Spotlight on Assessment: Political Science
Congratulations Political Science Faculty on Closing the Assessment Loop!
The most significant program improvement as a result of assessment data has been to expand offerings in the area of international relations (IR) and political theory. Both internal assessment data and data from the MFT field exam showed that comparative politics (CP) and international relations (IR) areas were the weakest areas of political science for our students. Consequently, a new hire in IR allowed for more courses in the subfield. The scores of our students on the MFAT exam in the CP area rose 28% and in the IR area 54% when compared to scores before the hire. POLS 151 Introduction to Political Ideas was added to the curriculum as a direct result of assessments that indicated students needed more background and beginning level instructions in that sub-field. Discussion with students about their theory preparation suggested they would greatly benefit from exposure to political theory before they took it at the 400 level. POLS 151 was designed to address these needs and to be part of the core of the major. The course has proven quite popular for majors and essential learning students alike (it is an essential learning option for Social and Behavioral Science requirements), drawing more students into the program. POLS 151 supports SLO #3 (Articulate diverse perspective surrounding a political issue (critical thinking)) through exposing students to at least 12 different political theory perspectives and asking them to use those perspectives to engage contemporary political issues in class discussion and on exams. It supports SLO #4 (Devise a strategy to promote civic involvement within the broader community for themselves and others (civic engagement)) by asking them to identify civic values necessary for developing community engagement and participation among citizens.
Congratulations Accounting Faculty!
Fall 2019, accounting faculty met and discussed assessment results and areas where the accounting program could be improved to better prepare students for future employment. Accounting faculty used assessment data to identify areas of concern and then addressed those concerns through both course and curriculum changes. Faculty agreed to add at least one writing assignment to each Acct 300 and Acct 400 level class and grade students on writing quality in addition to content, after students did not meet the benchmark in written communication. This will be reassessed Spring 2020 to see if improvement occurred. Organization Behavior, Mang 301, was added to the accounting program, effective Fall 2019, to address a deficiency in teamwork, identified through assessment results. To increase student success in Intermediate Accounting, Learning Objective Quizzes were utilized to encourage use of the textbook and textbook resources. The success of using the quizzes will be reassessed Spring 2020. Based upon assessment results, areas for improvement have been identified and changes are underway. Reassessment will follow to measure the success of the change strategies used in the continuous improvement of the program
2019 CMU Chemists - Dr. Joe Richards; Ms. Suzanne Kenney; Dr. Phil Kiefer; Dr. Tim D'Andrea; Dr. Sam Lohse; Dr. Andrew Wolff; Dr. Andrew Vinyard; Dr. David Weinberg
Spotlight on Assessment
Chemistry Program
The Assessment Committee would like to recognize the Chemistry program as the Spotlight on Assessment Spring 2019.
The Chemistry faculty have utilized many differing assessment activities including tests, papers, presentations, and the Major Field Test (MFT). Student data was used and assessment was clearly systematic and intentional. Several changes have been implemented within the courses of the program. As examples, in Chemistry 341, based upon assessment data from past years, the Instructor spent more time reviewing relevant theory which then allowed students to achieve the learning outcome at the capstone level, demonstrating an increased comprehension of the material. Another action taken in Chemistry 341 this year, based upon assessment data received in prior years, was an emphasis by the Instructor on comparing collected data to known values. Assessment data to be gathered the next semester will demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy or the need for additional interventions.
Excellent job on assessment by the chemistry faculty!
Through the process of program assessment, the History Discipline has developed new teaching strategies and reformed our core course curriculum, based on assessment data collected during the first several years of implementation. We recognized during the process of creating Program SLOs, for example, that while we had introduced our majors to the concepts of historical method and research, they did not have a firm understanding of historiography, which our discipline defines as the ongoing conversation that evolves over time between historians. Mastering historiography is a skill essential to developing an advanced research project in our history capstone. The history faculty acted by adding a new Junior Seminar in Historiography to our core curriculum, beginning in spring 2014. The new course aligns our core to create a more efficient and hierarchical learning structure to assess our SLOs, while highlighting the research strengths of our faculty. As a result, this spring, two students from a recent section of Junior Seminar went on to create presentations for the Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, and one of these students won an award for best paper.
Additionally, program assessment has been valuable in identifying areas of strength as well as challenges in our summative and formative course offerings. After several years of data collection on two of our SLOs that assess student’s ability to critically analyze secondary sources (mainly written by historians studying an era) and primary sources (documents produced during the era one is studying), we found that majors who had taken the history capstone course had difficulties creating suitable historical research questions. Such questions are essential to formulating and executing an advanced research project. As part of our action, individual faculty agreed to design a distinctive strategy or strategies to teach students how to create appropriately rigorous research questions, as part of their critically analyzing secondary and primary sources. We further identified innovative strategies for addressing this pedagogic challenge. Through program assessment, the history faculty have been able to improve actively our commitment to excellence in undergraduate education at CMU.