The Subcommittee on Assessment of General Education (SAGE)
Meeting Minutes
October 7, 2015
2:00 – 3:00pm
Fine Arts
Meeting start time: 2:05pm
In Attendance:
Jose Amador (CELS – NRS)
Elaine Finan (SLOAA, ATL)
Diane Goldsmith (ATL)
Jim Kinnie (University Libraries; chair of General Education)
Mary MacDonald (University Libraries; LOOC; teaching effectiveness committee; experience with General Education/CAC)
Valerie Maier-Speredelozzi (Engineering)
Paula McGlasson (Chair) (A&S - Theatre)
Adam Roth (A&S - Communication Studies)
Martha Waitkun (A&S - Communication Studies)
Agenda
I. Introduction & Welcome
o Discussion of SAGE By-Laws: The General Education Committee shall appoint
§ Ideally, would like a representation from at least one of the colleges
§ Work with Gen Ed to round out membership
II. Report from Jim Kinnie, chair of Gen Ed Committee
· Gen Ed Submission process ongoing
o ~200 submitted
o 20-30 full outcome courses have been approved
o 90% of submissions have 2 full outcomes
· Structural changes
o Pushback on the cultural and integrative rubrics, especially on terms
§ “culture” means something different to everyone - removed the terms “social” and “culture”
§ proposing to change the title of the culture rubric to “Diversity and Inclusion”
§ changes approved by the original creators and going to Fac Sen in November
o Foreign Language overlay- Languages want to insert one line in the manual “all students must take 1 general education course in a language taught in a language other than English”
§ Languages created a detailed, persuasive case – Jim will send us the proposal à now going to Fac Sen
§ Instead of culture cluster
§ Are there other universities that do not require languages?
· Panels:
o Panels preapprove large amount of courses, but how do panelists report back to full committee?
§ All courses need final gen ed approval; some need CAC approval
§ Individual reports to committees would take too long
§ Behind in the overall timeline
§ Gen Ed committee should at least be aware of
III. Report from Elaine Finan, SLOAA Office
· What are we going to do with the data?
o Backward mapping
o Institutionally, want to see the strengths and weaknesses
o Need to have value
· Timing: Institutionally, biannual program-level reporting requirement
o Minimally, General Education (as a program) will be assessed every 2 years
o Should we assess Gen Ed every year?
· What to assess: 12 outcomes (biannually, it would take 24 years)
o 40 credits for each student, we need to be able to say that we have a valuable Gen Ed program; prove that it is a cohesive program
o What is reasonable?
§ Recommend multiple outcomes in a reporting cycle – 3-4 outcomes per year
· May be too many for individual faculty
· 2 outcomes per year?
· Collect data continuously, but only report q 2 years
§ Shared burden is campus-wide
§ Faculty member will be collecting the data anyways
§ Goal of sampling: representative
o What should we ask for of faculty?
§ Upload scores of criteria based on rubric
§ Trust faculty to submit the aggregate score at student ID level (upload)
· Could then see the issues that need change… to improve student learning
§ If you have a large class, could think about taking a sample of student assignments rather than scores
· Data is interesting, but who will crunch the numbers and who will create reports?
· Need to consider feasibility and faculty workload
o Who will be the conductor?
§ SAGE can launch and recommend grouping of outcomes; communicate to faculty what is needed and when
§ Recommend a General Education Director to orchestrate reminders, tracking, etc.
§ ATL/SLOAA can do data analysis and reflection
o Program Launch Fall 2016 to 1/4 of students (freshmen) – put together a pilot of Gen Ed assessment for Spring 2017
§ Would make sense to put together a General Education Assessment Plan
§ Fall of 2020 would be when every student is on new Gen Ed Program
o Need to put together a sampling methodology for assessment
o Want to be able to say, “when we examined URI students’ writing, this is what we found…”
o Students who graduate from URI, will be competent in XYZ (ie outcomes in general education program).
o NEASC emphasizes outcomes – Elaine will be going to NEASC training and report back next meeting!
Meeting Adjourned: 3:05pm
Future Fall Meeting Date Ideas:
Wednesday, November 18, 2pm
Wednesday, December 9, 2pm