1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Assessment has always played a central role in day to day teaching and
evaluating student performance. One can always assess because one can
always see. Formal class critiques and private one on one evaluation are
also regular class activities.
Approximately a decade ago we initiated other assessment activities which
we continue to develop for greater effectiveness. Comprehensive advising
and Upper Divisionals not only enable us to assess individual students
with greater insight but they give us an overview of the entire program.
BFA exhibitions, a continual flow of informal display of student work
in our facility's halls as well as occasional exhibitions by our students
off campus also prove valuable in assessing our program. Based on these
activities we are continuing to develop new courses and are and will be
changing our concentration requirements.
2. EDUCATION GOALS AND ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES MEASURING THOSE GOALS
Visual Arts offers two baccalaureate programs, a Bachelor of Art and
a Bachelor of Fine Arts. The B.A. is approximately one third studio and
two thirds academic and the B.F.A. is approximately two thirds studio
and one third academic. We have developed templates for record keeping
and advising which immediately reveal the general education requirements
and various concentrations in both degrees. These degrees are structured
and course sequenced so that appropriate concepts and craft skills are
presented and reinforced over the entire educational period. The scheduling
of academic courses so that broad intellectual development appropriate
to studio concepts is timely is also emphasized, beginning at Freshman
Orientation. We also offer a two year Associates of Arts Degree.
Assessment is actually daily business in the Visual Arts but is rather
official business during regular classroom critiques, private one on one
critiques, end of sophomore year Upper Divisionals, Capstone Course, and
finally the B.F.A. exhibitions.
3. ANNUAL REPORT FORMS
Reports included as an attachment.
4. INSTRUMENTATION AND DOCUMENTATION
Our first opportunity for assessing comes during Freshman Orientation.
Among other things students are informed about the importance of being
regularly advised and of the fact that they cannot register for classes
until they are advised. Students are also informed about the "Milestone"
event, the Upper Divisional, which they will have after completing between
50 and 60 credits. Students are advised before registering and they are
all designated "Pre" art majors. This designation remains in
place until the student passes the Upper Divisional.
Because advising is now the sole responsibility of faculty it has become
one of the primary assessment tools for the Visual Arts. All students
must speak with their advisor once each semester about their progress
and plans. Comments are recorded whenever a student meets with an advisor.
Students are guided through their degrees in an efficient and sensible
way. Determination about eligibility for the upper divisional reviews
is made through this process. In this way problems are spotted and a history
of monitoring and intervention is established. Sample templates included
at end of report.
These templates are filed on a secure network drive and are available
to all Visual Arts faculty as well as the School of the Arts academic
coordinator and his staff. Direct access to the files of these students
in template form has been of tremendous use to all of us in detecting
problems with our program. As issues emerge they can be tracked and discussed.
The data represented in these documents encourages new policies to be
formulated, debated and implemented.
Issues involving proper inclusion of transfer credits (fall 00), problems
associated with multiple withdrawals or grades of incomplete (fall 99),
or the issue of determining the appropriate time for upper divisional
review (spring 99) would have been impossible without these documents.
Frequently policy is developed at the conclusion of our upper divisional
review sessions.
The Upper Divisional Review: Portfolio Review
This happens midway through the degree, after the student has completed
56 credit hours of work. It is recommended that this work include all
six Foundation courses plus some work in what they expect will be their
area of specialization. Students transferring in will generally have an
Upper Divisional as soon as possible. Any student with 70 credits or more
will automatically be scheduled for the next Upper Divisional session.
Students must present and discuss their work with a committee consisting
of the full-time faculty from the Visual Arts. It is the function of this
committee to recommend whether or not students are permitted to continue
to work in their degree programs. Ideally this review occurs at the end
of the sophomore year or at the beginning of the junior year. Each student
has two opportunities to pass the Upper Divisional. Failure to pass the
Upper Divisional results in dismissal from the Visual Arts program. Upper
Divisional Review letter included as an attachment...
Final Evaluation: The Capstone Experience
The capstone experience for the BFA degree requires a solo exhibition
of work and enrollment in the capstone course. Professional Practices
for Artists, Y398, has served as our capstone course through this academic
year. While this is a valuable course it is not an ideal course to fulfill
the spirit of the capstone requirement. With the addition of a second
art historian we will now, starting in the fall of 2005, offer such a
course. The topics in this course will vary but the emphasis will always
be to engage the student in a seminar format and it will be offered in
the fall semester. Students in most of the Visual Art disciplines will
be doing BFA studies during both the fall and spring semesters leading
to their BFA exhibition at the end of the spring semester. The capstone
course is intended to go hand in hand with the BFA studies. The full-time
visual arts faculty evaluates the BFA exhibition. Both must be passed
in order for students to receive the degree.
The capstone experience for the BA degree has not yet been resolved but
it will be addressed and resolved during the next academic year. Since
BA students do not have a final exhibition it is presumed that their Capstone
course experience will involve more writing.
As stated in the opening paragraph, assessing is a constant in the Visual
Arts. The hallway walls are usually covered with work from class critiques
for all to see. The annual Student Show is open to all and always provides
a great opportunity for us to see what we look like and to ponder our
perceptions. This pondering is part of assessment and it is something
we teach our students about.
Faculties visit each other's classes and demonstrate.
5. DETAILED ANALYSIS OF DATA
Information gleaned during the Upper Divisionals, fall 2004's being the
first, is being input to SIS. Weather a student passed, passed with provisions,
or failed is noted. Comments from this important Milestone are kept on
hardcopy in the student files.
Included, as attachments, are a number of spreadsheets of data collected
for the Visual Arts Self-Study completed last year. From 1991 to 2003
the number of graduates went from 4 to 19. In the last 10 years the number
of majors has doubled. From 1991 to 2003 credit hours have approximately
doubled. One spreadsheet shows credit hours generated by area within the
Visual Arts. We have not done a detailed analysis of this data. This data
might be at the heart of discussions about our future. We are looking
forward to the visit from an outside consultant which coincides with our
self-study.
6. PROPOSED NEXT STEPS
During the fall 2005 semester, 95% of the seats were filled in our Foundation
Program classes. We can track numbers-number of majors, of graduates,
of heads in each specialty, etc. Most of our assessing is done visually,
looking at the results of our teaching and the students labors. At monthly
meetings, if not more often, we discuss all aspects of our programs. What
we see informs us individually and we bring this to the table.
Our facilities are greatly stressed and even though our faculty has grown
we still have unmet needs. We await a consultant's report and space in
the Associate's building.
7. SUMMARY OF ACTIONS TAKEN / REVIEW
We are doing two things: We are trying to raise the performance bar for
our students by tweaking procedures and protocols already in place. Secondly
we are looking at our programs in light of student performance and needs.
There has been ongoing development of our concentrations. New courses
have been developed while others have been dropped. We are looking at
our Foundation program to make sure that it meets the needs of all the
concentrations and that there is consistency of content in all sections
of a given course. We are going to either install a new course on color
or adjust an existing course to properly address the subject. We have
had discussions concerning student performance, grading standards, and
how to raise the level of sophistication in all academic areas of our
students. We are unified in our intentions and moving toward agreement
in our protocols and procedures.
Assessment in the Visual Arts
2002-2005
REPORT PREPARED BY ANTHONY DROEGE, AREA COORDINATOR FOR THE VISUAL ARTS.
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