Kathy S. Williams, Director Kathy A. Krentler, Associate Director

1. Kathy S. Williams, Director Kathy A. Krentler, Associate Director

2. Do High Impact Activities Really Make an Impact? Michelle Lopez, Assistant DeanDivision of Undergraduate Studies Jill Esbenshade, Associate ProfessorDepartment of Sociology Teresa Cisneros-Donahue, Study Abroad DirectorCollege of Business Administration

3. What are High Impact Activities? • An investment of time and energy over an extended period that has unusually positive effects on student engagement in educationally purposeful behavior. (George Kuh, Indiana University)

4. Examples of High-Impact Activities • 1st Year Seminars and Experiences • Common Intellectual Experiences • Learning Communities • Writing-Intensive Courses • Undergraduate Research • International Experiences • Service Learning/Community-Based Learning • Internships • Capstone Courses and Project

5. The Value of High-Impact Activities (SELF-REPORTED) P < .001 George D. Kuh, High-Impact Educations Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter; Washington , DC; AAC&U, 2008.

6. The Value of High-Impact Activities (As measured at SDSU by Graduation Rate)STUDY ABROAD

7. The Value of High-Impact Activities (As measured at SDSU by Graduation Rate)INTERNSHIPS

8. But the “next level” question is: • What is the impact of HIP on direct measures of student learning? • What student learning outcomes do we expect from High-Impact Activities? • How can we measure whether these outcomes are occurring?

9. Michelle Lopez ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIPS

10. Office of Academic Scholarships (OAS) Academic/Merit National Competitive Scholarships Some require endorsement by SDSU Required 3 – 5 faculty recommendation letters (depending on type) Essays or Proposals Require participation in various HIPS

11. Establishing SLOs for the OAS First, asked a few key questions… • What is the Office of Academic Scholarships trying to do and why? • What is my office supposed to accomplish? • What will I do to promote the kind of learning and development that our campus seeks? • How will student learning be influenced? • What do I want students to be able to do or know as a result of completing the scholarship or fellowship process?

12. Establishing Outcomes

13. After drafting outcomes… • Get feedback from others • How do we know that the OAS is contributing to student learning? • Where is the content delivered that will allow the SLOs to be met? • How will we measure SLO achievement?

14. What is being done to directly/indirectly facilitate student learning?

15. Importance of Assessing Student Learning Great reminder to: • Reflect on the OAS mission and goals • Check to see how student learning outcomes align with national fellowship organization or SDSU’s mission and goals • Reflect on how OAS contributes to SDSU priorities • Informs prioritization on time spent, as well as other resources • Discuss how achievement is determined

16. Lived Experience of Immigrants and Refugees Jill Esbenshade Sociology and Honors

17. Course Goals • To give students an understanding of and an ability to engage in conversation and debate about immigration and the lives of immigrants. . . • For students to develop a “sociological imagination.” That is for students develop the ability to apply academic concepts and theories to individual lives. . . • For students to improve their writing skills . . . • For students to develop their abilities and desire to use their knowledge to engage in public debate and action to improve their community or the broader society.

18. Class Structure • Background: First Section • Historical and Current • Flows (migration patterns) • Numbers • US policy • US in comparative perspective

19. Focus: Experience and Identity • Disruptions, Changes and Adaptation/Coping in: • Section 2: Class and Labor • Section 3: Gender and Family • Section 4: Race and Assimilation

20. “Lived Experience” • Sociological Concepts Applied to • Fiction and Non-fiction • Movies • Internship

21. Internship: International Rescue Committee • Students Plus Program: Crawford High School • ESL Program • Homework Tutoring • CASHEE Prep • Peacemakers • College Prep • Higher Learning Navigator

22. Issues with Internship • Agreement with SDSU • Hours (one component of course) • Reduced 30 to 20 • Scheduling conflicts • Civic Action Option • Grade/Evaluation (25% of course) • Assessment

23. Assessment Before • Class Discussion • Feedback Session • Wrap-Up Session • Papers (4of 5) • Incorporate internship into analysis or as separate point • Journal • Connect to class material

24. Obstacles to Assessment • Connecting internship to class material • Type of interaction at internship • Hesitancy to ask • Tendency to describe rather than analyze

25. Strengths of Experiences • Clear affect on student outlook: • Open-mindedness • Sympathy • Judging others • Building relationship • Group outings

26. Current Assessment: Civic Capacities • From CSL document (simplified and modified) • Broad ideas about growth as citizen (rather than CSL as service) • Conscious development of capacities • Journals • Connections with material or capacity • Development of capacity

27. Most Common Capacitiesin Journal Check • Build a sense of community, locally and globally • Work with people from different backgrounds • Develop curiosity and capacity to listen • Cultivate open-mindedness and appreciation of worth of each person • Enhance concern for community and the wellbeing of others • Also, capacities 2, 4 and 5

28. Teresa Donahue-Cisneros STUDY ABROAD

29. Cross Cultural Training for US and EU students (CROCUS)Project • 2009, Grant by the Department of Education • Required an evaluation plan about student’s learning • Major specific objectives: • Increase participants’ cultural and • language learning

30. Cross Cultural Training for US and EU students (CROCUS)Project • 2009, Grant by the Department of Education • Required an evaluation plan about student’s learning • Major specific objectives: • Increase participants’ cultural and • language learning

31. Student Learning Outcomes of the CROCUS Project • Gain knowledge of other cultures. • Use knowledge, diverse cultural frames of reference, and alternate perspectives to think critically and solve problems. • Become conscious of one’s own cultural perspective. • Accept cultural differences and tolerate cultural ambiguity. • Improve target language competency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. • Rubrics developed by American Council on Education (ACE) and Department of Education, FIPSE

32. Opportunities to Learn • Study abroad experience • Online intercultural communications course “Crossing the Bridge”

33. Assessing student learning in the CROCUS Project • Used assignments in the “Crossing the Bridge” Course • Exit interviews with students

34. Assignments in the Course • Students were asked to complete written assignments that demonstrated their accomplishment of the SLOs. • SLO: “Gain knowledge of other cultures.” • Assignment: “Write a two-page paper (500 words or more) about your host country. Accumulate facts about the country’s history, political situation, economy, religion, international relations etc. Ensure that you include current events in your paper (elections, economic ties etc.).”

35. Student Interviews • Students completed in-depth interviews upon return from Study Abroad • Describe what you learned about yourself? • Describe what you learned about your host country?

36. Assignments in the Course & Interviews • Rubric developed to measure whether assignment demonstrated the SLOs • Set benchmark – 75% of the students should be able to achieve a Moderate level (score of 3 in the rubric) • 2 independent raters read each assignment and score it using the rubric. • Scores reviewed for inter-rater reliability • Determination made as to whether the benchmark was achieved.

37. Do They Know It? • Interesting Outcome – Students scored higher when assessed via interviews than when assessed via course assignments. • CHALLENGE: • Achieving cross-measure reliability.

38. If they don’t know it, how do we fix the problem? • Only 60% of students showed evidence of having gained cultural knowledge, below the 75% acceptable benchmark. • Programmatic Assessment asks not “what’s wrong with these students?” but rather, “how can we strengthen the program to produce a better result?”

39. CLOSING THE LOOP • Did the program deliver the content needed to allow students to accomplish the SLOs? • Curriculum mapping can help to answer this question. • How does the program need to change to improve things?