Review Assessment Report

SOCI 1110 In spring 2022 the department implemented an assessment in the 1110 classes and one 2000-level section. The strategy was comparable to that used in the capstone class; the rationale was to review the starting point for our students. We can thus gauge the skills of 1110 students vis-à-vis those of students close to graduation. The capstone results are from 2020-21 and although the capstone students were asked to analyze a more rigorous journal article the two assessment efforts are sufficient for a rough appraisal of student progress. The 1110 assignment was an analysis of an 4-7 page article that summarized sociological research and included data analysis. The assignment was included in the calculation of the course grade, not extra credit. The reports consisted of short answer questions and were scored by the instructor in the section. The rubrics for critical analysis and effective communication were employed. A pre-test was conducted in fall 2021.

Tables 1-3 (not shown) highlight the results of the spring 2022 assessment. More than 50% of students achieved the “did it” or “did it great” level for critical analysis. The correlation analysis suggests strong relations between the 4 rubric dimensions, i.e., students who do well with problem identification also do well with conclusions. Correlations for students’ grade in the 1110 course (table 3) are less robust—ranging from .39 to .47—but are stronger than those for the rubric dimensions and total hours completed (from .05 to .15). Results for two cohorts of students were analyzed: 1110 in spring 2022 and capstone (2999) in spring 2021. The analysis represents a synthetic cohort. Notably, the majors did not score as “absent or incorrect” for the rubric dimensions compared to 10% for 1110. A higher percentage of the majors scored “did it great” than the 1110 students with the exception of evidence and evidence evaluation; the percentages of 1110 and CRIM students are comparable for these skills.

SOCI 1110