Assessing GE/ ISLOs in Your Classroom

1. Assessing GE/ISLOs in Your Classroom Friday, August 17th from 9:00-10:20 Angela Feres SLO Assistant Coordinator Ext. 7374 Angela.feres@gcccd.edu iamferes@att.net

2. What are GE/ISLOs? • GE/ISLOs – Our GE/ISLOs are one and the same. They are Core Competencies we would like our students to gain during their time at Grossmont College. • Assessment – We are expected to assess our GE/ISLOs. • The first step was Mapping the GE/ISLOs to our Courses in the General Education package. • The second step is conducting assessments to see if our students have gained the Core Competencies of our GE/ISLOs.

3. What are they? • Productive Citizenry • Understanding of the Arts and Humanities • Cultural Competence • Effective Communication • Scientific Inquiry • Mathematical Literacy • Informational and Technical Literacy

4. What have we done so far re: GE/ISLOs Assessment? • Mapping to use course level data • Workshops re: GE/ISLO Assessment • Fall 2011: We asked departments to bring Course-level Assessment Data and analyze it through the lens of our GE/ISLOs (i.e. did the Course-level Assessment address the GE/ISLO? Did students achieve the GE/ISLO?) • Spring 2012: We looked at Surveys to see if students achieved the GE/ISLOs • Henrietta Lacks Week Survey • Student Satisfaction Survey

5. What did we learn from these Workshops? • Example from Fall 2010 Mapping Workshop: • History mapped to Understanding of Arts and Humanities & Effective Communication. • SLO 1 for all of these courses asked students to analyze primary and secondary sources to support a thesis statement. • For HIST 101, students had an 84% pass rate, while HIST 114 students achieved a 78% pass rate. • This demonstrates success in GE/ISLO Understanding of Arts and Humanities because students met the SLO mapped to the GE/ISLO. • Students also achieved GE/ISLO Effective Communication because they read critically and analytically, identifying central arguments and lines of reasoning in a number of different kinds of texts. • Recommendation: No changes needed

6. 2nd Example: Fall Workshop • Example Math: • “For GE/ISLO Mathematical Literacy students struggled with using a chart to determine percentages (only about 59% of students correctly answered the question) and thus were partially successful at achieving ML.” • The tool is still useful because it provides a graph and asks students to read/understand the graph and use it to calculate a percentage. • Recommendation: Partially achieved ML. No recommendations for changes to the assessment tool, though the department may consider pedagogical strategies for increasing success.

7. Henrietta Lacks Survey Data: Productive Citizenry • Workshop attendees looked at data from the HL survey in groups. They then responded as to the efficacy of the survey data for evaluating the GE/ISLO PC • Suggestion • better frame verbiage of survey questions • Should know how many are surveyed in order to make good judgments about efficacy • Many of questions as currently worded do not map well to the GE/ISLOs and therefore can’t really be used to assess achievement of those outcome.

8. Data: Scientific Inquiry • Workshop attendees looked at data from the 2010 Student Satisfaction Survey in groups. They then responded as to the efficacy of the survey data for evaluating the GE/ISLO SI • As a college, we got a C+ on achieving SI, according to our data. We need more courses and programs to participate in providing data. • Suggestions: • How to get more programs to participate in providing data: reward programs for conducting assessments related to GE/ISLOs; Include more people in President’s Retreat to look at/analyze data; get more student and faculty awareness of GE/ISLOs. • Recommend that all programs keep GE/ISLOs in forefront of mind when constructing courses. • Show comparative data between colleges to stimulate improvement (District and Countywide data)—tie this to the college’s reputation.

9. What do others do? • Skyline: Map course level SLOs to GE/ISLOs • http://www.skylinecollege.edu/facstaff/GovCommittees/sloac/slocalendar.html • Riverside College: Exit Survey, Ongoing surveys, course mapping, special projects directed by an assessment committee to develop and assess • http://academic.rcc.edu/assessment/institution.htm

10. GE/ISLO Assessments for Fall ‘12 • A. F I G –Research Paper • Instructors will agree to assign a research paper to students due by the end of the semester • Decide on rubric: Suggested Rubric • 5 Demonstrates complete ability to effectively communicate information. All requirements of task are included in response. • 4 Demonstrates considerable ability to effectively communicate ideas. All requirements of task are included. • 3 Demonstrates partial ability to effectively communicate ideas. Most requirements of task are included. • 2 Demonstrates little understanding of the effective communication of ideas. Many requirements of task are missing. • 1 Demonstrates no effective communication skills. • 0 No Submission • Instructors will grade student research papers as usual, but also fill out a rubric to collect GE/ISLO data on Effective Communication. • Faculty share insights and findings, gathering quantitative data that describes patterns of student performance, and then collaborate in the design of curricula, assignments, and assessments designed to evaluate GE/ISLOs and facilitate ongoing improvement in GE/ISLO assessment and evaluation.

11. Discussion • Time table • Follow-up meeting (s)?