Transcript Assessment - University of Pittsburgh

Notes by Juan Manfredi
February 11, 2008
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Passed by Arts and Sciences faculty in April
2002 and published in the A & S Gazette on
April 15, 2003 (Vol. 37, No. 7)
Motion A-2: “…culture of continuous and
ongoing curricular discussions within and
across departments about the appropriate
content, goals, and pedagogical strategies for
presenting general education courses…”
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Motion B-6: “Whereas, It is critical to the success of
CAS that both the General Education Curriculum and
the curricula that departments and programs offer to
students within their major fields of study enable
students to achieve their educational potential.
Resolved, That FAS calls on faculty members and the
FAS departments to develop discipline-appropriate
mechanisms to monitor educational outcomes that
our students achieve, and that the results be
presented to CAS council, and evaluated at FAS mini
reviews and at external reviews.”
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Motion C-4: “Resolved, That the General
Education Courses offered by departments and
programs be reviewed by those units every five
years to determine whether they are still
appropriate elements of the General Education
Curriculum….”
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Overarching GOAL: To be successful in educating our
students.
Required for accreditation by the Middle States
Commission on Higher Education.
Credibility: Assessment emanates from the faculty
Professional, not personality driven, process to identify
weak elements in the curriculum.
“Effective assessments are simple rather than
elaborate, and they may focus on just a few key goals in
each program, unit, and curriculum” (Middle States
document)
Potential impact on future programmatic resource
allocation. Set goals and priorities.
Gradual: Assess SOME outcomes per year.
General Education Assessment PLANS due on
March 1, 2008 at the Provost’s Office.
 Initial assessment conducted in time to report
on March 1, 2009.
 Identify (3 to 5) Learning Outcomes, Methods of
Assessment, and Standards of Comparison for
10 Specific Requirements plus Quantitative and
Formal Reasoning, Composition and Writing
Requirements.
 Map to Core Learning Goals outlined by the
Provost.
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3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Literature
(LIT)
Arts
(ARTS)
Philosophy
(PHIL)
2nd Literature, Arts or Creative Expression
(2nd LIT-ARTS-CREXPR)
Foreign Language (2 courses)
(FL)
Foreign Culture/Intl (3 courses)
(FC)
Non-Western Culture
(NON-W)
Historical Change
(HIST)
Social Science
(SOC)
Natural Science (3 courses.)
(NATSCI)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Master an academic discipline
Think critically and analytically
Gather and evaluate information effectively and
appropriately
Understand and be able to apply basic scientific and
quantitative reasoning
Communicate clearly and effectively
Ability to apply the knowledge to new situations
Be technologically fluent
Understand and appreciate other countries and
cultures
Have a sense of self
Have a sense of responsibility to others
Connectiveness to the University
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Plan drafted and approved by the Arts and
Sciences Undergraduate Council on January
28, 2008, following discussions over several
Council sessions during the Fall, including a
meeting with Vice Provost Beeson.
Starting point: Curriculum Document.
Provost Student Goals as a guide.
Plan presented to A&S Deans, A&S Council,
and to A&S PBC.
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There are more than one thousand courses
approved to meet General Education
Requirements.
In each category (e.g. Course in the Arts, Course
in Historical Change), a substantial number of
students meet the requirement through
completion of a small selection of these courses.
Focus on this subset of courses, which have been
identified by data analysis.
[Show spreadsheet]
We propose a three year schedule as follows:
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Year 1: FL, NATSCI, LIT
Year 2: HIST, NON-W, ARTS
Year 3: PHIL, SOC, FC
and W
and QFR
and COMP
(The Second Course in Literature, the Arts, or
Creative Expression requirement can be
assessed in combination with the Arts and
Literature requirements.)
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Chairs and Program Directors of the departments involved
have being contacted and asked to consult with their faculty.
Our objective is to develop, in conjunction with the faculty,
three to five learning outcomes for these courses that reflect
both their relationship to the major and to General Education.
We also solicit from the faculty teaching these courses
suggestions on proposed assessment techniques and on the
expected standard of comparison for each learning objective
that is submitted.
Faculty within each department will be asked to implement the
assessment of these courses.
Initial Assessment matrices, one per selected course are due on
February 26, 2008.