Review Assessment Report

The program continued to increase face-to-face class offerings and enrollment. Overall enrollment remained relatively stable compared to the past two previous years. The department hired three new part-time faculty to increase the diversity of instructional staff, giving students the opportunity to benefit from a wider array of teaching approaches and perspectives.

The POLS program is above the targets for capacity and C-pass rate. The number of graduates is below 10.

For Introduction to the Political World (POLS 1110), there were 22 students assessed. The written component of the final exam asked students to use concepts and techniques learned to explain political changes in worldwide economics, security, and conflict. A second prompt asked students to explain whether effective communication, though diplomacy and foreign affairs, was a prerequisite for successful global governance in the private and public sectors. In addition to the textbook and classroom discussions, at least two outside resources were required in support of their arguments. Students were assessed according to the two major learning outcomes, which were broken down into a total of five criteria: Critical Analysis (1a): Identify and critically consider the main issues, concepts, and/or techniques Critical Analysis (1b): Incorporate more than one perspective (e.g. source, method, and/or approach) Critical Analysis (1c): Demonstrate mastery by evaluating, analyzing, interpreting, and/or synthesizin

In order to meet the needs of students with learning differences, instructors should improve their early diagnosis and interventions to help these students increase their scores to the next highest bracket. Instructors will provide individualized instruction by scaffolding and chunking material, as well as providing alternative assessment and choice menus to students who demonstrate difficulty organizing their ideas coherently and tailoring their communication to an academic audience. In American National Government, instructors should perhaps devote a portion of a unit to information literacy or the ability to distinguish between supported and unsupported claims to critically evaluate the authority of sources.

In general, large majorities of both POLS 1110 and POLS 1120 cohorts meet learning outcomes very well. Nonetheless, a small minority of students tend to lag far behind their peers. In POLS 1110, these gaps were most evident in: Effective Communication (2a): Demonstrate organization and/or coherence of ideas, content, and/or formulas. Effective Communication (2b): Produce communication appropriate to the audience, situation, venue, and/or context. In POLS 1120, the gap was more pronounced in: Evaluating the authority of sources in their own arguments and those of others; distinguishing among supported claims, unsupported claims, facts, inferences, and opinions. In arguments, learners integrate support for their own claims with information from sources that are used and cited ethically and appropriately.