CSU-ITL GE Symposium: Assessing GE at the program level Each CSU campus shall define its GE student learning outcomes, to fit within the framework of the four “Essential Learning Outcomes” drawn from the Liberal Education and American Promise (LEAP) campaign, an initiative of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Each campus shall provide for regular periodic reviews of general education program policies and practices in a manner comparable to those of major programs, including evaluation by an external reviewer. The review should include an assessment of general education student learning outcomes … From EO 1065.

What do these images all have in common?

Legend General Edward LoganGeneral Joseph PershingGeneral Lloyd Newton General Lee Major General Baden Powell General Ann Dunwoody General Michelle Compton General Phil Sheridan General Walter Gaskin (USMC)

Your Task- Develop an action plan whose elements: – Lead to implementation of GE assessment under the provisions of EO 1065 or improve your current assessment plan Address specific weaknesses in the current GE assessment plan Can be implemented in the immediate future Will provide evidence that leads to continuous improvement of GE outcomes achievement

Campus Assessment of GE Outcomes

Personally, I would rate my campus's response in the assessment of GE outcomes so far as 1. Early: we know we need to do this, but haven’t really started 2. Emerging: we have a model for program assessment of GE, but it is fully developed or implemented yet 3. Maturing: we have begun program assessment of GE, but need to make some change to the model. 4. Fully developed: we measure the GE learning outcomes of our students in ways that help continuously improve curriculum and pedagogy.

Faculty Awareness of GE Outcomes in their GE course

Personally, I believe that, in general, faculty teaching GE courses on my campus are: 1. Unaware of which GE outcomes their course addresses 2. Somewhat aware of which outcomes their GE course addresses 3. Aware of which outcomes their GE course addresses 4. Design their course to focus on the GE outcomes it addresses

GE Assessment Measures To assess general education learning outcomes, my campus uses: (check all that apply)

Faculty Development Needs Personally, I believe that, in general, faculty teaching GE courses on my campus would benefit from faculty development in: (check all that apply)

Regular Review of GE Courses for Outcomes Achievement? How would you respond to the following statement? "The University academic governance body responsible for General Education regularly reviews courses in the GE program for student achievement of their GE outcomes."

"The University academic governance body responsible for General Education regularly reviews courses in the GE program for student achievement of their GE outcomes." 1. Strongly disagree2. Disagree3. Agree4. Strongly agree

What’s in an assessment plan? What is the assessment plan going to accomplish? – Statement of these goals Responsibilities for the different goals – Who does what Clear objectives – What is to be assessed and how Timeline – When does each step get accomplished

Gather Data (evidence) Interpret the data Make decisions based on evidence to improve outcomes resource allocation or reallocation if needed to improve outcome delivery Implement methods to deliver outcomes and methods to gather data Mission/Purpos es Goals Outcomes

Questions an assessment plan should answer. 1) What are the salient SLOs we want information about? 2) What is a valid yet easy way to evaluate student achievement of the targeted learning outcomes? The measure should allow for sufficient variability and be directly tied to the SLO. 3) How will we collect and enter this data? – Are we sampling or collecting the information on the entire population? – Who will be responsible for making sure this happens? 4) Who will prepare an initial analysis of the data? (Aggregate the data and report it a meaningful and easy to read manner.) 5) When will faculty meet to interpret the data and make a plan based on the findings?

Your Task- Develop an action plan whose elements: – Lead to implementation of GE assessment under the provisions of EO 1065 or improve your current assessment plan Address specific weaknesses in the current GE assessment plan Can be implemented in the immediate future Will provide evidence that leads to continuous improvement of student achievement

Symposium Outcomes. Campus teams will: develop a common understanding of the current state of their GE assessment develop common and realistic goals and outcomes for their action plan use information and team time at the CSU and WASC meetings to develop an action plan to implement program level GE assessment work at their home campuses to implement the action plan apply to the summer institute on GE assessment to disseminate their progress and pitfalls.

Answer some questions and earn consensus on your replies… What is the current state of assessment of GE as a program? What are areas of strength? What areas need improvement? What is the path to implementation? – What governance bodies will be involved in the approval and implementation of a new GE implementation plan? – What areas outside of faculty governance need to be brought into executing the plan?

Breakout time! Rooms- 20 each – California Foyer (here) – Santa Barbara, room (3 rd floor) – Sacramento Room (2 nd floor) – La Jolla Room (3 rd floor)