Curricular Assessment Committee

1. Curricular Assessment:Update & DiscussionLisa LenzeDirector of Learning InitiativesIST All-Faculty MeetingMay 11, 2009

2. Curricular Assessment Committee Committee’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)

3. Curricular Assessment is not… • course assessment • instructor assessment

4. 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

5. Curricular Goals 1. 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”

6. 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

7. Role of Faculty in Curricular Assessment Use the assessment tool (rubric or test) housed in ANGEL to evaluate the level of students’ achievement on the assigned curricular objective through your assessment of students’ work on an appropriate assignment/exam in your course

8. What have faculty been doing, and what more do faculty need to do? Date Event Activity August 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; and add 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 assessment tools; 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

9. 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/ Faculty assess students’ work and complete ANGEL rubrics; PIC office, OLI, and Career Solutions collect student survey data Graduate Assistant compiles raw data for Assessment Committee by survey (where appropriate) and by curricular objective 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 Committee prepares brief (2-3 page) summary of key findings, action items, and person/group assigned to action items Assessment Committee reviews compilation and discusses interesting or puzzling observations Faculty/staff report back to Assessment Committee when action items are completed Faculty/staff work on assigned action items with assigned colleagues Faculty/staff review summary document; possible presentation made at PIC meeting Assessment Committee tracks action items as they are completed and prepares assessment report by due date (noting items that are pending) Assessment Committee tracks evaluation of action items from year to year, to evaluate changes, and includes this in subsequent summary reports

10. 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

11. Data from IST 240

12. Data from IST 240

13. Data from IST 240

14. 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.

15. 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?

16. Curricular Goals & Objectives https://learning.ist.psu.edu/currentprojects PSU Assessment Conference (UPark) May 13 9:00am – 12:00pm 102 Thomas Building

17. 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