Curricular Assessment:Update & Discussion

Lisa LenzeDirector of Learning Initiatives

IST All-Faculty MeetingMay 11, 2009

Curricular Assessment CommitteeCommittee’s Charge

Establish curricular goals and outcomes for College of IST undergraduate program, and implement a process to assess the degree to which students meet those goals and outcomes

IST Assessment Planning Committee

Lisa Bertin (Faculty & Director of Academic Affairs, Shenango Valley)

Neill Johnson (Director of Instructional Development & Research, SITE)

Lisa Lenze (Director of Learning Initiatives & Committee Chair)

Hongli Li (Graduate Assistant)

Mike McNeese (Professor-In-Charge)

Gerry Santoro (Faculty & Campus Champion)

Stan Supon (Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs)

Curricular Assessment is not …

• course assessment

• instructor assessment

Curricular Assessment is…

a judgment

of the degree to which

students attain knowledge and skills

outlined in the goals and objectives

for the 4-year degree

Curricular Goals1. Knowledge of the Field

“Understand and apply the interdisciplinary, theoretical knowledge of the information sciences or security sciences”

2. Problem Solving“Understand, apply, and adapt problem solving strategies, using appropriate technologies and methods”

3. Soft Skills/Attitudes (Communication, Teamwork, Respectfulness)“Communicate and work effectively (both individually and in teams) with a range of perspectives and audiences through a variety of media”

4. Professional Responsibility and Context“Understand professional responsibilities in terms of the ethical, legal, security, and social aspects of any given problem and its solution”

5. Lifelong Learning“Commit to the continuous acquisition of relevant knowledge for professional development by self-teaching and/or on-going education”

Role of Course Committees in Curricular Assessment

Create sufficiently general/sufficiently specific

assessment tools

(in the form of rubrics or tests)

to evaluate the level of students’ achievement

on a curricular objective

in the context of a course assignment or exam

Role of Faculty in Curricular Assessment

Use the assessment tool(rubric or test)

housed in ANGELto evaluate the level of students’ achievement

on the assigned curricular objectivethrough your assessment of students’ work

on an appropriate assignment/examin your course

What have faculty been doing, and what more do faculty need to do?

Date Event ActivityAugust 21-22, 2008 Faculty Retreat Create assessment tools for Core Courses

Fall semester, 2008 Committee meetings Refine assessment tools

November, 2008 All Faculty Meeting Test assessment tools; refine tools; andadd documentation to ANGEL

Spring semester, 09 Pilot Test 2 faculty members in each course use tools

May, 2009 All Faculty Meeting Review first assessment data & refine tools

August, 2009 Faculty Retreat Review curricular assessment findings, amend process/tools; begin work with non-core

Fall 2009 Data collection Core course faculty members use assessmenttools; Non-core course faculty create tools

Spring 2010 Data analysis Core Courses review and make sense of data

April/May, 2010 Middle States Report Write and submit Middle States Report

Graduate Assistant compiles rawdata for Assessment Committee by survey (where appropriate)

and by curricular objective

Assessment Committeereviews compilation and discusses interesting or puzzling observations

Assessment Committeereviews compilation and discusses interesting or puzzling observations

Assessment Committee notes problems to be addressed

regarding survey items, curricular objectives, data compilation,

courses, curriculum road map, etc. & determines appropriate person/

group to work on action items

Assessment Committeeprepares brief (2-3 page)

summary of key findings, actionitems, and person/group assigned to action items

Faculty/staff reviewsummary document; possible

presentation made at PIC meeting

Faculty/staff work on assigned action items with

assigned colleagues

Faculty/staff report back to Assessment Committee when

action items are completed

Assessment Committee tracks action items as they arecompleted and prepares

assessment report by due date (noting items that are pending)

IST Curricular Assessment Process

Based on Dept. of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

Assessment Process (contact: Dr. Laura Pauley)

http://www.mne.psu.edu/Current/UGrad/Assessment/

Assessment Committee tracks evaluation of action items from

year to year, to evaluatechanges, and includes this in subsequent summary reports

Faculty assess students’ workand complete ANGEL rubrics;PIC office, OLI, and Career

Solutions collect student survey data

Example Curricular Assessment in IST 240

• ANGEL notes documenting rubric creation• Sample course assignment• Sample student work• Assessment tool• Data from IST 240• Tracy Mullen’s reflections

Data from IST 240

Data from IST 240

Data from IST 240

Reflections on Curricular Assessment: Tracy Mullen

• You don’t know how useful it will be until you do it—and it’s worth doing.

• Even though our committee followed the directions for thinking through and creating a rubric, there are many things I will suggest changing for next time.

• Although I have information to report for curricular assessment, I learned a lot about my course and my students.

Questions

What else do you want to know?

How can the Assessment Planning Committee help better organize the assessment process?

What does your committee need to do next?

Curricular Goals & Objectives

https://learning.ist.psu.edu/currentprojects

PSU Assessment Conference (UPark)May 13

9:00am – 12:00pm

102 Thomas Building

Break-out Session for Course Committees

Room 202– IST 210, 220, 230, 240

Room 211– SRA 111, 211, 221, 231

Room 208 (here)– IST 110, 301, 331, 432, 440W, and all others