Background
The College Student Outcomes Assessment Committee discussed the overall College philosophy for Student Outcomes Assessment (SOA) in its early meetings. The philosophy that emerged is one where the faculty in the department are responsible for the curricula in the department and should therefore be responsible for measuring how well the curricula are helping students achieve both the College and departmental desired outcomes. However, the Committee recognized that the Curriculum Committee needs data on the College level outcomes. To provide that data all programs are expected to clearly identify how the College level outcomes are imbedded in the program outcomes and to summarize the program level assessment and resulting curricular adjustments associated with helping students achieve the College outcomes. The common web page outline the College uses for SOA contains links to portfolios where programs document those two items.
Departmental examples
The websites for Food Science and Human Nutrition and Agronomy provide examples
of how our assessment works.
Examples of how departmental and college outcomes are
aligned:
Agronomy -- http://www.agron.iastate.edu/assessment/snapshot_files/Embedded_University_and_College_Outcomes.pdf
Food Science and Human Nutrition --
http://www.fshn.hs.iastate.edu/outcomes/snapshot/measures.php
Examples of the measures used to assess those outcomes:
Agronomy --
http://www.agron.iastate.edu/assessment/snapshot.htm#outcomes
Food Science and Human Nutrition --
http://www.fshn.hs.iastate.edu/outcomes/snapshot/measures.php
Examples of changes that resulted from the assessment:
Agronomy --
http://www.agron.iastate.edu/assessment/snapshot.htm#outcomes
Food Science and Human Nutrition --
http://www.fshn.hs.iastate.edu/outcomes/snapshot/changes.php
College example
In the Fall Semester of 2004, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
embarked on a multi year review of its curriculum. The following is
a timeline for
that
review and the results to date:
Fall Semester 2004 --
Three faculty forums were hosted by the
Dean’s office to begin discussions on the College’s Core Curriculum.
Spring Semester 2005 --
Summaries of the forums were presented
to various campus groups including the Dean’s Cabinet, the College
Curriculum Committee and the College Outcomes Assessment Committee.
In addition,
student outcomes were discussed at the college administrative retreat
in April 2005. Result: The summary can be viewed at the following
site:
http://www.ag.iastate.edu/assessment/scholarship/AgCabinet.pdf
Spring Semester 2006 --
Additional faculty forums co-hosted by
the College Curriculum and Outcomes Assessment Committees are planned.
First forum --
On February 15, a panel of stakeholders provided
feedback on the College’s current set of core outcomes. Faculty
members discussed the needs of future College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
graduates with
the panel. Presentations by panel members: COA
Forum Life Sciences (PowerPoint or Adobe PDF); COA Forum Demographics (PowerPoint or Adobe PDF); COA
Curriculum
Forum Notes (MS Word or Adobe PDF);and COA Curriculum Forum Q&A (MS Word or Adobe PDF).
Second forum --
On April 13, the Outcomes Assessment Committee
will summarize departmental data about the current set of core outcomes
and present
it at this forum.
Fall Semester 2006 --
Based on the data gathered at
the faculty forums and by individual departments, the Outcomes
Assessment Committee will make
recommendations to the Curriculum Committee about adding, deleting
or maintaining individual
outcomes in the core. The Curriculum Committee
will submit a set of core
outcomes
for faculty vote.
Spring Semester 2007 --
The core outcomes will be
mapped with the College core course requirements. The Curriculum
Committee will
make any necessary
adjustments in the core course requirements to better enable
students to achieve the
core
outcomes.
Fall Semester 2007 --
Faculty has approved revsion to core outcomes
