center/Teaching and Learning Center
• College/Department/Program Assessment Data
• Employers in Las Vegas
• National Survey of Student Engagement
• Graduate Exams (GMAT)

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First-Year Composition Program

• Source Fall 2005 Assessment Report
• Employed Collegiate Assessment of Academic
  Proficiency exam by ACT
• 72-Question multiple-choice writing skills test
• Essay test (two 20-minute writing tasks)
• 32-Question multiple-choice critical thinking
  test

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First-Year Composition Program

• Measured six outcomes associated with
  college-level writing
• Focus on purpose
• Respond to needs of audiences and to different
  kinds of rhetorical situations
• Organize ideas for clarity and effectiveness
• Adopt an appropriate voice, tone, and level of
  formality
• Implement strategies of argument, and analyze
  and evaluate reasons and evidence
• Control surface features such as syntax, grammar,
  and punctuation

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First-Year Composition Program

• Students scored satisfactory, averaging 1-3
  above or below the national means in 5 of the 6
  outcomes
• Differences of less than 5 considered negligible
  deviation, 5-10 moderate deviation, and greater
  than 10 substantial
• The outcome that students scored below was,
  actually, a subcategory Basic grammar and Usage
  scored 6 below the national mean
• First-Year Composition can only tell us about the
  state of writing at the freshman level.

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Department Chair Survey

• Source Survey distributed by the WAC Steering
  Committee
• Six questions about writing in the department
• Writing requirements
• Amount and kind of writing
• Majors quality of writing
• Faculty attitude
• Feedback from outside constituents
• Additional comments
• Completed surveys from eight departments

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Department Chair Survey

• Initial observations from the surveys submitted
• Currently no writing requirements, although most
  teachers willingly assign writing
• Variety of discipline-specific kinds of writing
  assigned, although majority are research
  papers/reports/essays
• Page requirements average 6-15 pp course per
  semester
• No real revision opportunities offered
• Very few oral assignments listed/described

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Department Chair Survey

• Initial observations from the surveys submitted
• No concrete findings about quality of student
  writing
• Faculty attitudes seem strong overall
• Very little feedback about student writing
  outside the dept.
• Chairs consistently like the idea of WAC, as long
  as its flexible and well-supported

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Writing Center

• A unit of the College of Liberal Arts, reporting
  to the Department of English
• College of Liberal Arts provides budget for
  operations and the wages of several consultants
• Department of English assigns graduate teaching
  assistants
• The Regents Award Program (RAP) funds two
  positions, which must be approved on a yearly
  basis.
• The College of Hotel Administration reimburses
  for the salary of one writing consultant
• The Office of Information Technology funds the
  receptionists who monitor the computer lab.

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Writing Center

• 2005-2006 2,849 total visits
• 967 were for composition courses.
• 67 of all remaining visits were for all other
  courses
• Shows students across campus are seeking
  assistance
• Staffing varies by semester must turn away
  students
• Need for more consistent and equitable funding

Hotel (36) Business (15) Liberal Arts (11) Health Science (8) Education (6) Sciences (6) Other/Undecided (6) Engineering (5) Fine Arts (5) Greenspun School (4) Honors (0) Law School (0)
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Teaching Learning Center

• Offers an array of workshops in as many as 17
  different programs on a regular basis
• Select TLC Programs with direct or embedded
  connections to writing/communication
• Are They Learning? Classroom Assessment
  Techniques
• Case StudiesCreate Your Own
• Plagiarism Deterring It
• Research Assignment Design
• Service Learning
• Writing Assignments Across the Disciplines

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UNLV College/Department Assessment Data

• Sources Fall 2005 Assessment Reports from 87
  undergraduate programs in 12 colleges posted on
  Office of Academic Assessments website
• These initial assessment reports are considered
  provisional with the intention that assessment
  methods employed in this beginning phase will be
  continually improved upon
• Looked specifically for either direct or embedded
  writing and/or speaking-related communication
  outcomes

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UNLV College/Department Assessment Data

• Observations
• Many departments identify which courses address
  particular objectives, including any
  communication outcomes
• Most programs have a direct or embedded writing
  and/or speaking-related communication outcome
• Most programs used indirect methods, such as
  student surveys and course grades
• Practically all programs reported meeting their
  own expectations regarding learning outcomes

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UNLV College/Department Assessment Data

• More Observations
• Architecture specifically noted writing skills as
  an area in need of improvement
• Nursing noted that a standard evaluation tool,
  or set of criteria, might grant a more accurate
  reflection of students' written communication
  ability which could be tracked across the levels
• Honors College specifically set its expectations
  higher for writing/comm as a result of its Fall
  05 assessment
• History conducted a direct assessment of a
  sampling of student writing

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UNLV College/Department Assessment Data

• More Observations
• Psychology found students performed considerably
  lower than expected on their indirect metric
  (participation in research activity)
• Chemistry has developed direct and detailed
  communication outcomes that include
  discipline-specific sets of sub-goals related to
  each outcome
• University College employed a direct assessment
  tool, an analytic rubric applied to capstone
  presentation effectiveness
• Environmental Studies requires students complete
  and defend a senior thesis project in capstone
  undergraduate courses

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Employers in Las Vegas

• Source The Career Service Center administered
  voluntary On-Campus Recruiting Survey
• Employers rate 9 skills and attributes on a
  7-point scale
• 2005-2006, 17 employers completed the survey
• 10 Business
• 3 Hospitality
• 2 Engineering
• 2 Education

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Employers in Las Vegas

• Resume and Candidate Credential Attributes
• Written Communication Skills (2005-06)
• Overall difference between Importance vs. Student
  Rating for UNLV students was -1.4
• Career and Interview Preparation Areas
• Communication/Interpersonal Skills (2005-06)
• Overall difference between Importance vs. Student
  Rating for UNLV students was -1.3

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Employers in Las Vegas

• The data continues to emphasize the critical
  need to develop students written communication
  skills and effective communication and
  interpersonal skills, both of which continue to
  be the lowest ranked qualities for our students
  year after year.
• (UNLV Career Services Employer Activities Report
  2005-2006)

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National Survey of Student Engagement

• Pew Foundation-supported
• In spring 2006, 557 colleges and universities
  participated in the administration of the NSSE
  survey, including UNLV for the first time
• 12 questions related to written and oral
  communication

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National Survey of Student Engagement

• 400 students from UNLV participated
• NSSE Report not yet available for UNLV
• Some National Frequencies
• Prepared two or more drafts of a paper or
  assignment before turning it in 18-very often
• Number of written papers or reports of 20 pages
  or more 1-more than 20 42-between 1-4
• Writing clearly and effectively (as outcome)
  34-very often
• Worked on a paper or project that required
  integrating ideas or information from various
  sources 43-very often

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Graduate Exams (GMAT)

• Goal is to track all GMAT, GRE, and LSAT scores
  for UNLV graduates
• Source GMAT only
• Three parts quantitative, verbal, and an
  analytical writing assessment
• GMAT-provided standard norms mean score of 47,
  or 526.6 and 80th percentile score of 640
• Used primarily for MBA program admissions

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Graduate Exams (GMAT)

• Summary of TY 2005 for 266 UNLV Graduates
• 138 (51.9) scored less than 500
• 49 (18.4) scored 500-540
• 43 (16.2) scored 550-590
• 26 (9.8) scored 600-640
• 6 (2.3) scored 650-690
• 4 (1.5) scored 700 and above
• Can infer that UNLV students scored lower on the
  verbal and analytical writing portions

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Freewriting Prompt 1

• Freewrite the two or three points that stood out
  for you as you listened to these preliminary
  findings
• Does this preliminary data point to a need for
  WAC/CAC?

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Freewriting Prompt 2

• Considering the writing that you ask students to
  do in your class, describe the resources that
  you currently use
• Describe the kinds of resources you would like to
  have available to you (in an ideal world) to help
  you use writing in your classroom more
  effectively

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Discussion Activity

• Compare your responses with others at your table
  
• As a group
• State the one or two findings that you found the
  most compelling
• Is there a need for WAC/CAC?
• State the resources you feel are most important
  for improving writing at UNLV