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Chapman University: First Draft of 2007 Gen Ed Assessment Plan, with TOC for e-portfolios

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NOTE: Here’s a combined document with the draft and the TOC for the e-ports (and it literally is a first draft, not a model for anybody at this point). [Jeanne Gunner, 11/2007]

See also the the overview of the new GE, which is context for the assessment draft .

Assessing the 2007 GE Program

The 2007 GE program emphasizes student choice and responsibility, program flexibility, and the integration of general education with majors, minors, and experiential learning forms. The personalized plans students are encouraged to develop differentiate this program from traditional versions of general education. Students take courses or pursue experiential learning in defined GE areas; we do not offer “GE courses” as a distinct part of the overall curriculum. Other than the first-semester FFC course, the program is not prescriptively incremental in design—students may take courses in GE areas and clusters at any point in their undergraduate careers, according to their academic purposes. To support integrated and contextualized learning, the program allows for overlap of GE areas with majors and minors, and it provides for alternatives within two of the GE clusters: students may pursue a minor and thereby satisfy the Inter/ Multidisciplinary Cluster, and they may satisfy portions of the Global Citizen Cluster through experiential learning, such as semester-long study abroad.

As a result of the GE program’s innovations, personalized plans, and flexibility, program assessment becomes a complex challenge. We cannot disaggregate learning of predetermined skill sets, for example, because such learning spreads across major, minor, GE, and experiential learning areas. What we can assess is how successfully the GE program enables students to work directly on projects and activities that embody the stated learning outcomes; specifically:

• critical inquiry
• breadth of knowledge
• depth of knowledge
• integration of knowledge within and across disciplines
• ethical awareness
• experiential learning
• independent thinking

Clearly, assessing the 2007 GE program requires multiple measures of goals and outcomes, with measures primarily though not exclusively qualitative in nature.

Therefore, in keeping with the personalized mission of the University and the GE plan created to embody that mission, the primary GE program assessment tool is a longitudinal electronic portfolio study of a randomly selected group of students who began their first year at Chapman in Fall 2007, the term in which the 2007 GE program was implemented. Additional measures include regularly administered student and faculty surveys and student focus groups.

E-Portfolio Contents

The portfolio as primary measure will enable us to assess student learning in the shared GE areas of artistic, quantitative, natural science, social, values/ethics, and written inquiry; and in the clusters, which include the FFC program, Inter/Multidisciplinary study, and the three Global Citizen Cluster areas of global study; citizenship, community, and service; and language study.

Portfolio contents will include:

Primary artifacts reflecting student learning in GE areas:

• Student-selected essays from course taken in GE areas
• Student-selected multimedia/digital media projects (PowerPoint presentations, web sites, etc.)
• Collaborative essays and projects

Secondary artifacts:

• Selection of syllabi and assignment sheets reflecting course values in GE-related courses
• GE-related co-curricular field trips/event attendance log
• GE experiential learning log, including travel courses taken, study abroad program, internships, service-learning courses/programs, and student-faculty research completed for GE areas
• Academic plans, from first through revised versions, including declaration of a minor or second major

Data Collection

For the portfolio project, the sample size will be 150 students currently in their freshman year, with data collection continuing over the four undergraduate years. The sample group will be randomly selected within four divisions: ASBE, DODGE, WCLS, and undeclared majors, with a proportional number of students from each group.

Inside Track coaches will assist freshmen in the sample to set up their Chalk & Wire portfolio. They meet weekly with all freshmen and will include review of the portfolio contents as part of the regular session, ensuring that students are making entries in all relevant categories.

E-Portfolio Assessment

Portfolios will be reviewed and assessed by faculty at the end of the students’ first year and third year, using standard training/norming procedures, with the GE Committee overseeing the review process. The 2007 GE Goals and Learning Outcomes will be used as the assessment measures. The GE Committee will use the results of the overall assessment to propose program revisions, if indicated.

2007 GE Goals and Learning Outcomes

2007 GE program goals:

• students participate in shaping their program in the most purposeful way for their educational journey
• students develop new areas of knowledge and build increasing complexity of thought, making connections across courses, disciplines, and areas of interests
• students make meaningful connections between GE and the major and cluster courses to form contexts for learning
• students develop as critical, ethical, active learners

2007 GE program learning outcomes:

• students develop the means of critical inquiry in academic and civic matters
• students develop a breadth of knowledge in the liberal arts
• students develop depth of knowledge in areas unique to Chapman
• students integrate knowledge within and across disciplines
• students cultivate ethical awareness in learning and practice
• students engage in experiential learning as thoughtful, principled citizens in a local and global sense.
• Students become independent thinkers able to sustain a lifelong desire for intellectual growth

E-Portfolio Table of Contents—2007 GE Assessment

Essays, Reports, and Other Papers from GE Courses

Media-Based Projects, PowerPoints, Web Site and Wiki Links

GE Course Assignments Sheets

GE-Related Field Trips and Events

GE Experiential Learning (Study Abroad, Student Research, Service Learning, Internship)

Academic Advising Planning Sheets