Department of Criminal Justice

1281 Urban Life

MEMORANDUM

To: Michael S. Vaughn, Chair

From: Richard J. Terrill, Chair Ext. 3515

Undergraduate Committee

Date: 31 May 2005

Re: Implementation Plan for Undergraduate Outcomes Assessment

During the 2004 - 2005 academic year, the Undergraduate Committee developed procedures and created tools for implementing a plan for outcomes assessment of undergraduates.

First, the committee established a process for retaining portfolios on all students completing their capstone courses (CRJU 4930 - Internship Seminar in Criminal Justice and CRJU 4940 - Criminal Justice Field Instruction. By using WEBCT/VISTA, students upload copies of the seven papers that they write in CRJU 4930. They also upload in PowerPoint format one of their oral reports that they present in CRJU 4930. This process was developed during the fall semester 2004 and implemented in the spring 2005. Because of the limited space for departmental data storage, these VISTA files will be downloaded each semester and stored on a CD ROM. Because this system was not operational during the fall semester 2004, paper copies of all written assignments have been retained for that semester. Thus, the department will have complete portfolios on students enrolled in the capstone courses (CRJU 4930 and CRJU 4940) for the 2004 - 2005 academic year.

Second, the committee identified and the department faculty approved fifty true/false questions for our Capstone Examination. This examination is designed to cover the basic areas of criminology, public safety, courts, corrections and juvenile justice. It will be administered for the first time in June for those students who plan to enroll in CRJU 4930 and CRJU 4940 for the fall semester 2005. This examination will be graded by the University’s Testing Center. The committee is in the process of placing additional questions in this test bank. As with the original fifty questions, the committee wants to provide the faculty of the department with an opportunity to review the additional questions. This was not possible during the spring semester, as the entire department was in the process of moving to renovated offices. Once these additional questions have been approved by the faculty, they will be integrated into the original test bank by October 2005.

Third, the internship program has had a long established policy of having our internship agencies complete an evaluation of our student interns. We continue to provide that evaluation instrument to our agencies by mailing it to them. During the spring semester 2005, we started providing our internship agencies with the option of either returning the evaluation via the mail or by going online to the internship website and completing the evaluation.

Fourth, on the subject of evaluation, the committee has developed an evaluation instrument that the student interns are encouraged to complete that assesses the internship agency. This evaluation is provided online at the internship website. This type of evaluation was introduced during the fall semester 2004.

Thus, the 2004 - 2005 academic year was spent developing the instruments for data collection

for Undergraduate Outcomes Assessment. In some cases data were actually collected. For example, complete portfolios on students enrolled in the capstone courses (CRJU 4930 and CRJU 4940), agency evaluations of interns, and interns evaluation of agencies. By the beginning of the 2005 - 2006 academic year, all instruments will be operational, for the Capstone Examination that is designed to test our students basic knowledge of criminology, public safety, courts, corrections and juvenile justice will be introduced this summer.

c. Undergraduate Committee