General Education Assessment Committee

General Education Assessment Committee

August 11, 2005

Present: Joan Carson (ex officio), Tim Crimmins, Harry Dangel, Bill Downs, Sarah Pallas, George Rainbolt, Don Reitzes

Status Reports from subcommittees (brief findings and recommendations):

Reports on assessment resul= ts from 2004-05 had been distributed electronically from the sub-committees on Communication—Written, Contemporary Issues, Critical Thinking—Humanities, Critical Thinking—Sciences, and Quantitati= ve Skills.

Discussion centered on writ= ten communication and concerns about low inter-rater reliability in scoring wri= ting samples. The committee noted the importance of feedback to students during successive drafts in writing intensive classes and the need for WAC support= in order to do this. Downs reported that the syllabus check was a useful strategy in documenting that writing was incorporated into the course assignments.

Transition to having departments assume responsibility for assessing general education learning outcome= s in the core:

The committee recommended t= hat each subcommittee continue to collect data during 2005-06 while working on guidelines to assist departments to assume this role. The transition to hav= ing departments become responsible for general education assessment in the core might be facilitated by involving the College of Arts and Sciences associate deans in the process. The committee also recommended continued collaboration with the Writing Across the Curriculum program and continued funding incentives for members of the subcommittees.

Discussion related to instructio= n in the core:

The committee noted the val= ue of a pedagogy course for graduate teaching assistants within each department whi= ch offers courses in the core and recommended that the various departments with courses in the core offer such a course. Information on programs for teachi= ng assistants might be added to departmental websites. Likewise, special facul= ty development activities were proposed to prepare non-tenure-track faculty te= ach and assess general education components that are embedded in the core cours= es.