Transcript The Resort-Casino: A Case Study of Community and Workplace

General Education
Writing Across The Curriculum Retreat
Session II:
The State of Writing at UNLV:
Preliminary Findings
October 6, 2006
Goals for the Session
• Describe preliminary findings from the
Review of Undergraduate Writing
• Discuss as a group possible conclusions that
we might draw from the preliminary findings
• Begin to explore the following questions:
– What are we currently doing about
writing/communication at UNLV?
– What else do we need to do about
writing/communication at UNLV?
State of Writing at UNLV
• Review of Undergraduate Writing
–
–
–
–
Current writing requirements and practices
Current quality of undergraduate writing abilities
Faculty and student attitudes about writing
State of other modes of communication
(speaking, visual, digital)
• Produce Report--end of Spring 2007
semester
Sources of Data
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
First-Year Composition Program
Department Chair Survey
Writing Center/Teaching and Learning Center
College/Department/Program Assessment Data
Employers in Las Vegas
National Survey of Student Engagement
Graduate Exams (GMAT)
First-Year Composition Program
• Source: Fall 2005 Assessment Report
• Employed Collegiate Assessment of
Academic Proficiency exam by ACT
– 72-Question multiple-choice “writing skills” test
– Essay test (two 20-minute writing tasks)
– 32-Question multiple-choice “critical thinking”
test
First-Year Composition Program
• Measured six outcomes associated with collegelevel writing:
– Focus on purpose
– Respond to needs of audiences and to different kinds of
rhetorical situations
– Organize ideas for clarity and effectiveness
– Adopt an appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality
– Implement strategies of argument, and analyze and
evaluate reasons and evidence
– Control surface features such as syntax, grammar, and
punctuation
First-Year Composition Program
• Students scored “satisfactory,” averaging 1-3%
above or below the national means in 5 of the 6
outcomes
– Differences of less than 5% considered negligible
deviation, 5-10% moderate deviation, and greater
than 10% substantial
• The outcome that students scored below was,
actually, a subcategory: Basic grammar and
Usage scored 6% below the national mean
• First-Year Composition can only tell us about the
state of writing at the freshman level.
Department Chair Survey
• Source: Survey distributed by the WAC Steering
Committee
• Six questions about writing in the department
–
–
–
–
–
–
Writing requirements
Amount and kind of writing
Majors’ quality of writing
Faculty attitude
Feedback from outside constituents
Additional comments
• Completed surveys from eight departments
Department Chair Survey
• Initial observations from the surveys
submitted:
– Currently no writing requirements, although most
teachers willingly assign writing
– Variety of discipline-specific kinds of writing assigned,
although majority are research papers/reports/essays
– Page requirements average 6-15 pp course per
semester
– No real revision opportunities offered
– Very few oral assignments listed/described
Department Chair Survey
• Initial observations from the surveys
submitted:
– No concrete findings about quality of student
writing
– Faculty attitudes seem strong overall
– Very little feedback about student writing
outside the dept.
– Chairs consistently like the idea of WAC, as
long as it’s flexible and well-supported
Writing Center
• A unit of the College of Liberal Arts, reporting to the
Department of English
– College of Liberal Arts provides budget for operations and
the wages of several consultants
– Department of English assigns graduate teaching
assistants
– The Regents Award Program (RAP) funds two positions,
which must be approved on a yearly basis.
– The College of Hotel Administration reimburses for the
salary of one writing consultant
– The Office of Information Technology funds the
receptionists who monitor the computer lab.
Writing Center
• 2005-2006: 2,849 total visits
• 967 were for composition courses.
• 67% of all remaining visits were for all other courses
Hotel (36%)
Business (15%)
Liberal Arts (11%)
Health Science (8%)
Education (6%)
Sciences (6%)
Other/Undecided (6%)
Engineering (5%)
Fine Arts (5%)
Greenspun School (4%)
Honors (0%)
Law School (0%)
• Shows students across campus are seeking assistance
• Staffing varies by semester: must turn away students
• Need for more consistent and equitable funding
Teaching & Learning Center
• Offers an array of workshops in as many as 17
different programs on a regular basis
• Select TLC Programs with direct or embedded connections
to writing/communication
– Are They Learning?— Classroom Assessment
Techniques
– Case Studies—Create Your Own
– Plagiarism — Deterring It
– Research Assignment Design
– Service Learning
– Writing Assignments Across the Disciplines
UNLV College/Department Assessment Data
• Sources: Fall 2005 Assessment Reports from 87
undergraduate programs in 12 colleges posted on
Office of Academic Assessment’s website
• These initial assessment reports are considered
provisional with the intention that assessment
methods employed in this beginning phase will be
continually improved upon
• Looked specifically for either direct or embedded
writing and/or speaking-related communication
outcomes
UNLV College/Department Assessment Data
• Observations
– Many departments identify which courses address
particular objectives, including any communication
outcomes
– Most programs have a direct or embedded writing and/or
speaking-related communication outcome
– Most programs used indirect methods, such as student
surveys and course grades
– Practically all programs reported meeting their own
expectations regarding learning outcomes
UNLV College/Department Assessment Data
• More Observations
– Architecture specifically noted writing skills as an area in
need of improvement
– Nursing noted that a “standard evaluation tool, or set of
criteria, might grant a more accurate reflection of
students' written communication ability which could be
tracked across the levels”
– Honors College specifically set its expectations higher for
writing/comm as a result of its Fall ‘05 assessment
– History conducted a direct assessment of a sampling of
student writing
UNLV College/Department Assessment Data
• More Observations
– Psychology found students performed considerably lower
than expected on their indirect metric (“participation in
research activity”)
– Chemistry has developed direct and detailed
communication outcomes that include discipline-specific
sets of sub-goals related to each outcome
– University College employed a direct assessment tool, an
analytic rubric applied to capstone presentation
effectiveness
– Environmental Studies requires students complete and
defend a senior thesis project in capstone undergraduate
courses
Employers in Las Vegas
• Source: The Career Service Center administered
voluntary “On-Campus Recruiting Survey”
– Employers rate 9 skills and attributes on a 7-point scale
• 2005-2006, 17 employers completed the survey
–
–
–
–
10 Business
3 Hospitality
2 Engineering
2 Education
Employers in Las Vegas
• Resume and Candidate Credential Attributes
– “Written Communication Skills” (2005-06)
• Overall difference between Importance vs.
Student Rating for UNLV students was -1.4
• Career and Interview Preparation Areas
– “Communication/Interpersonal Skills” (2005-06)
• Overall difference between Importance vs.
Student Rating for UNLV students was -1.3
Employers in Las Vegas
“The data continues to emphasize the critical
need to develop students’ written
communication skills and effective
communication and interpersonal skills, both of
which continue to be the lowest ranked
qualities for our students year after year.”
(UNLV Career Services Employer Activities Report 2005-2006)
National Survey of Student Engagement
• Pew Foundation-supported
• In spring 2006, 557 colleges and
universities participated in the
administration of the NSSE survey,
including UNLV for the first time
• 12 questions related to written and oral
communication
National Survey of Student Engagement
• ~400 students from UNLV participated
• NSSE Report not yet available for UNLV
• Some National Frequencies
– Prepared two or more drafts of a paper or assignment
before turning it in: 18%-very often
– Number of written papers or reports of 20 pages or more:
1%-more than 20; 42%-between 1-4
– Writing clearly and effectively (as outcome): 34%-very
often
– Worked on a paper or project that required integrating
ideas or information from various sources: 43%-very often
Graduate Exams (GMAT)
• Goal is to track all GMAT, GRE, and LSAT
scores for UNLV graduates
• Source: GMAT only
– Three parts: quantitative, verbal, and an
analytical writing assessment
– GMAT-provided standard norms: mean score of
47%, or 526.6 and 80th percentile score of 640
– Used primarily for MBA program admissions
Graduate Exams (GMAT)
• Summary of TY 2005 for 266 UNLV Graduates
–
–
–
–
–
–
138 (51.9%) scored less than 500
49 (18.4%) scored 500-540
43 (16.2%) scored 550-590
26 (9.8%) scored 600-640
6 (2.3%) scored 650-690
4 (1.5%) scored 700 and above
• Can infer that UNLV students scored lower on the
verbal and analytical writing portions
Freewriting Prompt #1
• Freewrite the two or three points that stood
out for you as you listened to these
preliminary findings
• Does this preliminary data point to a need for
WAC/CAC?
Freewriting Prompt #2
• Considering the writing that you ask
students to do in your class, describe the
resources that you currently use
• Describe the kinds of resources you would
like to have available to you (in an ideal
world) to help you use writing in your
classroom more effectively
Discussion Activity
• Compare your responses with others at your table:
• As a group
– State the one or two findings that you found the
most compelling
– Is there a need for WAC/CAC?
– State the resources you feel are most important
for improving writing at UNLV