Program Information s11

Program Information

Name of Program and Degree Level: / Psychology, BA / College: / CoAS
Prepared By:
(Department Chair/Program Coordinator) / Marie Thomas / Date: / 9/28/10
Email Address: / / Extension: / 4157

Planning for Assessment in 2010-2011

(Required by October 1, 2010. May be submitted earlier for expedited funding decision.)

1) Please identify one or two student learning outcomes that your program will assess in 2010-2011.
The SLO we will focus on is “Apply APA guidelines for the ethical treatment of human research participants or IACUC guidelines for the ethical treatment of non-human subjects to the various phases of psychological research (e.g., data collection, data analysis, reporting of research findings).
2) What specific assessment activities will you conduct this year in order to measure student achievement of these objectives?
We will conduct two projects this year:
· We will assess the chosen SLO by first surveying faculty to determine how each faculty member meets the SLO in his/her course (e.g., lecture material, readings, lab activity, etc.). Then we will develop several items that will be embedded in course exams. The same items will be administered in a number of courses which will allow for a variety of comparisons: lower-division versus upper-division classes, research/empirically-based versus non-research focused classes, and major versus GE courses. We hypothesize that students who have progressed farther in the major will have a firmer grasp of ethical issues and will know better how to apply ethical guidelines in research settings. The results of the faculty survey will help us interpret the data by giving us a sense of whether there are some techniques of imparting the information that are more successful than others. We will share the results and conclusions with all faculty in the department and decide whether we should continue on our present course or increase the emphasis we place on this SLO.
· The faculty have approved the revised Goals and SLOs that we worked on last year. We will spend time this semester revising the course by SLO matrix. In addition, we will add the matrix to our lecturer handbook and develop a plan to make sure all lecturers are informed about SLO expectations for the courses they teach.
3) Please describe how the assessment support of $750 will be used.
The $750 assessment support will be used as stipends for faculty who help me with these tasks (I will not take a stipend as I view these department duties as part of my LOAF role). I anticipate that two other faculty (one being Sharon Hamill) will work on both of these projects with me, and would like them to receive at least $250 each. In addition, I would like to the rest of the funding for a student assistant to do the computer work involved in preparing a data file for analysis.