General Education Assessment: The Computer Literacy Outcome Goes Full Circle Mary T. Zegarski Professor, Computer Information Technology Dr. Jill Hirt Director, Planning Assessment & Institutional Effectiveness Northampton Community College Bethlehem, PA

REVISING THE COMPUTER LITERACY GENERAL EDUCATION STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOME

Where We Began General Education core revision prompted by Middle States Self-Evaluation in 2005 Committee formed to study General Education Outcomes 2006 The Computer Literacy General Education Outcome read: “Employ the computer as a tool in one’s personal and professional life” Computer Literacy Outcome revised in 2008

New Computer Literacy Outcome Students will use computer technology as a tool for communication and productivity both professionally and personally 1.Students will demonstrate knowledge of computer concepts and terminology. 2.Students will demonstrate an understanding of the ethical use of current technologies. 3.Students will use technology for communication and research with tools such as and the internet. 4.Students will create, store, retrieve and print appropriately formatted documents using assorted software such as word processors, spreadsheets, and other applications required by their field of study.

ASSESSING THE COMPUTER LITERACY GEN ED SLO

Planning the Assessment How to assess – Embedded assignment – Third party assessment tool – Objective exam Decision – Use an Office simulation for SLO 4 – Create short objective exam for SLO 1 and 2 – Use Community College Survey of Student Engagement 2009 (CCSSE) for SLO 3

Who to assess – Students with more than 36 credits completed – Traditional and online students

Pilot Fall 2010 – Multiple choice 15 item quiz to assess SLO 1 & 2 – Online Office simulation used to assess SLO 4 Results – 61 students participated in the multiple choice tool – 35 students completed the online simulation – Students were successful on both instruments – Student Learning Outcomes Committee deemed the multiple choice tool to be fair – Modifications were made Items with 100% success were removed Replaced by items on ethics

Official Assessment Spring 2011 Tools – SLO 1 & item multiple choice written assessment – SLO 4 - SAM2007 Word assessment – SLO 3 - CCSSE data used for “indirect” evidence to support SLO

Word Items Create a new blank document Save the document under the name ‘services.docx’ in the current directory. Close the document without exiting word. Save the current, previously saved word document into the folder ‘2007’ located in the documents folder. Do not change the file name or type. Print six copies of page two of this document. Display a preview of what the document will look like when printed. Select the text ‘translations one’ – do not click and drag. Change the font of the selected text to Comic Sans MS Change the font size of the selected text to 14. Bold the selected text. Specify that the selected text will be italicized. Change the color of the selected text to orange. Specify that the selected text will appear as a bulleted list. Use the default bullet. Center the selected paragraph. Add a graphic file (not a clip art image) named ‘logo’ to the current document at the insertion point.

Participants – Written assessment 18 classes 179 students with more than 36 credits completed 59 exclusively online students with more than 36 credits completed 238 Total participants – Online Word assessment 92 students with more than 36 credits

Results Goal – 80 % of students achieve 80% Written assessment – Average score 12 with a range of 6 to 15 – 62% scored 80% or above – 80 % scored 73% or above Word assessment – Average score 14 with a range of 11 to 15 – Almost 100% scored 80% or above

Community College Survey of Student Engagement – 51% of NCC students reported using such tools for any purpose “multiple times per day” Lower than reported by CCSSE participants (55%) – 40% use these tools to communicate with other students, instructors, or college staff about their coursework at least once a week Higher than CCSSE participants (35%) – 55% of NCC students are likely to use course management systems Higher than CCSSE participants (41%)

CLOSING THE LOOP

Where to Start SLO 4 – Survey of faculty and students – Information on assignments requiring Word, Excel or PowerPoint – Self-evaluation by students and faculty on facility with Word, Excel and PowerPoint SLO 1 & 2 – Three ways to fulfill Computer Literacy General Education Outcome 1.Complete a CISC course (usually Introduction to Computers) 2.Embedded computer literacy in program courses 3.Competing English 101c and English 151c

The Plan Address all three areas 1.CISC101 Intro to Computers Common Blackboard site for all adjuncts 2.Meet with English instructors 3.Meet with Division Dean’s to discuss programs which have embedded Computer Literacy

Meeting With The Deans Speak at division meetings on Professional Days Send a letter to all programs with embedded Computer Literacy – Discuss the new Computer Literacy Gen Ed SLO – Share the results of the assessment – Ask for assistance in making improvements Request that program courses are reviewed to find where SLO 1 & 2 are embedded Address those SLO’s in some new way

English 101C & English 151C – Course coordinators are reluctant to continue as Comp Lit Gen Ed fulfillment – Meeting with the Dean to be scheduled Program with embedded Comp Lit – Allied Health and Science division asked for assistance from the Computer Cluster particularly a workshop to be planned for professional days before the Fall semester – Discussions are on-going with other programs

Suggestions Always use the correct terminology. For example: Submitting an assignment by ing the file is sending the file as an attachment. Submitting a file in Blackboard is uploading the file. If you make your selection in a program by selecting an item from a list of choices, you are using a menu driven user interface. If you make your choice by clicking an image, called an icon, you are using a graphical user interface (GUI, gooey). You could point this out to your students as you use your software. You can discuss where files are stored. If they are stored internally on the computer’s hard drive, they are stored on the C drive. My Documents, often the default storage location, is on the internal hard drive. Portable storage is now usually a flash drive which is inserted into the USB port of the computer. It’s important for students to keep their files in an organized way.

If you talk about employment, you could mention how Social Media is being used by prospective employers. Suggest that students look at their Facebook page from that perspective. Point out good job search sites that students can use. Always mention the system requirements for any software. You can find that info by doing a search for the software. That reinforces the idea that software can’t be run on all computers and that you have to be aware of these things when purchasing computers or software.

WRAP UP

The assessment went very well – no problems Closing the Loop proves to be more difficult than expected On the whole the faculty has been very cooperative

Contact Information Mary Zegarski –