Baccalaureate Core Committee

Voting Members Present: Trischa Goodnow, Kerry Kincanon (co-chair), Marion Rossi (co-chair), Ken Winograd, Joe Zaworski
Ex-officio Non-voting Members Present: Michelle Bothwell (DPD), Vicki Tolar Burton (WIC)
Guests: Bill Bogley, Stefani Dawn

Summary of Action Items:

• An emerging issue for the BCC to consider is how to ensure the efficacy of transfer courses in meeting Baccalaureate Core Category Learning Outcomes. Future iterations of the BCC may want to engage in a more formal investigation of this, and potentially pursue greater involvement as a second-level approver of transfer courses seeking approval as OSU Baccalaureate Core classes.
• Stefani Dawn presented on OSU’s involvement with the Multi-State Collaborative and extended an invitation to participate in a pilot project involving the application of VALUE rubrics to asses relevant Baccalaureate Core Category Learning Outcomes in our Writing and Mathematics Baccalaureate Core Categories.

The BCC approved the May 7 Minutes.

LBCC Transfer Degrees and the Baccalaureate Core
Bill Bogley, Director of Academic Programs, Assessment, and Accreditation (APAA), joined us for a discussion regarding LBCC transfer students and the Bacc Core. Bill has been in conversation with Katie Winder, Dean of Liberal Arts, regarding LBCC’s efforts to attend to our Baccalaureate Core Category Learning Outcomes (CLO) in their transfer degree programs (Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer [AAOT] and Associate of Science [AS]) and their courses that articulate to our Baccalaureate Core (Katie was slated to join us for this meeting, but had to cancel at the last minute). The AAOT and AS contain established learning outcomes, and while there is certainly crossover with the Bacc Core CLO, there are nuances. For example, LBCC has one set of outcomes for Writing/Composition whereas OSU has distinct sets of outcomes for both Writing I and Writing II. LBCC will continue to work on reconciling differences, but Bill suggested that this discussion potentially raises questions for future iterations of the BCC to consider. For example, should we consider a study or investigation of transfer courses from our key community college partners to examine the efficacy of course content and student learning in these courses relative to the Bacc Core CLO? Also, currently new direct transfer articulations are managed solely by the equivalent department at OSU. Should the BCC be a second-level approver on those courses that would articulate as meeting a Bacc Core requirement at OSU?

APAA and BCC Category Review
Bill also checked in with the BCC on the Category Review process as it relates to the bigger picture of assessment of General Education at OSU. Concerns abound from all players in the process about the workload and the impact on both the units offering the courses and the faculty who constitute the BCC and must engage in a very involved process. APAA is committed to helping facilitate an ongoing assessment process that is tenable to units and allows them to tap into processes already occurring at the unit and classroom level. This includes both positioning APAA to offer practical advice to units on creating a manageable and sustainable process for considering student learning relative to Bacc Core CLO in their Bacc Core classes, as well as defining an appropriate threshold of data that the BCC needs to make Category Review decisions.

OSU and the Multi-State Collaborative
Stefani Dawn, Assistant Director of Assessment, joined the BCC to share a working-group opportunity related to OSU’s participation in the Multi-State Collaborative. This is a national pilot effort involving OUS schools (OSU, UO, PSU, OIT) and schools in Massachusetts, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, and Utah that has the goal of finding a way to compare the level of learning achieved by students in the various "segments" of the public system (community colleges, universities) with the level of learning achieved by students at peer institutions in other states without relying on a standardized test. The collaborative is exploring whether using VALUE rubrics established by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is a more viable and authentic assessment of student learning. Stefani gave a presentation outlining the genesis of our involvement in this process. Stefani is convening a working group to investigate the application of VALUE rubrics to assess relevant Bacc Core CLO in our Writing and Mathematics categories, and BCC members were invited to participate, if interested.

Stefani’s materials appear below:
 

• Multi-State Collaborative Principles
• Scope of Work OSU Multi-State Collaborative Working Group
• VALUE Rubrics
  • Quantitative Literacy
  • Written Communication
• Stefani’s Multi-State Collaborative PowerPoint

Update on Recent Course Reviews
Per our May 7 course reviews, Kerry Kincanon shared an update that the BCC’s suggested revisions to QS 364, 431, and 462 have been implemented by the proposer. These courses have been approved for addition to the Bacc Core.

Meeting adjourned at 2:30 PM.

Next Meeting: June 5, 2013 – 9:00-10:30 AM – Waldo 120