* Continued
Development of General Education Assessment. OSU
is in its fifth year of implementing
a general education assessment plan. Following a
pilot study last year, an institutional portfolio
for assessment
of students’ critical thinking skills was developed
for assessment in 2005. Institutional portfolios
have now been developed for assessment of writing,
science
problem-solving, mathematics problem-solving, and
critical thinking skills.
* Update
of Entry-Level Placement Analysis (ELPA). The ELPA program was created a few years ago using
Microsoft Access, SAS and Visual Basic Access. It had
not had any major updates since inception. With support
from the Office of University Assessment and Testing,
Enrollment Management’s IT staff overhauled ELPA
by creating the application in Microsoft SQL and C#.Net.
This provided a higher level database structure, the
ability to move the database from a limited space group
drive to a server with virtually unlimited space, the
ability for every Undergraduate Admissions staff member
to produce and print assessment reports from their
desk or the front counter, improved readability of
the electronic and paper reports, improved data entry
and search screens, removal of the annual licensing
issues and cost, improved technical support from EMM
IT, and increased accuracy and speed in loading data
from the Student Information System.
* Professional
Development Sessions for Faculty and Assessment
Coordinators. The General Education
Assessment Committee and the Assessment Council provided
a series of professional development sessions for faculty
in 2004-05. In Fall 2004, sessions were presented on “Developing
and Assessing Critical Thinking,” “Using
Portfolios for Outcomes Assessment,” “Effective
Departmental Outcomes Assessment,” and “Regional
Accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission.” In
Spring 2005, sessions were presented on “Change
in Format for Learning Outcomes Assessment Plans and
Reports,” “General Education Assessment – Writing,” “Developing
Graduate Program Outcomes Assessment,” “General
Education Assessment – Critical Thinking,” and “General
Education Assessment – Science.”
* Assessment
Council Reviews of Outcomes Assessment Programs
Integrated with Academic Program Review Process. Plans and reports of learning outcomes assessment for
each degree program are reviewed by the Assessment
Council one year in advance of the program’s
participation in the Academic Program Review (APR)
process. The APR process now requests documentation
of assessment activities, so this schedule modification
allows for feedback from the Assessment Council well
in advance of the Academic Program Review. In Fall
2004, the Council reviewed and provided feedback on
program outcomes assessment to those programs scheduled
for Academic Program Review in 2006.
* 2004
Survey of Graduate Student Satisfaction. In Fall
2004, the OSU Graduate Student Satisfaction
Survey was conducted to obtain feedback from graduate
students about a broad range of topics related to their
educational experiences while enrolled in the Graduate
College at OSU. The survey was conducted in October
2004, within the population of OSU graduate students
in Stillwater and Tulsa who were enrolled in January
2004.
* 2005
Survey of Alumni of Graduate Programs. The third
university-wide survey of alumni of OSU graduate
programs was conducted in January 2005. Results from
these alumni surveys have become a cornerstone of the
assessment efforts for most OSU academic units and
provide valuable information about the career patterns
of recent graduates.
