Student and Faculty Perceptions of Goal Achievement in General Education Courses C. “Griff” Griffin Director, General Education Grand Valley State University, Michigan

OVERVIEW Assessment of General Education Programs Assessing GVSU’s General Education Program Objectives Audit (survey) Results Reporting the Results

1. ASSESSING GE What do you assess? 1. Student Learning Outcomes All the goals, all the time, in all classes All the goals, all the time, in all classes All the goals, over a couple years, in each class All the goals, over a couple years, in each class Some of the goals in selected classes Some of the goals in selected classes 2. Satisfaction 3. Program assessment

Whom do you assess? Census Census Sample SampleRandomVolunteerStratified

What do you assess? All the goals, all the time, embedded All the goals, all the time, embedded All the goals, over a couple years, in each class All the goals, over a couple years, in each class Some of the goals in selected classes Some of the goals in selected classes

When do you assess GE? Just before graduation Just before graduation In the course In the course Some other time Some other time

What kind of measures do you use? Direct –they LEARNED it Direct –they LEARNED it Indirect – they SAY they learned it Indirect – they SAY they learned it

2. GVSU GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM Grand Valley State University 24,000 students in Grand Rapids, MI 24,000 students in Grand Rapids, MI 3 main campuses 3 main campuses Liberal education mission Liberal education mission Upcoming accreditation in Fall 2008 Upcoming accreditation in Fall 2008

General Education Program (280 courses) 1. Foundations – take 8 courses (100/200 level) (100/200 level) 2. Cultures – take 2 courses ( level) 3. Themes – take 3 courses ( level) Some courses count in more than one category.

Assessment Choices 1. Direct Measures – CLA test, in class measures 2. Indirect Measures – NSSE, CIRP, CSS, locally developed surveys

3. OBJECTIVES AUDIT (PERCEPTION SURVEY) Skills Goals 1.creative and critical thinking 2.articulate expression through effective speaking and writing 3.information literacy 4.integrate different areas of knowledge and view ideas from multiple perspectives. All classes must do 1-3, Themes must do 1-4. Foundations and Cultures need to do speaking … OR …writing

Content Goals Each Foundation, Culture, and Theme subcategory have unique content goals

Content Goals (3-10 goals) + Skills Goals (4-5 goals) = 7 to 15 goals

Why do an objectives audit? Advantages Advantages Quick Quick Perception matters Perception matters Disadvantages Disadvantages –Indirect –Bias – which way???

How do you administer it? Paper Paper Census = high return rate Electronic Electronic Doesn’t use class time Conscious effort to find it

Just students, just faculty, both, either? Just students, just faculty, both, either? Is it required? Is it required? –If volunteers, is that ok? –Is it random? Who should complete the audit?

The survey How well did this course achieve the following goals: The response choices are: strongly agree agree not sure disagree strongly disagree

4. RESULTS

Timing - End of Fall 2006 Timing - End of Fall 2006 –before finals –before on-line course evaluations –On-line for 10 days Participation Participation –99 courses (45%) –193 sections (23%)

Average=35

5. REPORTING THE RESULTS What’s the purpose of the objectives audit? It affects the reports! What’s the purpose of the objectives audit? It affects the reports! –Accreditation –Improvement –Both

Who do we give the results to? Who do we give the results to? – faculty who participated –all faculty –administration –students – other

What do we report? What do we report? aggregate to the University community disaggregate to college? disaggregate to department (just them or everyone sees it)?  disaggregate to individual faculty (just them or can the department see it)?

What is success? What is success? –70%, 80%, 90%, 100%? –Is it different depending on the course level? –Is it different for skills than for content goals?

Why aren’t we achieving all the goals (or as well as we want)? Why aren’t we achieving all the goals (or as well as we want)? –We’re not teaching it well –We are teaching it but students don’t know it –We’re not teaching it so students aren’t learning it (why??)

How do we fix the problem? How do we fix the problem? –Start teaching it –Teach it better –Tell the students they’re learning it –Remove the goal

CONCLUSIONS 1. Getting student perceptions can be easy and response rates can be high (45%) 2. Surveys can give you valuable information

3. Student (75%) and faculty (90%) perception is that we are achieving our goals 4. There are areas for improvement 5. Reporting will be challenging.

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