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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
Monroe Community College 2
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
Monroe Community College 3
SUNY
President
Assessment Committee
CommitteeLiaison
DepartmentAssessmentCoordinators
CommitteeLiaison
CommitteeLiaison
CommitteeLiaison
DepartmentAssessmentCoordinators
DepartmentAssessmentCoordinators
DepartmentAssessmentCoordinators
History of AssessmentMonroe Community College
1990 Assessment
Monroe Community College 4
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
Monroe Community College 5
Discipline Assessment Liaisons
• General Education• Ten Knowledge and Skills Areas• Two Competency Areas• One Liaison per Area• Three Year Rotation Cycle
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Program Assessment Liaisons
• Career Programs• Seventy Career Programs• One liaison per three to five related
programs• Seven year rotation cycle
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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
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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
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General Education Social Sciences
Assessment
• 2 campuses• 3 extension centers• 6 departments• 33 courses• 59 faculty members• 127 course sections• 4,836 enrolled students
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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
Monroe Community College 12
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
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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
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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
Monroe Community College 15
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
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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
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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
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Keys to Assessment Success
• Faculty involvement and ownership
– six faculty members, each representing a separate discipline
– opportunities for input from all faculty
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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
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Keys to Success (cont.)
• Organization skills – committee members with effective
organization skills
• Communication skills– ongoing and frequent communication at all
levels
Monroe Community College 21
Keys to Success (cont.)
• Knowledge about assessment principles and best practices– reliability/validity– writing behavioral objectives– terminology
“course-embedded” objectives versus outcomes
– diversity in assessment techniques
Monroe Community College 22
Keys to Success (cont.)
• Recognition that assessment is a continuous process– assessment results should lead to
meaningful change in courses and/or curriculum
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General EducationFaculty Perspective
• Philosophy of Assessment• Original Process• Department / Discipline
– multiple courses in one department/discipline
– multiple general education areas in one department/discipline
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Cheerleader
• DAL Selection– faculty involvement– faculty motivation– faculty ownership– release time
• Discipline Representative Selection– no release time
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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
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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
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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
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Assessment Liaison System
• Evolutionary System• Administrative Support• Faculty Collaboration• Faculty Incentives• Faculty Ownership
Monroe Community College 29
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
Monroe Community College 30
Creative Ideas to BuildFaculty Ownership
• What assessment strategies have been successful at your institution?
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Contact Information
• Frances [email protected]
• Wanda Willard [email protected]
• Susan J. [email protected]
• www.monroecc.edu