A Convenience Sample of First-Year Students and Seniors Take Both NSSE and MAPP, Measure

Appendix C1

A convenience sample of first-year students and seniors take both NSSE and MAPP, Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress. MAPP was selected for assessment of learning related to skills in the Liberal Arts Core because the test echoes category areas in the Core: mathematics (Category 1), writing (Category 1), reading/critical thinking (Category 1?) humanities (Category 2), natural sciences (Category 4), and social sciences (Category 5).
With respect to Category 1, related data from NSSE, MAPP, and the Senior Survey were gathered into handouts and presented in workshops during the fall semester of the 2008-2009 school year (http://www.uni.edu/assessment/data/lacdata.shtml). See Communication at http://www.uni.edu/assessment/data/documents/lacworkshopcommunicationf08.pdf and Quantitative at http://www.uni.edu/assessment/data/documents/lacquantitativeskills2007-8data.pdf. To access these pages, you will the login (assessmentdata) and password: (unidata) to the NSSE and MAPP web page.

The workshops were not well attended. A dissemination plan for the MAPP and NSEE results needs to be formulated to that the data is available for use by faculty who are teaching the Category 1 courses, as well as others. I feel certain when I say that the information is not being used, or at least used in any organized, systemic way, to make changes in courses or curricula.
This year (NSSE 2009), we are participating in a NSSE consortium on writing, which will provide us in early fall with additional information related to students' experiences with writing and the teaching of writing. My plan is to distribute this information across campus, to a variety of audiences who are interested in student writing and might have an impact on how we address instruction in writing.

The links below take you to assessment plans written as part of category review for Category 1. The Liberal Arts Core Committee Chair pulled these descriptions of assessment from category review documents. She notes that assessments are most likely done only at the time of category review and that she has no information on how data from assessments might be used.
Writing, Category 1: http://www.uni.edu/morgans/lacc/cat1a.pdf\
Communication (Category 1b): http://www.uni.edu/morgans/lacc/cat1b.pdf
Quantitative Reasoning (Category 1c): http://www.uni.edu/morgans/lacc/cat1c.pdf
Personal Wellness (Category 1d): http://www.uni.edu/morgans/lacc/cat1d.pdf
Overall, the assessment tend to focus on self-perceptions of learning and/or student evaluations of the usefulness of the course. There is some direct assessment--e.g., writing and quantitative reasoning--but there is nothing to indicate how many students were involved or whether the information gained was used beyond reporting it in the Category Review report.