Review Assessment Report

Part 1: Contact & Program Identification

Report Year and Contact Information
Academic Year	Modified By	Date Modified
2020-2021	[email protected]	2021-11-17T18:46:13.070Z

School	Name of Program	Courses
CHSS	General Studies Certificate	ENGL 1120,ENGL 1110

Part 2: Program Summary

Provide a high level review of the program to include highlights, successes, challenges, significant changes, and significant resources needed to support the program
Obviously the biggest challenge experienced last year was moving coursework almost entirely online due to COVID 19. However, that was also the source of the greatest highlights and successes as data for general studies show that while the overall number of graduates was down, course pass rate and retention was only somewhat impacted affected by the changes. As general studies is a degree program made up entirely of courses from other departments, it is difficult to draw too many conclusions beyond the more general measures discussed on the next page.

Provide a high level review of the program to include highlights, successes, challenges, significant changes, and significant resources needed to support the program

Obviously the biggest challenge experienced last year was moving coursework almost entirely online due to COVID 19. However, that was also the source of the greatest highlights and successes as data for general studies show that while the overall number of graduates was down, course pass rate and retention was only somewhat impacted affected by the changes. As general studies is a degree program made up entirely of courses from other departments, it is difficult to draw too many conclusions beyond the more general measures discussed on the next page.

Part 3: Data Review

	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021
Annual number of graduate awards is greater than 10	904	1776	1561
Number of declared majors	189	178	181
Average Class Size	19.4	19.6	18.2
Annual Average Class withdrawal rate is 30% or below (SAGE 35%)	13%	16%	14%
Annual C-Pass rate for coursework is 60% or above	72%	71%	66%
Average class fill rate at 60% or above capacity within a term or over a year	88%	89%	83%
Graduate Transfer to 4-year Schools	38%	33%	n/a
Full-time Faculty Coverage by Section	34%	30%	27%

Summarize how your program met or did not meet the target measures based on the data above
All four areas are above their targets. Even with being down somewhat, Average class fill is 23% higher than the target, retention is high with only a 14% withdrawal rate, a C-pass rate 6% higher than the target, and graduates remaining strong at 1561.

Part 4: Program Learning Outcome Analysis

Learning Outcome	Population or Course(s) Assessed	Description	Summary of Assessment Results
1. Critical Analysis	ENGL 1110, ALA 2999	In-class Writing Assignment	Students were assessed on the Critical Thinking essential skill with a 75 minute timed writing prompt, with a focus on four sub-skills: problem setting, evidence acquisition, evidence evaluation, and reasoning/conclusion. Findings showed that "students demonstrated greater competency with problem setting and evidence acquisition than the higher order sub-skills of evidence evaluation and reasoning/conclusion" (Seitz). Furthermore, "recommendations for interventions to advance students’ critical thinking skills are limited. It is clear-cut that students do well with identifying problems and outlining appropriate evidence, but struggle with evaluation of evidence and crafting a conclusion" (Seitz). This suggests that these skills, the latter ones especially, should receive further focus.

Interpretation of Assessment findings
The primary take away from the assessment findings is that roughly two thirds of students tested at proficient in Problem Setting and Evidence Acquisition, but those numbers dropped into the 50th percentiles for Evidence Evaluation and Reasoning/Conclusion. While all of these numbers show a majority of students passing, the results do suggest the latter two skills are weaker areas that will likely require more attention moving forward. It should also be noted that the CHSS Assessment Team (CAT) has made changes to the prompt and will be assessing critical thinking again in Spring 2022 to align with the Assessment Academy's focus on Thinking in Action.

Interpretation of Assessment findings

The primary take away from the assessment findings is that roughly two thirds of students tested at proficient in Problem Setting and Evidence Acquisition, but those numbers dropped into the 50th percentiles for Evidence Evaluation and Reasoning/Conclusion. While all of these numbers show a majority of students passing, the results do suggest the latter two skills are weaker areas that will likely require more attention moving forward. It should also be noted that the CHSS Assessment Team (CAT) has made changes to the prompt and will be assessing critical thinking again in Spring 2022 to align with the Assessment Academy's focus on Thinking in Action.

Part 5: Additional Action Plan in Support of Student Learning (If Appropriate)

Upcoming Year	Changes Planned for the upcoming year	Data Motivating this change
2021-2022	With the assessments academy pilot and revisions to CAT's assessment tool, data collection for Liberal Arts will change as a result of different data input sources. Since general studies is a certificate program made up of courses from different departments, there are no specific general studies courses to make changes to.	These changes are less data driven and more in keeping with the new pilot program underway, so the emphasis will be on collecting data from different assessment measures.
2021-2022
2021-2022

Please select all of the following that characterize the types of changes described in the above action plan

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