Each of these three methods is aimed at evaluating expected student learning outcomes that are articulated in the OSU General Education Course Area Designations Criteria and Goals document. Revisions to this document were approved in 2004, to facilitate more effective assessment of student learning goals. General education assessment is also guided by the university’s mission statement and the purpose of general education as articulated in the OSU catalog.

Institutional Portfolios directly assess student achievement of the primary learner goals for general education. Separate portfolios are developed to evaluate each general education learner goal, and each portfolio includes students' work from course assignments collected throughout the undergraduate curriculum. Faculty members (including assessment committee members and additional faculty members involved in undergraduate teaching) work in groups to evaluate the work in each portfolio and assess student achievement of the learner goal by using standardized scoring rubrics. The results provide a measure of the extent to which students are achieving OSU's expected general education competencies.

In 2004-05, institutional portfolios were used to evaluate students’ written communication skills, science problem solving skills, mathematics problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills. The writing skills portfolio includes student work from OSU students from all classes (freshmen through seniors) and disciplines; the student work included in the science and mathematics portfolios is primarily from freshmen and sophomores taking lower division courses. Each ‘artifact’ of student work in the institutional portfolios is evaluated by a team of faculty reviewers and scored using a 5-point rubric, where a score of 5 represents excellent work. For writing assessment, 67% of students received a score of 3 or higher. Portfolio results show that seniors demonstrate significantly better writing skills than freshmen. For science assessment, 67% of students received a score of 3 or higher. For math assessment, 60% of students received a score of 3 or higher Following a pilot study last year, an institutional portfolio for the assessment of students’ critical thinking skills was developed this year. In that assessment, 70% of students received a score of 3 or higher. Each year, the use of institutional portfolios is expanded to cover additional general education student learner goals.

University-wide surveys such as the National Survey of Student Engagement and OSU Alumni Surveys indirectly assess student achievement of general education learner goals and are used to corroborate evidence collected from the institutional portfolio process. For example, the General Education Advisory Council (GEAC) used results from the National Survey of Student Engagement (conducted in 2000 and 2002), in conjuction with institutional portfolio results, to assess the general education program. After review of assessment results, GEAC implemented new standards to increase opportunities for students to develop written communication skills in general education courses. OSU participated in the NSSE again in Spring 2005; results will be reported in Fall 2005.

The web-based General Education Course Database is used to evaluate how each general education course is aligned with the expected learning outcomes for the general education program. Instructors are asked to submit their course information online via a web-based form, and the General Education Advisory Council reviews the submitted information during regular course reviews. Instructors identify which general education learning goals area associated with the course and describe course activities that provide students with opportunities to achieve those learning goals. The database provides a tool for summarizing general education course offerings and evaluating the extent to which the overall general education goals are met across the curriculum.

OSU’s general education assessment methods are aimed at holistically evaluating student achievement of general education outcomes and critically evaluating the curriculum itself by evaluating how each course incorporates general education learner goals. Institutional portfolios and university-wide surveys are implemented such that student participants are anonymous; therefore, these methods do not permit tracking individual students into future semesters. Information from general education assessment is presented annually to the General Education Advisory Council, Assessment Council, Instruction Council, and Faculty Council. The process has generated attention to student learning, general education outcomes, and how individual general education courses provide opportunities for students to develop general education knowledge and skills. Five years after implementation, these assessments are yielding interesting results and influencing change at several institutional levels.

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Program Outcomes Assessment

All OSU degree programs, including undergraduate and graduate programs, must have an outcomes assessment plan and must submit an annual assessment report describing assessment activity. Assessment plans and reports may be submitted by colleges, schools, departments, or by individual degree programs, depending on the organizational level that faculty from these programs have elected to use for assessment. The Assessment Council periodically reviews all assessment plans and reports; the schedule for these reviews supports the Academic Program Review (APR) process. Since documentation of the use of assessment results for program development is requested for the APR process, the Assessment Council reviews and provides feedback on outcomes assessment one year in advance of each program’s participation in Academic Program Review. In January 2005, programs that will participate in APR in Spring 2006 were provided with feedback about their program learning outcomes assessment, based on reviews conducted by the Assessment Council.

Academic units use a broad range of methods to assess student achievement of the learning outcomes articulated in assessment plans, and these are described in detail in the individual assessment reports submitted by each unit. The most commonly used program outcomes assessment methods reported in 2004-05 were:

Graduate programs reported the following additional outcomes assessment methods:

In addition to these outcomes assessment methods, the Office of University Assessment and Testing provides program-specific results of alumni and student surveys to academic programs so that faculty may use this information for program outcomes assessment.

In keeping with the guidelines of the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and the policy of the OSU Assessment Council, faculty are encouraged to develop effective program outcomes assessment methods that will provide meaningful information for program development. The Assessment Council reviews of outcomes assessment programs show that many degree programs are satisfactorily implementing their assessment plans and using assessment results for program development and improvement. Academic units are encouraged, but not required, to use assessment methods that may provide comparison of student performance with statewide or national norms. Programs that use such assessments report their findings in their individual annual outcomes assessment reports (Appendix F).

The number of individuals who participate in each outcomes assessment method within each academic unit is shown in Table 12.1. Methods are described in greater detail in the individual assessment reports submitted by each academic unit (Appendix F). Academic units are required to report the number of individuals assessed in each assessment method. Because the same students are assessed by multiple methods, the reporting process does not provide an accurate count of the total number of students that participated in outcomes assessment. Outcomes assessment reports demonstrate that academic programs use multiple assessment methods and a majority of students within each program participate in outcomes assessment measures. The total number of individuals who participated in all assessment methods includes multiple counts of the same students - because students participate in multiple methods - and may include non-students. For example, the ‘number of individuals assessed’ in an alumni or employer survey would include numbers of alumni or employers, respectively, rather than current students.

Uses of assessment results are unique to each program but can be generally categorized as sharing assessment information with faculty members, developing curriculum changes in response to assessment findings, and using assessment results to justify curriculum changes that have recently been implemented. The most commonly cited uses of assessment results in 2004-05 were:

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Student and Alumni Satisfaction Assessment

Student and alumni surveys are conducted to evaluate student and alumni perceptions of academic and campus programs and services, and the results are used in developing and improving those programs and services. The surveys complement program outcomes assessment because they are designed to provide feedback from students and alumni for use in continuous quality improvement in academic and student programs.

Alumni surveys are conducted every year at OSU; undergraduate program alumni and graduate program alumni are surveyed in alternate years. The surveys are intended to identify institutional strengths and areas for improvement as perceived by recent graduates; to track the careers and continuing education of recent OSU graduates; and to evaluate achievement of learning outcomes as perceived by alumni from individual academic programs. The alumni surveys target alumni who are 1- and 5-years post-graduation. The surveys are conducted as telephone interviews, and the questionnaire covers employment, continued education, and general satisfaction. Also, individual academic programs may include program-specific questions in the questionnaire for their program alumni; these data are used in program outcomes assessment as well as assessing alumni satisfaction. Alumni surveys have become a cornerstone of assessment at the university-, college- and program- level by providing regular feedback from OSU graduates about their perceptions of their educational experiences at OSU and the impact of those experiences on career and personal development.

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Graduate Student Assessment

Student outcomes assessment in graduate programs is part of Program Outcomes Assessment and is reported in that section of this report. In addition, the Office of University Assessment and Testing conducts a Graduate Student Satisfaction Survey every third year, and the Survey of Alumni of Graduate Programs in alternate years. These university-wide assessments provide university- and program-level assessment information about graduate students.

In Fall 2004, the Graduate Student Satisfaction Survey (GSSS) was conducted to assess graduate students' satisfaction with, and perceptions about, various aspects of their academic experience - the quality of their academic program, relationships with faculty and advisors, support and resources provided by the department and the university, and interactions with the Graduate College and the Graduate and Professional Student Government Association (GPSGA). The GSSS was administered as telephone interviews by the BSR in October 2004. Interviews were completed with 2,537 of the 3,919 graduate students enrolled at the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses - a response rate of 64.7%. More than 90% of students indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with their relationships and interactions with program faculty, overall program quality, and overall experience as a graduate student. Between 80% and 90% indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with availability of their advisor, advisor’s willingness to spend the time they need, computing resources available to them, library resources, research resources such as facilities, equipment, and lab space (for those who said they were applicable), preparation and guidance provided by department for role of teaching assistant (for those who served in that role), and helpfulness of Graduate College staff. Between 70% and 80% indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with availability of course offerings in their program, opportunities for financial support in their department such as assistantships and scholarships, and adequacy of assistantship stipend in meeting financial needs (Master’s students). Between 65% and 70% of doctoral students indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with adequacy of assistantship stipend in meeting financial needs.

The Graduate Program Alumni Survey was conducted in January 2005, and 787 alumni responded to the survey out of a target population of 2,187 graduates (response rate = 36%). Most alumni (92% of Master’s graduates and 96% of Doctoral graduates) stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied in their educational experiences at OSU, and 93% of all alumni indicated that their graduate program prepared them very well or adequately for their current career. About 64% of the alumni contacted for the survey were residing in Oklahoma; about 36% were contacted out of state, including 16% who were contacted in states surrounding Oklahoma.

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