Assessment

General Education

Standing Joint Committee on

General Education Assessment

Background

On April 19, 2016, the Faculty Senate approved the establishment of a Standing Joint Committee on General Education Assessment. This committee was charged with gathering data on the General Education program, learning outcomes, and student success.

The committee oversees the development of datasets to inform General Education assessment. Such datasets include, but are not limited to:

      1. A General Education Curricular Inventory that shows patterns of course offerings, student enrollment, and student grades by major and location.
      2. General Education curriculum mapping that shows the relationship between General Education and undergraduate majors.
      3. General Education course objective mapping that shows the relationship to General Education learning objectives.

The committee should collect and use data to examine student outcomes, such as (1) student success (e.g., time-to-degree, graduation rate, and other institutional data); and (2) student learning (e.g., course work, engaged scholarship projects, and other factors that provide evidence of learning).

The findings of these analyses are used to inform curricular improvement, including but not limited to: (1) decisions about the General Education curriculum, including questions about the efficacy of pathways to support integrative thinking; (2) effective assessment practices and processes, especially those that can be shared across disciplines; and (3) decisions about availability of General Education curricular components across the University, including gaps and trends. The goal should be to develop an analytic assessment plan, supported by data that informs curricular improvement and evolves over time.

Additionally, the committee should review the establishment of the Integrative Studies requirement, including Linked and Inter-domain courses, the new 6-credit requirement in General Education for all students. Particular attention should be paid to determining whether enough courses and sections are being offered to allow students to fulfill this new requirement.

Committee Members

Jeff Adams, Interim Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education

Christopher Barnes, Assistant Director of Assessment, OPAIR

Joel Burkholder, Reference and Instruction Librarian

Lisa Chewning, Co-Chair; Interim Division Head, Arts and Humanities & Associate Professor, Corporate Communications

Kirstin Purdy Drew, Teaching Professor of Physics; Faculty Senator

Joyce Furfaro, Assistant Teaching Professor of Psychology; Faculty Senator

Owen Haddad, UPUA Representative

Betty Harper, Co-Chair, Assistant Vice Provost for Assessment, OPAIR

Kirsten Hochstedt, Assistant Director of Assessment, OPAIR

Andrea Vujan McCloskey, Associate Professor of Education; Faculty Senator

Jessica Myers, Assistant Director of Assessment, OPAIR

Ermek Nurkhaidarov, Associate Professor of Mathematics; Faculty Senator

Richard Page, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of German and Linguistics; Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies; Faculty Senator

Kristen Pueschel, Associate Teaching Professor of Mathematics; Faculty Senator

Brandi Robinson, Associate Teaching Professor, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Faculty Senator

Margaret Slattery, Director and Assistant Dean of the Office for General Education

Murat Tascan, CCSG Representative