MATH DEPARTMENT
FALL 2015 FLEX DAY MEETING NOTES
August 13 & 14, 2015
Flex Day department meetings began at the Division level where Stephanie Burns, SME Chair, briefly discussed the packet each department needs to complete as part of the SLO work. Stephanie reminded the group that assessment should occur for every course, every semester. When completed with course assessment, the department then needs to move through the program level. The eventual goal is public, viewable documents.
It is okay to re-write SLOs but they have to go through the curriculum committee before they can be assessed. Any current assessment must use the current SLOs.
The meeting then adjorned to individual department meetings.
Shawna opened the Math Department SLO meeting on Thursday, August 13 with a vote on whether to (1) work on assessment techniques with small individual groups who will bring product back to the whole group or to (2) work on them as a single large group. An informal vote was held with option 1 – working in small groups to develop assessment methods was adopted.
Goals: 1) Need to make data useful for improving instruction.
2) Collecting data needs to be simple.
Each group needs to explicitly state whether notes and/or calculators are allowed or required. Clearly state delivery, identify a specific sample problem (similar type and difficulty), define success, and rate appropriateness of the SLO – whether good, should be changed in the future or needs immediate change.
The meeting was adjorned to allow individuals and groups to complete work. Math 106 data was provided by Randy and entered into TracDat by Hilary. David Ellingson entered assessment results for Math 108.
August 14, 2015 Math Department Session:
At the 9:45 a.m. meeting Shawna assigned groups to work on assessments for Math 90, 94, 106 and 221. Upon reconvening at 11:00 a.m. the department discussed the proposed assessment method for Math 90 and following discussion on calculators, notes and the difficulty of questions, the group quickly approved the draft with some changes. Language regarding calculators and notes was changed to allowed at instructor’s discretion.
Discussion began on the Math 94 assessment. It was agreed to change the language regarding calculators and notes to match the Math 90 assessment. Questions under SLO 1 were reviewed in part with sample questions for Logarithmic, Exponential and Absolute Value approved by the group. The remaining portions of SLO 1 and SLO 2 were not discussed as time for the meeting had lapsed.
The meeting was adjorned and discussion of the SLOs will be resumed on September 17 when more department SLO meetings are scheduled in lieu of the regular Division Meeting.