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Assessing General Education in Major-specific Capstones

Assessing General Education in Major-specific Capstones. Opportunities & challenges in major-specific capstone courses. Craig Pepin Champlain College (VT) Joan Hawthorne University Of North Dakota T om Steen University Of North Dakota. Capstones & Assessment & General Education.

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Assessing General Education in Major-specific Capstones

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  1. Assessing General Education in Major-specific Capstones Opportunities & challenges in major-specific capstone courses

  2. Craig PepinChamplain College (VT)Joan HawthorneUniversity Of North DakotaTom SteenUniversity Of North Dakota

  3. Capstones & Assessment & General Education Making connections

  4. Capstones – Key Features • High Impact Practice • The “Last Best Place” • Integrates previous work in the major (and maybe Gen Ed?)

  5. Making use of capstones for assessment? • "A review of programs ... revealed that many institutions have yet to turn this period toward assessment, . . . Reflection on and synthesis of liberal learning and learning for the world of work would seem to be a logical centerpiece of this assessment."  (Jean Henscheid, 2008)

  6. Making use of capstones for assessment? 2011 National Survey of Capstones (NRC) . . . • Used formal assessment = 55.7% • No formal assessment = 31.3% • Unsure ??? = 13%

  7. Discipline-specific Capstones • Not all Capstones are in-majors • Cross-disciplinary vs. Inter-disciplinary • In-major can involve multiple programs No matter how designed, D-S Capstones have great potential to connect students’ general education with their education in their majors.

  8. The AGLS assessment/GE project 10 institutions – common interests

  9. Association General & Liberal Studies Assessment/GE Project • John Nichols (St. Joseph’s College, IN), Project Leader • Lumina Foundation funding • AGLS publication: Spring 2013 • What is worthy assessment --> understanding our GE programs? • 10 institutions – across the U.S. • Diverse missions • Diverse size • Diverse program design/GE • Common effort: What do our students learn in GE? How do we know?

  10. ChallengesFor GE Assessment in Capstones Common problems

  11. Capstones are often quite different Challenge: divergent learning outcomes

  12. Aggregating results looks easy . . . . • Majors may assess for disciplinary outcomes. • Challenge: can we add them together to produce valid evidence?

  13. Power and authority are often diffused Who are the deciders?

  14. General Education is important but not everybody wants to help assess it Challenge: How to build support among those who control the capstones? Good assessment is often sticky work … and if poorly handled, possibly even toxic.

  15. Some challenges can’t be anticipated • Assessment is, at its core, a subversive activity…Although most institutions operate the way they do because faculty, staff, students, and administrative leaders genuinely believe that the current structures promote learning, the current state of affairs at almost every institution is based on a delicate set of compromises and optimizations in which many parties have participated and which few care to alter. (Banta and Blaich, 2011)

  16. Getting the work done:Strategies from the AGLS GE/capstone project

  17. “Institutional DNA” • Culture, power structures, resources • Incentive structures • SoTL publications • Teaching feedback • Shared values about higher education • skills employers want • Institutional missions Challenge: Building support

  18. Alignment of GE learning outcomes with professional accreditation requirements. • Choice of GE learning outcomes is crucial Challenge: divergent learning outcomes

  19. Autonomy vs. uniformity: the tradeoffs • University of North Dakota • Course and program level • Building culture of assessment • Champlain’s hybrid • Common assignment parameters, but instructor choice Challenge: Aggregating existing assessments

  20. Independent scoring of student work: St. Francis (IN) and Champlain • More comparable, reliable • Less faculty autonomy • Faculty are more likely to participate in assessment work if they can see some additional benefits for them. Challenge: Aggregating existing assessments A second option

  21. How about your campus? assessing student work in capstones

  22. Discussion: 4 Questions (+ 1) • Political obstacles? • Learning outcomes—most plausible? • Learning outcomes—most important? • Who needs to know? What do they want to know? • And…What questions do you have that you’d like good answers for today?

  23. Please stay in touch Here’s how to contact us . . . .

  24. Our contact information • Craig Pepin, Assistant Dean for Assessment, Core Division Champlain College, Burlington VT 05402-0670 cpepin@champlain.edu • Joan Hawthorne, Director of Assessment & Accreditation The University of North Dakota, Grand Forks 58202-8176 joan.hawthorne@und.edu • Tom Steen, Director of Essential Studies The University of North Dakota, Grand Forks 58202-7310 thomas.steen@und.edu

  25. The AGLS Assessment Project • Nichols, J. (Ed.) Judgments of Quality: Connecting faculty best assessment with student best work.  Association for General and Liberal Studies, Spring, 2013.    Copies available soon: order from AGLS office: (812) 376-7468 or joyce@paragonme.net The project will be featured at the 2014 AGLS Conference in Indianapolis, Sept. 19-21.

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