Liberal Education Program (LEP) Assessment
Guiding principles
The best teachers constantly monitor what is happening to students as they set about learning and investigate when things do not proceed as planned or expected. They also enquire their own practice so they might get better at ensuring that their students learn successfully. --Demos 2004. About learning, Report of the Learning Working Group, Demos, London www.demos.co.uk
Assessment is what “we faculty members can do in order to demonstrate to ourselves that we actually do what we say we do. --Doug Eder
Assess what you value. Value what you assess.--unknown
The important question is not how assessment is defined but whether assessment information is used…
--Palomba & Banta
On the difference between teaching and learning: “You know, last Wednesday I taught my dog to whistle. I really did. I taught him to whistle. It was hard work. I really went at it very hard. But I taught him to whistle. Of course, he didn't learn, but I taught." --David Langford
LEP annual assessment reporting
Because we are engaging in this process for the first time, the Liberal Education assessment Goal for AY 2011-2012 is for each course instructor to evaluate students' attainment of just one (1) of the course's Student Learning Outcomes. (To check on your course's SLOs, go to
http://www.stcloudstate.edu/liberaleducation/ProposalProgress.asp, click Goal Area, then course). Beginning in 2012-13, we will assess one or two more SLOs with the goal of cycling through all of them every five years.
Student learning may be assessed in whatever manner that you deem appropriate and reported in whatever format you deem appropriate. However, please consider using the draft report forms (linked below under each Goal Area). They were drafted for ease of use and compilation. IMPORTANT: Final reports for each Goal Area will be aggregated; no courses or instructors will be individually identified.
SCSU's LEP is assessed as a program, based upon reports from individual instructors. Reports are will be aggregated at the Goal Area level, then at the program and institutional levels. Each instructor's contribution is important but under no circumstances will individual instructors be identifiable. We need to promote all the good teaching-learning that is taking place at SCSU--for the benefit of our own practice, for our students, and our accreditors, and funders (Legislature, parents, donors, etc.)
See each Goal Area below to access its specific assessment report form. Send any comments or suggestions to Joe Melcher.
Each Goal Area contains the Goal Area's Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for your planning purposes and for copying into a syllabus. There will also be a link to a blank rubric and to any sample rubrics that have been contributed for the Goal Area.
Based on the Liberal Education assessment plan approved by Faculty Senate in 2006, Liberal Education Assessment Panels (LEAPs) will review instructor and/or program assessment reports, provide formative feedback, and use summarize the status of student learning in their respective Goal Areas.
The Liberal Education Goal Areas and SLOs. The links below will take you to documents containing SCSU's goals and SLOs. If you are teaching a course within a Goal Area, it must meet the stated minimum number of the SLOs.
Please use the links below to retrieve the relevant Goal Area goals and SLOs to put on your course syllabus. Note: many courses meet two Goal Areas. To determine if your course satisfies two Goal Areas, go to the undergraduate bulletin and search for it. A superscripted number indicates the number of the other Goal Area for which it was certified and for which it must also meet those SLOs.
Goal Area 1: Communication
Goal Area 2: Critical Thinking
Goal Area 3: Natural Sciences
Goal Area 4: Mathematical/Logical Reasoning
Goal Area 5: History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Goal Area 6: Humanities and Fine Arts
Goal Area 7: Human Diversity
Goal Area 8: Global Perspectives
Goal Area 9: Ethical and Civic Responsibility
Goal Area 10: People and the Environment
Goal Area 10 Draft Report Form
If you are interested in serving on a Goal Area panel, please submit the application to the Liberal Education Assessment Director:
Call for LEAP members, LEAP Application, LEAP Selection Criteria
Historical/archival links:
- Progress on General Education Reform (for January 2007 Workshop Days Assessment Luncheon)
-
SCSU General Education Assessment Recommendations (Approved by Faculty Senate 10/24/2006)
- Fig. 1 - Student Learning Outcomes Process Flowchart
- Fig. 2 - Flowchart on Position of General Education Assessment Director
- Fig. 3 - General Education Assessment Process (Including Use of GETGOs, General Education Teams for Goal Oversight)
-
North Carolina State University Higher Education Outcomes Assessments
- Collegiate Learning Assessment Project (Peer Review article)
Last update: May 4, 2011
