Achievement of Student Learning Outcomes

Faculty discussed the following actions in order to improve student learning:

• Practice more on the fundamental skills in class and in homework
• Ensure the assignment is aligned with the rubric criteria
• Help students identify what pieces of their argument are most important and the power of each (begin with the strongest points, and not jump to a weak/insignificant point right after that) – have a logical thread in their argument.

Faculty discussed the following:

• Students performed best on understanding the problem
• Students struggled with reflection, although some assignments did not specifically ask students to reflect
• Results are consistent with faculty expectations
• The downward trend occurring may be related to the assignments not being as well aligned to the rubric as past years
• Consider having a common question for all assignments
• Encourage students to use resources provided in class for checking the reasonableness of results
• Have faculty model how to determine whether answers are reasonably correct
• Discuss with students the idea of the growth mindset by introducing meta-cognitive thinking exercises

Faculty discussed the following:

• Students struggled the most with evaluating information/sources critically and incorporating information effectively and ethically.
• Two assignments were identified as giving the most relevant and appropriate information in order to align with what the rubric was evaluating; they will be shared with all faculty, along with directions on how to access the Information Literacy Faculty Toolkit.
• The group made some minor changes to the rubric.
• It was noted that students need to have more training around information literacy and multiple opportunities for practice of the skills. Information Literacy is not limited to a specific discipline.
• Faculty are encouraged to clearly communicate expectations for academic writing, organization of sources, quotations, etc… and to utilize the librarians more by inviting them to present to your class, encouraging students to schedule one-on-one appointments, and/or providing librarians with assignment directions in advance.

Faculty discussed the following:

• The results indicate that students performed best on content, arrangement of ideas and vocal projection
• Since 2014, student skills in content, arrangement, and eye contact increased
• Skills in projection, delivery, pace, and nonverbal communication decreased
• Consider incorporating exercises to help students be more comfortable with public speaking, so that students appear to be talking about the topic rather than reading a document
• Also consider having students evaluate each other through peer evaluations

Faculty discussed the following:

• Students appear to be having difficulty with organization, style and mechanics
• Students need greater skills at editing and proofreading their work prior to submitting
• Students also struggle with formulating a clear central idea (thesis), which affects organization
• Since 2011, the overall results have improved
• Faculty should use more formal pieces of writing for this assessment (e.g. essays)
• Department should consider creating a separate, mandatory, college-level grammar class to be taken by all students prior to ENG 1A/B