General Education Course Review -- Evaluation & Feedback ...



The purpose of the General Education Committee (GEC) is to provide guidance and direction to the VCAAR to improve the quality and relevance of the University's general education curriculum. The GEC considers proposals for modification of the general education curriculum and reviews each course in the general education program once every four years to determine its acceptability as a general education course. The GEC will review assessment data on the general education program provided by the Assessment Office and make recommendations to the VCAAR. Year: 2015-2016 General Education Goal: Using Science to Accomplish Common Goals Title of Course: BIOL 1003, Biological Science _N__Syllabi reflect brief course description (40 words or fewer), as it appears in bulletin. Syllabi for eight of 25 sections are missing from the Assessment Office repository. Of the 17 syllabi on deposit, four do not correctly include the course description._N__ Syllabi list general education goal and related student learning outcome.Of the 17 syllabi on deposit, 9 do not correctly list the correct goal and 9 fail to correctly show the SLO._Y__ Prerequisites are appropriate for level of course._Y__ Level of education of instructors for this course complies with ADHE and ASU Faculty Handbook.ADHE - Master’s degree with at least 18 graduate hours in field for general education coursesASU Faculty Handbook - section II.h. Credentials, p. 40Assessment of General Education Goal – Using Science to Accomplish Common Goals _X_ Understand concepts of science as they apply to contemporary issues _N_ The above student learning outcome is being assessed across sections for continuous quality improvement of student learning. The department has accumulated only one year’s worth of data, rather than the required minimum of two. The decision to present data on the two largest sections from fall and spring 2014/2015 raises concerns about unintended sampling bias. The chosen strategy guaranteed that results from web and web-assisted classes are excluded as well as data from the one Paragould section.While the five assessment questions may capture student knowledge of biology, they do not provide compelling evidence that students who answered them correctly “understand concepts of science as they apply to contemporary issues.” The department recognizes some of the problems with its items. As it proceeds with fixes, its first-order assignment is developing items that are valid indicators of the SLO. In addition to presenting data on the percentage of students correctly answering items on the pre- and post-tests (and the gain between tests), it would be helpful if the department reported the distribution of individual students’ total scores on the (five) items. In this connection, it might be observed that, from the way the data are reported, there may be students who answered a pre-test item correctly and then got it wrong on the post-test. While a pretest/posttest design is unobjectionable, it is important to keep in mind that the GEC is, above all, interested in summative performance, how well the SLO is achieved at the end of the course.While the GEC applauds the department’s efforts to assess students’ critical thinking skills in the course, it is important to emphasize that the critical thinking goal was removed from the GEC list--not because it is not appropriately an element of a student’s General Education but because it is a central goal of all academic work a student undertakes at A-State (and so needs to be assessed at the university level). Using the CAT should not distract the department from its responsibilities to test whether students completing BIOL 1003 “understand concepts of science as they apply to contemporary issues.”_Y_ Report of the assessment findings has been submitted._Y_ Data are being used to improve student learning. Within the limitations of the department’s assessment strategy, the GEC acknowledges that the department is aware of the challenges of its responsibilities and seems committed to improving its procedures. The department recognizes that it needs to write better questions that really tap the student learning outcome (and it may want to include more outcome-related items). And it must reconsider its sampling procedure.decision of general education committee_____Course is acceptable as a general education course linked to the General Education goal._____Course is not acceptable as a general education course linked to the General Education goal.__X__Course is acceptable as a general education course linked to the General Education goal given the following modifications: The department takes appropriate corrective actions to address the issues of concern shown above._____Unable to evaluate as a general education course linked to the General Education goal.Action required__X__None_____Follow up Review_____Meeting with Department ChairGEC Chair ___________________________________Date_____________ Approved 10/30/2012; revised 18 Nov 14 ................
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