General Education Assessment

Why assess General Education?

We assess General Education so that we might improve, increase, and enhance student learning. Period.

In Spring and Fall 1999 the General Education Council, in partnership with Assessment Services, pilot tested a multi-method approach to general education assessment at UW-Green Bay.  The primary focus?  Embedded assessment of UW-Green Bay's general education learning outcomes.  This site contains descriptions of the multi-method approach and its components, along with a preliminary report of results.

Spring 2001 marked the first "regular" semester of embedded assessment of general education learning outcomes, according to a Learning Outcomes Review Cycle set by the General Education Council.  Stay tuned for results.

 

A Multi-Method Approach to General Education Assessment at UW-Green Bay

Key players: students, faculty members teaching General Education courses, the General Education Council, Testing Services

The following approach to General Education assessment draws upon three methods in its assessment of UW-Green Bay’s General Education learning outcomes.  The approach integrates two existing assessment methods with a third method that focuses on embedded assessment of the products of student learning, as follows:

1.  Standardized exam data.   [each semester; in place since 1991]  All students having between 54 and 72 credits participate in the General Education Assessment Program, during which they take the College Basic Academic Subjects Examination (BASE). The College BASE is a nationally distributed, standardized exam that evaluates students’ general education knowledge of English, mathematics, science, and social studies.

2.  Student self-report data.

a.  General Education Assessment Research Questions.  [each semester; in place since 1998]  All students participating in the General Education Assessment Program are asked to report their perceptions of how well their UW-Green Bay courses have helped them to achieve the institution’s General Education learning outcomes.

b.  Graduating Senior Survey.  [each semester; in place since 1997]  All graduating seniors are asked to assess how well their UW-Green Bay experiences have helped them to achieve the institution’s General Education learning outcomes.

c.   Alumni Survey.  [annual; in place since 1997]  All alumni are asked to assess how well UW-Green Bay prepared them to achieve the institution’s General Education learning outcomes, and how important those learning outcomes are to their careers or graduate programs (annually, to alumni who have graduated three years previous).

3.  Embedded assessment data. [each semester; pilot tested in 1999]  Student performance on “authentic” general education course assignments or activities is the source for embedded assessment data.  Faculty participation in the embedded assessment process is solicited to coincide with the General Education Council’s Learning Outcomes Review Cycle.  Illustratively, faculty members teaching courses that contribute to the “critical thinking” learning outcome will be asked to participate in the embedded assessment process in the year before the “critical thinking” learning outcome is evaluated by the General Education Council.  [Note: Faculty members should never have to participate in the evaluation of more than one general education learning outcome per year, since the Learning Outcomes Review Cycle addresses no more than four general education learning outcomes per academic year, and the evaluation schedule for any given year is distributed across the domains.]

        The Embedded Assessment Process.  Each participating faculty member is asked to identify at least one course assignment, examination, or other instructional activity that relates to the general education learning outcome under study (e.g., critical thinking).  The faculty member then develops a four-point performance rating scale for the chosen course assignment or activity. Once students complete the course assignment or activity, the faculty member uses the performance rating scale to evaluate student performance on the chosen course assignment or activity. Faculty participation in the embedded assessment process concludes with the completion of a form that includes seven brief components:

 

  1. A brief description of the relevant assignment(s) completed by the students;

  2. The number of students completing the assignment;

  3. The General Education learning outcome to which the chosen assignment or activity contributes;

  4. The relevant course objective or learning outcome to which the chosen assignment/activity contributes;

  5. The performance rating scale used to evaluate students’ performance on the chosen assignment or activity;

  6. The number of students achieving each performance level or a list of students (by student identification number) and their performance levels; and

  7. Faculty comments on the process.

 

    Most faculty members choose to evaluate one course assignment or activity per general education course, and most submit their evaluation at the end of the semester (or shortly thereafter).  The most time-consuming aspect of the embedded assessment process for a given faculty member is usually the initial development of the four-point performance rating scale.  Once the rating scale has been prepared and refined, faculty members typically find the embedded assessment process to be no more time-consuming than traditional grading and reporting.

Some advantages associated with this multi-method approach to General Education assessment include:

  1. All General Education learning outcomes are assessed using at least two sources of data.

  2. Faculty members are more involved in assessment data collection, but need not commit excessive time and effort to the data collection process.

  3. The General Education Council has more and better assessment data with which to evaluate the general education program.

  4. The approach builds upon existing activities (e.g., General Education Assessment Program, student surveys, student completion of general education course assignments), and is relatively simple (without being simplistic).

  5. The embedded assessment component allows review of student performance that occurs within the classroom context, and is subject to “natural” environmental and internal influences (e.g., motivation).

  6. Multiple data collection methods permit tests of convergent and discriminant validity.

1.   Testing Services prepares a preliminary “General Education Learning Outcomes” report.  This annual report is organized by learning outcome, such that each learning outcome has its own “chapter.”  Each chapter’s narrative includes a summary of the data from the faculty members’ assessments of their students’ learning, the various student surveys, and the College BASE.

2.  The General Education Council reviews the preliminary report (and primary data sources, when appropriate) and prepares a summary report.  This annual report addresses several questions, including:

  1. What is being assessed?  What is not being assessed?

  2. What evidence do we have that students are achieving the learning outcomes established for the General Education curriculum?

  3. Are there any broad suggestions for enhancing teaching and learning in the General Education curriculum that need to be considered and implemented?

  4. Are there courses that satisfy General Education requirements that appear disconnected from the General Education learning outcomes?  Is this satisfactory?  Are changes needed in the list of courses, or in the General Education learning outcomes?