Review Assessment Report

Learning outcomes 5 & 6 were assessed in this cycle. This cycle we added analysis of face to face (F2F) and distance learning (DL) classes separately to address outcomes. This is the first term that the two types of course structures have evaluated separately. The (LO#5) analysis for evaluating the validity of scientific data, scored well under a 70% cut-off rate, suggesting that our students are still struggling with this assessment. This year the wording was slightly adjusted for student choices which may have impacted performance. The face to face (F2F) learning section may have had a lower rate of correct responses (36% success rate) due to a variety of reasons, to include the use of technology for testing and answering questions based on lab results not observed in person. The creation of the distance learning lab occurred during the pandemic closure and the number of sections offered has slowly been reduced since in person classes resumed. In general, students still struggled with LO #5, as they a

All metrics and targets for this program were met and in fact the number of declared majors for this program has continued to increase for the past three years.

For LO#5 "Employ critical thinking skills to judge the validity of information from a scientific perspective" in Microbiology lab student results for this when comparing the 2021-22 year to the current 2022-203 year shows that our students continue to struggle to be proficient at this LO using this tool. This struggle appears to occur no matter the type of course delivery, and in fact may be worse in the distance learning classes. This particular set of questions has historically been one of the more challenging questions from which to draw critical conclusions, requiring deep understanding of the material covered in class. These continual low results may simply reflect the difficulty of the material, or truly be more representative of the difficulty of drawing conclusions across a data set. For LO#6 "Apply the scientific method to formulate questions, analyze information/data, and draw conclusions". Students did well with this LO last cycle, and have continued to be very proficient in this learning outcome

This year we are changing assessment processes so we will modify the tools to meet the new assessment goals. It is likely we will continue to utilize this class as a place to sample from, but will look at the tools we have been using to see if they are the best tools to ask these questions. If we continue with these tools, we will analyze what changes we may be able to make in the curriculum to help improve these outcomes. This might involve focused homework, more quizzes that model interpretation or other options.

The data that suggests that our students still lack proficiency in LO#5 indicate that there is work to be done in helping students to critically evaluate a data set.