Our Journey Toward Faculty and Student Ownership of GE

Assessment

WASC ARC 2014

Pepperdine University Demographics

• Seaver College (Undergraduate)• 43 majors • 8 academic divisions• 128 units to graduate• 42% of students are out-of-state

• General Education Program• 63-64 units

• International Programs• 7 campuses• over 60% of students participate

Where the Journey Started

• WASC visit September 2012

• AAC&U Institute on GE Assessment

June 2013

Burlington, Vermont

• Do not plan to revise the GE Curriculum

• Do plan to develop an effective Assessment Plan

Constance FulmerAssociate Dean

Teaching and Assessment

Candice OrtbalsAssociate Professor

Political Science

Brad GriffinAssociate Professor

Theatre

Julianne SmithAssociate Professor

English

Thomas ReillyAssociate Professor

Asian History

Garrett PendergraftAssistant Professor

Philosophy

ProfileSeaver College

• Located in Malibu, CA• Liberal Arts College• 3,000 + students• 43 Bachelor’s Degrees• 8 Master’s Degrees• 58% Residential Students

Project GoalsAssistance with the assessment of:

• Core Competencies• GE Requirements which involve more

than one discipline• Sequential, stand-alone GE

Requirements• Four Semester Programs• GE and the International Programs• Junior Writing Portfolio

Where We AreConsensus Building and

Implementation of Assessment• Developing a faculty-driven

assessment plan for our GE Curriculum

• Envisioning an even more effective GE assessment program after learning assessment practices at other institutions

How We Can HelpOur Areas of Expertise

• Team Building• Faculty Development

Programs in Assessment

We want to do a better job of what we’re doing!

GELI Team MembersVermont Team

Constance Fulmer, Associate Dean of Teaching and Assessment

Candice Ortbals, Associate Professor of Political ScienceGarrett Pendergraft, Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Tom Reilly, Associate Professor of Asian History

Julie Smith, Professor of English

Additional GELI Team Members

Jenine Clements, Executive Assistant, International ProgramsLincoln Hanks, Associate Professor of MusicLoan Kim, Associate Professor of Nutritional ScienceMelinda Raine, Associate University LibrarianValerie Skinner, Assessment CoordinatorStudent Members: Thomas Yee, Kelly Okerson, and Shelby McDaniel

Conferences Attended by GELI

• Critical Thinking and Information LiteracyLila CarlsenCandice OrtbalsMelinda RaineConstance Fulmer

• Assessment 101Garrett PendergraftJulie SmithConnie Fulmer

• Quantitative ReasoningLoan KimConnie Fulmer

Conferences Attended by GELI

• Meaning, Quality, and Integrity of the Degree

Tom Reilly

• Assessment Workshop Sponsored by Point Loma Lila Carlsen

Julie SmithConnie Fulmer

General Education Program

- 64 or 65 units required

- half of 128 units required for graduation

- developed by the faculty in 200-2002

- only minor changes since 2006

General Education Program

• First-Year Seminar• English Composition• Junior Writing Portfolio• Writing-Intensive

Requirement• Speech and Rhetoric• Research Methods/

Presentation Skills• Mathematics• Foreign Language

• Christianity and Culture

• Western Culture• American Experience• Non-Western Cultures• Fine Arts• Literature• Laboratory Science• Human Institutions

and Behaviors

GE at Seaver College Before Vermont

• Aligned with University mission:

Pepperdine is a Christian university committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values, where students are strengthened for

lives of purpose, service, and leadership.

GE at Seaver College Before Vermont

• Aligned with Institutional Learning Outcomes.

• Scaffolded throughout the students’ four years at Seaver—including upper division courses.

• Addressed diversity in all courses; however, the American Experience courses were designated “diversity” courses.

GE at Seaver College Before Vermont

• Focused on the Core Competencies:

Writing: Freshman Composition or other

First-Year Writing Courses, Junior Writing Portfolio, and a designated Writing

Intensive Course in each major

Oral: Communication 180 and a course in each major which focuses on Presentation Skills

GE at Seaver College Before Vermont

• Focused on the Core Competencies:Quantitative Reasoning: a Mathematics class

and a Laboratory Science

Information Literacy: First-Year Seminar,First-Year Writing class; First-Year Seminar and a course in each major with an emphasis on Research Methods

Critical Thinking: throughout the courses—where our emphasis in assessment is beginning

GE After Vermont

The faculty in each area of GE were asked to:

• rethink their Learning Outcomes; • think about the primary focus of each

course;• place the course appropriately on the

Venn diagram.

Learning Outcomes forKnowledge, Skills, and Perspectives

• The student who completes each course that emphasizes knowledge will be able to demonstrate an introductory understanding of a body of knowledge in a specific discipline and of the ways of thinking about that knowledge. This may provide a foundation for future study and/or a framework for relating that body of knowledge to an overall understanding of theoretical and real life issues.

• The student who completes each course that emphasizes skills will be able to demonstrate an

increased level of competency in evaluating WASC’s core competencies critical thinking, written communication, oral communication, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, and other skills such as moral/ethical responsibility, acquiring language skills, or appreciating artistic, musical, or theatrical performance.

• The student who completes each course that emphasizes perspectives will be able to

demonstrate habits of mind characterized by open-mindedness and empathy toward local and global communities through a transformed awareness of self and others.

The Initial Placements• Knowledge, Skills, and Perspectives

First-year Seminar (primarily skills)Religion 101 and 102 (primarily knowledge)Religion 301 (primarily skills)Literature courses (primarily knowledge)Western Heritage

KnowledgeFine Arts (also skills)Laboratory Sciences (also skills)

History (also skills and perspectives)

Sociology

Psychology

The Initial Placements

The Initial Placements

Skills Economics (quantitative reasoning)

Composition (writing) Speech (oral communication) Mathematics (quantitative reasoning) Foreign Languages (writing and oral)

French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek

The Initial Placements

Perspectives Non-Western Cultures Political Science

Emphasis on Critical Thinking

• Each area of GE will complete an assessment of Critical Thinking by May 15, 2014.

• Each major will complete an assessment of Critical Thinking by May 15, 2014.

Assessment of Critical Thinking

To encourage the assessment of Critical Thinking, the GELI team offered two workshops:

For those assessing GE on November 20, 2014, attended by 28 faculty members

For those assessing the majors on January 29, 2014, attended by 31 faculty members

Assessment of Critical Thinking

1. State the definition of Critical Thinking which applies to your GE area or use this definition:

Critical thinking is a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive analysis and evaluation of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events for or against a claim or point of view.

2. Collect data from an appropriate assignments and assess it using an adaptation of the AAC&U VALUE Rubric for Critical Thinking.

3. Describe the process you used to establish inter-rater reliability.

4. Be sure to include students in the assessment process and three or more faculty members.

What next?

• Develop an assessment plan for each area—knowledge, skills, and perspectives.

• Assess each of the five Core Competencies

What next?

• Consider a way of assessing the role that co-curricular activities play in enriching the GE curriculum.

• Consider a way of assessing the role that high impact activities have in enriching the GE curriculum.

What next?

• Make sure the assessment of summer courses is consistent with the assessment of traditional semester-long classes

What next?

• Make sure the assessment of GE courses taught in our International Programs is consistent with the assessment of GE courses taught on campus

Buenos Aires, ArgentinaFlorence, ItalyHeidelberg, GermanyLausanne, SwitzerlandLondon, EnglandShanghai, China

Washington D.C.

What next?

• Continue to embed Information Literacy into the first-year experience, research intensive classes, and capstone courses.

• Create additional online Information Literacy modules.

• Assess information literacy via pre- and post-tests, quizzes, bibliographies, and resources used in papers submitted to the Junior Writing Portfolio.

Questions?