General Education Assessment Process

Since the Fall 2000 semester, general education assessment has evolved through a process of trial and adjustment. Instructors who teach general education core courses have been asked to participate in this process each semester. As of Spring 2003, the process evolved to the following process:

1. The Academic Assessment Committee chooses two general education objecives to assess each semester.
2. General education core classes are identified to assess the objectives. At the beginning of a semester, the Assessment Coordinator contacts the faculty requesting them to participate in assessing the general education objectives. The instructors are provided the rubric for the objective being assessed and requested to complete the Intent to Submit Artifacts and Submission Form.
3. Faculty submit the artifacts to the Assessment Coordinator once assessment activity is complete. Any identifying inofrmation on the artifact (student name, instructor name, class time, etc.) is covered to keep the artifacts completely anonymous.
4. A scoring session is scheduled as quickly as possible after finals. The readers score the artifacts in teams. If there is a noticeable variance in the scoring of an artifact, then a third reader scores the artifact to ensure scoring consistency. Once the scoring session is completed, the Assessment Coordinator tabulates the scores and records them in a report.
5. The report is given to the Academic Assessment Committee for review. At that time, if the data does not meet the expectations set forth in the rubric, the AAC analyzes the data further in order to attempt to identify any weaknesses in the artifacts that should be addressed by the instructor.
6. The objectives that have been assessed are recorded on a review cycle to maintain integrity and to insure that all general education core classes and instructors are assessed.
7. The information is compiled and kept by the Assessment Coordinator for publication in the Assessment Advantage newsletter and the assessment report.

The Assessment Coordinator retains copies of all student artifacts and compiles a summary report for the Academic Assessment Committee. Results are also dissenimated capus-wide in The Assessment Advantage newsletter.

The process is repeated each semester in an ongoing and systematic cycle for the continuous improvement of student learning. In addition, the Academic Assessment Committee conducts periodic evaluations of the entire process to ensure it fullfills the requirments of the Academic Assessment Plan. As a testament to this ongoing review, the process has changed significantly since the Academic assessment Plan was first developed and published in 2001.

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