Assessment Grant Final Report
Assessment Grant awarded in 2005
Grant Project: Course Embedded Assessment Strategy using Pre and Post Testing of Course Objectives
Department: SPEA Criminal Justice
Principle Faculty: Barbara Peat
Summary of Project: SPEA Criminal Justice faculty met several times to develop course objectives for the eight required core courses of the BSCJ. They also constructed short multiple choice tests (except for the J439 – Crime and Public Policy class which used a short answer format) to be administered the first day of class and toward the end of the semester. The questions were directly related to the objectives. The pre/post tests were administered in the fall and spring semesters of the 2006-07 academic year.
Results of the project: The goal of this project was to assist faculty in determining whether course objectives are being met for the eight required core courses as demonstrated through significant improvement in test results from pre to post. The results indicated, overall, that course objectives were being met. However, the results also provided us valuable information on where some weaknesses exist in conveying information in a manner that improves student learning outcomes. For example, in two classes the test results indicate that student learning is not accomplished for one of the course objectives.
Use of Results: Having this information we will now engage in a review of the results to determine if the course objectives, class assignments, text required, and/or the test questions need revisions. In a broader sense, this project has provided valuable information relevant to pedagogy. For example, in comparing the results from one semester to another we were also able to examine the impact of other variables that may influence learning including class schedule (day versus night class and two day a week versus one day a week format), assignment protocol, testing protocol, class size, and course text used.
It is through our review of the results of this project that we are able to assess our teaching strategies and make needed modifications to improve expected student learning outcomes.
Continuation: We are planning to continue this project in the 2007-08 academic year. It is expected that there will be some minor changes to the course objectives, the test questions, text, and/or the assignments required in the courses based on the results of the project from the previous year. The results of the coming year will be compared to the previous year and will allow us additional opportunities to explore ways in which we can improve student learning outcomes.
Assessment grant report
Ruth Schwartz
October 2005
At the end of 2004, Dr. Hossein Hakimzadeh and I received a $2,000 grant
to help us begin the establishment of some assessment guidelines for the
informatics program. The application for the grant stated that most of
the funds would be used to attend an assessment workshop where we could
learn how to develop the new plan and learn about any current trends in
the assessment community.
Dr. Hakimzadeh and I attended a pre-conference workshop held in conjunction
with the Twenty-Second Annual Academic Chairpersons Conference. This workshop
was held on February 7, 2005. The title of the session was "Developing
Program Level Assessment Plans" and the presenter was Susan Hatfield
who is a peer reviewer with the Higher Learning Commission of the North
Central Association along with other academic duties.
The workshop was interactive. We were presented with various tools and
rubrics and then we were asked to apply them to various scenarios including
a subset of our own program plan. She stressed that assessment is an interactive
process and that it is never ending (as I have learned). She stressed
the importance of collecting data that will allow us to determine how
well our performance matches the standards we have set forth for the program.
It is probably most interesting that this session and the session we
had on campus recently both stressed the importance of keeping it simple
- a few goals with a few outcomes. Anything more than that is too complex
to implement. Look for continuous improvement with a constant realignment
of goals and outcomes.
We spent $1,812.84 in airfare, hotel, and registration fees. The remaining
monies have not been spent.
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