Department of Chemistry - Assessment Plan (Spring, 04)

Department of Chemistry - Assessment Plan (Spring, 04)

Paul J. Franklin

Director of Undergraduate Studies in Chemistry

1. Mission Statement

The chemistry department has long supported the University mission. We work to create an environment that provides for the education of qualified students from all walks of life, traditional, non-traditional and people of all races, creeds and genders without bias. We adhere to the principle of liberal arts education with our faculty interacting with our students both inside and outside the classroom on a routine basis. Our goals are to deliver a high quality instruction program both at the undergraduate and graduate levels to prepare our students for a productive career in post-graduate studies and for the job market. We endeavor to have both our faculty and our students to participate actively in scholarly pursuits, including oral presentations, submission of grant proposals/internships/graduate and undergraduate stipends and fellowships.

A unique characteristic of the chemistry department is our affiliation with the American Chemical Society (ACS). The ACS affiliation provides national standards of learning outcomes and assessment for the professional training of chemists for real life work in the chemical sciences. This includes industrial settings, government work, and academic areas. The intent is to determine what knowledge and skills are needed by practitioners in the field, what is currently taught to undergraduates, and how successful is our teaching. The ACS endeavors to encourage national improvements in curriculum and instruction through the various activities of its Division of Chemical Education and through its certification program. Faculty members are encouraged to attend seminars given by this division at the two national society meetings and the regional meetings each year.

The chemistry department is certified by the ACS. This involves a full program review by the ACS every 5 years with a short annual review of senior research reports (our capstone courses) and student certifications.. Course syllabi, including content and the number and types of courses taught, undergraduate research reports, and the professional quality of the instrumentation used in our laboratories are of prime consideration in the certification process.

Additional benefits of association with the ACS is the access to standardized tests that allow us to assess our students learning outcomes compared to national standards. In order to graduate with a B.S. in chemistry and be successful in careers after college, the students should show proficiency on these exams as a measure of their obtaining fundamental knowledge of the prescribed chemistry curriculum compared to national standards. Because these tests measure fundamental knowledge we also employ an extensive laboratory curriculum that encourages analytical thought processes and concludes with devolvement of extensive writing skills leading to final reports and oral presentations in our capstone courses.

In conjunction with our use of ACS exams we also employ an internal review and revision process. We have committees in place for evaluation of each major area of the undergraduate curriculum. This includes freshmen chemistry (all first and second semester core courses), organic chemistry (second year chemistry), biochemistry (third and fourth year chemistry), physical chemistry (third and fourth year chemistry), analytical chemistry (third and fourth year chemistry), and review of senior research theses. A review of student outcomes and their assessment is conducted by each committee with appropriate feedback given to individual instructors to enhance our courses and continue to let them evolve to a better level.

2. Learning Outcomes

Standard 1: Communication/Collaboration

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

1.1 Communicate effectively in written and oral forms

1.2 Read and demonstrate an understanding of scientific literature for content

1.3 Critically analyze claims made in the scientific literature

1.4 Demonstrate an understanding of scientific terminology

1.5 Work effectively in group situations

Standard 2: Critical Thinking

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

2.1 Construct reasonable hypotheses while asking scientific questions

2.2 Design and conduct investigations about a variety of chemical problems

2.3 Understand and analyze experimental results (Hypothetical or actual)

2.4 Formulate and defend explanations on matters of theory in chemistry

2.5 Solve unique problems based on learned factual materiel

2.6 Effectively perform laboratory operations to collect appropriate experimental evidence in conjunction with 2.1-2.5

Standard 3: Technology

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

3.1 Use computer graphics

3.2 Access chemical data bases

3.3 Access chemical literature

3.4 Molecular modeling of chemical structures

3.5 Use normal word processing skills

Standards 4: Quantitative skills

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

4.1 Students should demonstrate a grasp of mathematical skills from algebra, trigonometry, and calculus to solve problems and understand theory in chemistry

4.2 Understand error analysis to validate experimental results

4.3 Translate problem situations into symbolic representations for the purpose of solving problems

Standard 5: Contemporary issues

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

5.1 Know how chemistry can help solve problems in society

5.2 Safety and waste control - impact on society

Area D focus: Chem 1101/1102K, Chem 1151/1152K, Chem 1211/1212K

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

Effectively begin to understand and use the principles outlined in standards 1-5

3. Assessment Methods

I. Undergraduate

A. Laboratory-based assessment. Reports are evaluated by the instructor and committees devoted to the different areas of our program with respect to standards 1-4 listed in the learning outcome section notably oral communication can be assessed by an instructor when the quality of a students questions and responses to questions can be noted. We couple these university learning outcomes to our use of ACS standard when assessing student learning. This is started in our area D courses and continued throughout the curriculum culminating in our capstone courses Chem 4160, 4170. These capstone courses are also evaluated based on oral presentations usually by formal presentations of the students research in front of a committee of faculty members and fellow students. All reports from the capstone courses are further evaluated by the department director of undergraduate studies. Each instructor will keep all final exams and lab reports for all classes. The department then compiles a representative sample from across different section for further comparison. Freshmen chemistry awards are given to outstanding students. These awards are given by a faculty committee who keep and evaluate students final reports and exams. Statistically relevant samples of these exams and reports will be evaluated by the director of undergraduate studies in conjunction with our area committees using the criteria in stated in section 2 on learning outcomes as well as our learning outcome rubric submitted with our expectations for individual classes. The results of these evaluations will be passed back to the individual instructors for the purpose of course improvements.

B. Content/concept assessment. The department emphasizes the use of ACS exit exams for comparison to national norms to assess how our students compare to the national averages in terms of standard 2, and standard 4. We also use traditional in-house exams, quizzes and homework to assess student progress throughout the course. We are currently using a standardized entrance exam in area D for comparison of the initial student ability to what they have as a final outcome. Standard 3 is introduced early in area D with the use of web-CT and in the lab component of each class.

C. Other assessment parameters. Additional parameters that will be assessed include retention rates for majors, student’s perceptions of the program’s quality, and students career goals. To address standard 5 we have a major focus on research for assessment pruposes. We also are careful in choosing textbooks that not only have the appropriate content, but have focus areas in each chapter that relate to how chemistry is effecting society. Research is a critical component for a student to learn how chemistry helps solve problems in society. Students study how particular problems in medicine, agriculture, materiels, etc. have been solved or are in need of a solution. Students often work under a Professor who has received a peer reviewed grant dealing with a particular set of problems. The student studies the problem, does the lab research, then writes a paper for the course. These papers are reviewed by the advisor. If the work is suitable the paper is published in a peer reviewed journal. The peer review process provides a fine assessment tool.

II. Graduate

A. Graduate students will be assessed by their performance on general or discipline-specific examinations (both oral and written). They will also be evaluated on the written materiel (non-thesis reports, theses, and dissertations) that they present in fulfillment of their degree requirements. M.S. and Ph.D. students will be tracked individually with respect to retention, time required to obtain a degree, and post-graduate employment. Non-thesis masters students undergo 3 independent reviews by their Advisor, the Graduate Advisor, and the Departmental Chair. The thesis masters students undergo a review by a committee and the Chair after submitting an oral and written presentation of their results. Ph.D. Students submit a comprehensive written thesis normally containing information which has been published in peer reviewed journals. These students are evaluated by a faculty committee consisting of at least 3 members, 2 of which are experts in the students area while 1 member is from an outside discipline to ensure a proper assessment of each individual. The Department keeps copies of all theses and dissertations on file with the M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations also filed in the library for public access.

4. Data Collection and analysis

I. Undergraduate

A. Entrance exams are given for area D courses for comparison to grades and ACS exam scores after the courses are completed. An entrance exam will be given at the end of the semester to evaluate how a representative sample of the student perform compared to their initial exam. Lab reports, presentations, and examinations (of all types) are initially be reviewed by individual faculty members, but are then evaluated by committees of faculty members in each individual subject area to provide both consistency in letter grade assignments. Most importantly these committees give feedback to individual faculty members so that standards are maintained and course improvements and updates can be made.

B. ACS exit exams are given at the end of each chemistry sequence including area D sequences for comparison to national norms. The department collects statistics on the raw scores, individual national percentile ranking, and class averages in both categories.

C. Laboratory-based assessment. The primary assessment instrument will be the laboratory report. The reports are evaluated considering standards 1-4. Evaluation of oral communication and group participation skills are conducted by the individual lab instructors and teaching assistants for each individual lab section. These results are noted by the lab instructor for comparison to normal expectations and between individual students in the class. Part of the students lab grade specifically address these issues. Our capstone courses are further evaluated by the director of undergraduate studies and annually by the ACS providing outside feedback. Statistics will be kept on the quality of research reports in the department and the number and quality of publications in peer reviewed journals.

D. Complete teaching portfolios, containing examples of reports, syllabi, exams, quizzes, and student evaluations are kept and updated by all chemistry faculty.

These help to document assessment by cataloguing samples of student work.

II. Graduate

Doctoral and thesis M.S. students will be evaluated on their ability to produce and orally defend a research proposal as part of their admission to candidacy. Non-thesis M.S. students will be evaluated for their ability to produce and defend a literature or laboratory based research report.