Assessment Council

Academic Senate Office

Telephone: (989)774-3350Fax: (989)774-2038

Minutes –February13th, 2017

Present: S. Berkshire, M. Kreth, S. Richards, T. Stohlman, T. Periyaswamy, S. Bechtel, S. Naeve-Velguth// Absent:D. Gray, E. Vandeusen// Guests: C. Brookes, D. Richter, M. Senter, Y. Su-Ritzler, M. Carson

  1. Meeting Called to Order: 8:33 am
  2. Approval of Minutes: Kreth motioned to approve minutes from 01-23-2017.Stohlmanseconded. Motion carried.
  3. Announcements:
  4. CSE vacancy: Brian DeJong (E&T) or Anja Mueller CHM) to move forward to Senate for approval on 2/21/17.
  5. HSBS vacancy reminder
  6. Order of Business: New Business and then Old Business
  7. Old Business:
  8. a. Proposal to adopt CMU assessment council definitions for introduce, reinforce, and emphasize (IRE)

•OutcomeIntroduced- introduces a concept for a program outcome for the first time; there is a focus on basic knowledge, skills, or competencies

•OutcomeReinforced - enhances or strengthens the opportunities for achieving a learning outcome that has already been introduced

•OutcomeEmphasized- promotes a level of mastery of a program outcome; outcomes might include integration, evaluation, and application of knowledge, skills, or competencies

The members discussed using the word “courses within each explanation and concluded the sentences may limit credit for prior learning experiences and co-curricular experiences. Therefore, the members agreed to remove “courses” from the definitions. There was also discussion that “reinforced” cannot be included in a course that is introducing a program learning outcome, since one cannot reinforce something that is not introduced. Therefore, the course should focus primarily on introduction the outcome in various ways. In addition, course objectives are different from learning outcomes. Kreth motioned to approve. Periyaswamy seconded. Motion carried.

  1. Assessment Summer Awards Criteria (Mary & Stephanie): Senter distributed letter but the members will discuss more and vote next meeting. Senter also suggested that one way to get the funding would be to reallocate a portion of the provost assessment incentive award.
  2. CAEP discussion at PEAC (Mike): Postponed until next meeting.
  3. Assessment Bylaw Language Examples (Deborah, Feb 27 meeting): Postponed until next meeting.
  1. New Business:
  2. Assessment Plans for Review:
  3. Guest Christi Brookes and Daniela Richter: French Major, BA/BS (New) – Stohlman thought the first target would be difficult to meet since there seems to be two targets stated for one outcome. However, the department thinks they are fairly confident that they will be able to achieve it. Carson edited target 1, measure 2 and measure 3 to include ‘acceptable rubric score” to keep the language consistent and clear with the rubric.
  4. Guest Christi Brookes and Daniela Richter: French Major, BS in Education (New) - Senter will upload exit interview to assessment plan
  5. Guest Christi Brookes and Daniela Richter: German Major, BA/BS (New) – Carson made a change in the first targets and findings. The language was changed on the exit survey target.
  6. Guest Christi Brookes and Daniela Richter: German Major, BS in Education (New) – Stohlman moved to approve all 4. Berkshire seconded. Motion carried.
  7. Tamil: Fashion Merchandizing and Design: Fashion Product Development Conc. BAA, BS (Online) – The mission seemed relatively vague and was missing context with the program’s purpose. Members felt the mission submitted in the new program proposed (blue form) may provide a detailed mission statement for the new program. There was a recommendation made to contextualize and standardize the language in the goals. Adding language to make it more specific to the program would provide a little more direction on each of these goals. Measure 1 FMD 560 rubric needs to be more specific on how each individual point is earned, especially on the bigger point values. There is no variation that explains why a student may not achieve the maximum points. The rubric should to be more distinct. Each area of the rubric should be coded to indicate which SLO is being measured.
  8. Focus Group Measure: An outline of the focus group question needs to be included in WEAVE.
  9. Curriculum Map: Course levels 300 & 400 seem to be missing from the curriculum map. In addition, student learning outcomes can’t be emphasized until there is reinforcement. The SLOs Planning, Testing, Calculating/Synthesizing and Technology are introduced and then immediately emphasized with no reinforcement.
  10. Tamil: Fashion Merchandizing and Design: Visual Merchandising Conc. BAA, BS (Online) – Stohlman moved to postpone the evaluation on both until the next meeting. Kreth seconded. Motion carried.
  11. Letters for Review
  12. CCFA: Art & Design (Yenpin) – Postponed until next meeting.
  13. CS&E: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (Yenpin) – They have 4 programs. One called environment science is fairly new and in the 1st or 2nd year, so they have no feedback to provide yet. The geology major with the hydro concentration was recently put on hiatus last month so there is no feedback. Meteorology and general geology are both doing a good job in collecting and analyzing data. The assessment plans are dated. The data collected doesn’t seem to match their old plan so a revision is recommended. Based on a previous department meeting this department may be revising their curriculum.
  14. Psychology major – Kreth thought the language in this letter leaves the impression that recommendations are optional. The letters should reflect what is in the policy.
  15. Anthropology and 3 Sociology majors – On track.

Kreth motioned to approve all 3 letters with recommended changes. Berkshire seconded. Motion carried.

Note: Laura Cochran has made the changes to African and African Diaspora.

  1. Other:
  2. Congratulations Provost Incentive Awards Recipients:
  3. Stephanie Richards, Communication Disorders
  4. Greg Smith and Kathleen Donohue, Joint MA/Joint Ph.D. History
  5. a. 2015-2016 Assessment Council Goals
  1. Enhance Assessment at CMU:
  • Assessment Leader Awards
  • Summer Assessment Teams
  1. Submit a Proposal to transfer to a more robust assessment management system such as TaskStream(ongoing)
  2. Recognition for faculty involvement in assessment through the department bylaws
  3. Improve communication with the faculty community (what should syllabi say relative to assessment, CETL help/partnering, promote CMU assessment news)
  4. Assessment Transparency: What to report on the assessment website. Right now we include mission, goals, and SLO’s
  5. Revisit the charge of the AC. What role does AC have in ‘off years’?
  6. Assessment Leader Awards: Provosts office agrees but how will this be evaluated. Provost’s Assessment Leadership Award
  7. RPT Letter from Provost

Link to academic senate and to charge of committee

Upcoming Conferences:

March 31 – April 1, 2017: Higher Learning Commission Annual Conference (Chicago, IL)

Assessment Conferences:

  1. Meeting Adjourned: 10:05 am

Respectfully submitted,

Katja Babcock

Student Assessment Committee Volunteer.