Baccalaureate Core Committee

Voting members present: Aidas Banaitis, Geoffrey Barstow, Daniel Faltesek, Matthew Kennedy, Ifeoma Ozoede, Rene Reitsma, Randy Rosenberger, Kari-Lyn Sakuma, Thomas Shelly, Kaplan Yalcin
Voting members absent: Kelsey Emard, Justin St. Germain, Jack Istok, Colin Johnson, Lori McGraw
Ex-officio members present: Assessment & Accreditation – Heath Henry; WIC – Sarah Perrault
Guests: McKenzie Huber, Michael Jefferies, Caryn Stoess, Kristin Nagy-Katz

GenEd Policy Discussion

• Learning Outcome Assessment – Kristin Nagy Catz, Heath Henry
  • NWCCU Standards – 1.C.6
    • Consistent with its mission, the institution establishes and assesses, across all associate and bachelor level programs or within a General Education curriculum, institutional learning outcomes and/or core competencies. Assessment Process
    • Measurement of student achievement
    • Full cycle assessment
      • LOCRs
      • Align Student Learning Outcomes (SLOS) – develop rubrics
      • Collect Data
      • Analyze & Reflection
      • Make Changes/Improvements
    • Faculty involved at all levels of cycle
    • NOT course compliant
      • Compliance and assessment synergy. Compliance is necessary but not sufficient to assess
      • Full-cycle assessment is a coherent program for continuous improvement based on student outputs
      • Changes can be bigger than compliance mechanisms, including training, outcome or criteria change
  • Signature Assignments
    • • Six Types of assignments common in undergraduate education
      • These assignments produce student work that faculty assess for grading purposes
      • While the faculty establish their own criteria for assignment grading, assessment rubrics present the criteria used to assess institutional outcomes Presentation
        • Paper
        • Project
        • Reflection
        • Exam
        • Performance/Production
      • Signature Assignments
        • Are:
          • Emphasis of the course
          • Authentic and meaningful learning experiences
          • Connected to learning outcomes
        • Are NOT:
          • Single assignments (i.e. in-class work, low stakes assignments, etc.)
          • The "most weighted" or "highest point" assignments
          • Disconnected from learning outcomes
          • Easily removed from the course
        • Purpose:
          • Help students make meaning of their work by connecting individual, course, and GE learning goals
          • Prompt students to identify meaningful learning experiences throughout their GE courses, reinforcing what is relevant and useful to transfer to their major courses and beyond
          • Help instructors communicate their learning goals to students and fellow instructors and further our community and engagement to quality teaching and learning
        • Examples:
          • Reflections (written, oral, artistic, multimedia)
          • Presentations (oral, visual, musical, artistic)
          • Compositions
          • Research Projects
          • Service Learning Projects
          • Social, Economic, or Environmental Justice Projects
          • Creative Endeavors (artistic, design, technological, problem solving)
          • There is no media/modality requirement for signature assignments – instructors are encouraged to shape the assignment based on learning outcomes
  • OSU Signature Assignments
    • Each general ed course will include one signature assignment that is a direct measure of the stated category student learning outcomes. These are embedded assignments that demonstrate meaningful and authentic assessment and are an essential part of the course. The intent is to analyze how well all students in a category are achieving the student learning outcomes that are demonstrated in signature assignments
      • This is not about individual courses or people, it is a meta-level consideration of the category
      • Each general education course will include one signature assignment that is a direct measure of the stated category student learning outcomes. These are embedded assignments that demonstrate meaningful and authentic assessment and are an essential part of the course. The intent is to analyze how well all students in a category are achieving the student learning outcomes that are demonstrated in signature assignments.
      • Constraints: actual learning, pre-registration, meta-level analysis
      • Can a signature assignment come from accretion?
      • Portfolios were proposed as a signature assignment type but the Reform Committee declined to implement portfolios for various reasons.
      • Is the expectation that there is ONE signature outcome to meet ALL LOs for the category?
        • Yes
        • For WIC, it may be impossible to have a signature assignment that hits all LOs in just one assignment.
    • Operational Questions:
      • When do we ask what we should assess?
      • Is it singular?
      • How do we create flexibility while prompting forethought about assessment?
      • Who looks at it?
      • Would we replace compliance with assessment?
  • The faculty member would determine what assignment would be the best fit for their course.
  • Is it singular?
  • How do we create flexibility while prompting forethought about assessment?
  • Would we replace compliance with assessment?