monroe community college 1 assessment of general education social sciences knowledge and skills area...

Monroe Community College 1

Assessment of General Education Social Sciences Knowledge and Skills Area

PresentersFrances Dearing, Assessment Coordinator

[email protected] Willard, Assistant Professor, Psychology

[email protected] Susan J. Belair, Chair, Anthropology/History/Political

Science/[email protected]

SUNY General Education Assessment Conference

November 13, 2003


PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

• MCC’s Assessment Liaison System• Assessment Liaison Experience

General Education Social Sciences• Faculty / Department Chair

Perspective• Conclusion• Group Discussions

– Creative ideas to build faculty ownership of assessment


SUNY

President

Assessment Committee

CommitteeLiaison

DepartmentAssessmentCoordinators

CommitteeLiaison

CommitteeLiaison

CommitteeLiaison




History of AssessmentMonroe Community College

1990 Assessment


Vice PresidentAcademic Services

Dean Curriculum &Program Development

Assessment CoordinatorOffice of Outcomes

and Assessment

Discipline Assessment LiaisonsGeneral Education

Program Assessment LiaisonsCareer Programs

Faculty Assessment Committees Faculty Assessment Committees

Monroe Community CollegeAssessment Organization

2000 – Current


Discipline Assessment Liaisons

• General Education• Ten Knowledge and Skills Areas• Two Competency Areas• One Liaison per Area• Three Year Rotation Cycle


Program Assessment Liaisons

• Career Programs• Seventy Career Programs• One liaison per three to five related

programs• Seven year rotation cycle


ASSESSMENT LIAISON RECRUITING CRITERIA

• Recommendations from Vice President of Academic Services, Deans and Department Chairs

• Achievement of tenure and college contributions

• Evidence of team building interpersonal skills and tenacity

• Demonstrated/or potential leadership and accountability

• Possesses a sense of humor• Knowledgeable of faculty and administrative

politics


ASSESSMENT LIAISON INCENTIVES

• Release time (3.0 hours) for two semesters• Support and guidance from Assessment

Office• Advice and feedback from Institutional

Research• Availability of internal and external

assessment training• Recognition from College for promotions

and/or personnel file


Assessment Liaison Experience

General EducationSocial Sciences


General Education Social Sciences

Assessment

• 2 campuses• 3 extension centers• 6 departments• 33 courses• 59 faculty members• 127 course sections• 4,836 enrolled students


Departments Represented and

Diversity of Courses Assessed

• Anthropology

• Economics

• Geography

• Political Science

• Psychology

• Sociology

ANT 102: Cultural AnthropologyANT 201: Native American Peoples and

Culture

ECO 101: Introduction to Economics

GEG 102: Human Geography

POS 110: Introduction to Political Science

PSY 101: Introductory Psychology

SOC 101: Introductory SociologySOC 200: Social Problems


Benefits of Assessment Liaison System

• Administrative support – Assessment Coordinator, Office of

Assessment, release time, training, support of division deans and senior administration

• Effective and ongoing dialogue among faculty– course and curriculum development


Benefits (cont.)

• Establishing course learning outcomes – to better match SUNY General Education

Social Sciences learning outcomes

• Streamlining curriculum – evaluating courses that meet/do not meet

the requirements of SUNY General Education Social Sciences


Benefits (cont.)

• Better understanding of the difference between teaching objectives and student learning outcomes – teaching objectives = what instructors

should teach in a given course– student learning outcomes = what

students actually learn in a course

• Greater appreciation of faculty commitment to teaching and learning


Challenges of Assessment Liaison System

• Developing common learning outcomes among diverse courses and disciplines

• Determining assessment measures to be used, given diverse courses and educational philosophies– course-embedded – grade-dependent


Challenges (cont.)

• Designing assessment measures to better correspond with needed statistical information– frequency distributions per learning objective

• Including adjunct faculty in assessment process– different campuses and extension sites– evening and Saturday courses


Challenges (cont.)

• Managing and overseeing complete assessment process for social sciences– number of courses, faculty, departments,

and sites involved

– insuring that courses not offered during current assessment cycle are assessed in subsequent semester

– timely reporting of results


Keys to Assessment Success

• Faculty involvement and ownership

– six faculty members, each representing a separate discipline

– opportunities for input from all faculty


Keys to Success (cont.)

• Clarification of purpose of assessment

– to improve student learning outcomes

– it is learning outcomes, not individual students or faculty, being evaluated



• Organization skills – committee members with effective

organization skills

• Communication skills– ongoing and frequent communication at all

levels



• Knowledge about assessment principles and best practices– reliability/validity– writing behavioral objectives– terminology

“course-embedded” objectives versus outcomes

– diversity in assessment techniques



• Recognition that assessment is a continuous process– assessment results should lead to

meaningful change in courses and/or curriculum


General EducationFaculty Perspective

• Philosophy of Assessment• Original Process• Department / Discipline

– multiple courses in one department/discipline

– multiple general education areas in one department/discipline


Cheerleader

• DAL Selection– faculty involvement– faculty motivation– faculty ownership– release time

• Discipline Representative Selection– no release time


Responsibilities

• DAL / Discipline Representatives– department configuration– discipline configuration– workload issues:

tool development, administration and collection

results and reporting of results implementation of changes

– maintain faculty ownership over the process


Discipline RepresentativesFall 2002

• Objective development• Tool development• Tool administration

– full-time/part-time/adjunct faculty– multiple campuses– off-site locations

• Data collection• Results analysis• Reporting


Discipline RepresentativesSpring 2003

• External reporting of results• Internal reporting of results

– changes to: tool and/or curriculum

– re-administration of assessment tool

reanalysis of results


Assessment Liaison System

• Evolutionary System• Administrative Support• Faculty Collaboration• Faculty Incentives• Faculty Ownership


Helpful Words…

Outcomes assessment is not “one more thing” we have to do. It’s the only thing. It’s the only way of knowing if students are learning what we think we are teaching…. Without outcomes assessment, we must take it on faith that students are learning what we are teaching.

Diane Halpern Keynote Address: Best Practices in

Assessment in Psychology Education

Atlanta, GA September, 2002


Creative Ideas to BuildFaculty Ownership

• What assessment strategies have been successful at your institution?


Closing

Commentsand

Questions


Contact Information

• Frances [email protected]

• Wanda Willard [email protected]

• Susan J. [email protected]

• www.monroecc.edu

monroe community college 1 assessment of general education social sciences knowledge and skills area...

Documents

assessment office advice

current slide

administrative politics

year rotation cycle

faculty members

social problems

skills areas

related programs