Archived Assessment Report
| Program | ASTR Science Gen Ed |
| Assessment Reporter | [email protected] |
| Theme | Practicing Community |
| Review Year | 2024-2025 - Final Report |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Focus Area |
|---|---|
| 2. Personal and Social Responsibility (2 of 5 components) | This learning outcome is redundant and should be removed. |
| 2b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Sustainability and the natural and human worlds | Can at least 80% of the students relate astronomy to human activities? |
| 2d. Personal and Social Responsibility: Collaboration skills, teamwork and value systems | Do at least 80% of the groups collaborate respectfully? |
| 3b. Quantitative Reasoning: Analysis of Quantitative Arguments | Can at least 70% of the students correctly interpret quantitative information presented by others? |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population or Courses Assessed | Hypothetical Analysis/Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. Personal and Social Responsibility (2 of 5 components) | This assessment tool is redundant and should be removed. | N/A | N/A |
| 2b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Sustainability and the natural and human worlds | Question within "The Sky Above Us" lab. | ASTR 1010L | We expect that at least 80% of students will be able to relate astronomy to human activities. |
| 2d. Personal and Social Responsibility: Collaboration skills, teamwork and value systems | Instructors will observe lab groups as they work to complete a lab activity. Instructors will use a rubric to assess how respectful group members are of one another. | ASTR 1110L | We expect that at least 80% of the groups will collaborate respectfully. |
| 3b. Quantitative Reasoning: Analysis of Quantitative Arguments | Final Exam question. | ASTR 1010 | We expect that at least 70% of the students will be able to interpret quantitative information presented by others. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Summary of Results | Reflection on Focus Area | Intepretation of Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. Personal and Social Responsibility (2 of 5 components) | This learning outcome is redundant and should be removed. | N/A | N/A |
| 2b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Sustainability and the natural and human worlds | We were unable to assess this learning outcome during the first round but will during the second. | N/A | N/A |
| 2d. Personal and Social Responsibility: Collaboration skills, teamwork and value systems | One section of ASTR 1110L was assessed through instructor observation of student group interactions. All six groups assessed earned at least a 3 out of 4 points on a rubric that gauged the respectfulness of their group interactions. Four of the six (67%) earned 4 points. The average score for the groups was 3.67 out of 4 points. | The results support our focus question because instructor observed that all of the groups were respectful of one another. The rubric standard for a score of "3" states that the groups were "Mostly respectful of the efforts of fellow group members" and a score of "4" required "All members showed respect for the efforts of fellow group members". | These results indicate that our learners are well prepared to collaborate respectfully with others as they make their way through their degrees. |
| 3b. Quantitative Reasoning: Analysis of Quantitative Arguments | Of the 39 students assessed, 31 (or 79.5%) correctly answered a question about solar eclipses that required that they interpret quantitative information presented by others. | The results support the original focus area. Our gen ed astronomy students demonstrated that they can correctly interpret quantitative information presented by others. | These results show us that our current astronomy curriculum is helping to develop quantitative analysis skills in our learners. |
| 2. Personal and Social Responsibility (2 of 5 components) | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | N/A |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | N/A |
| What data motivated the change? | N/A |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | N/A |
| 2b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Sustainability and the natural and human worlds | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | We were unable to assess this learning outcome during the first round because we had not yet written an appropriate assessment question to add to our lab activity. That question has now been written and will be used this semester (Spring 2025). |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | No. |
| What data motivated the change? | N/A |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | Our hypothesis remains unchanged. We think that yes, at least 80% of the students can relate astronomy to human activities. |
| 2d. Personal and Social Responsibility: Collaboration skills, teamwork and value systems | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | We will edit the rubric to allow for more refinement between performance levels achieved by the lab groups. |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | The changes will require applying a slightly different rubric. |
| What data motivated the change? | Interpreting the data with only four levels to the rubric made it hard to pick a threshold for being adequately respectful. Requiring a score of 4/4 seemed too rigid, but allowing a 3/4 was perhaps too lenient. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | The improved rubric will help us better differentiate between those groups meeting the criteria of being adequately respectful and those who are not quite there yet. |
| 3b. Quantitative Reasoning: Analysis of Quantitative Arguments | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | We will edit the question slightly to prompt the students to draw themselves a sketch of the situation before attempting to answer. |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | The changes will require a slight editing of the exam question. |
| What data motivated the change? | We believe the students that missed the question are capable of the reasoning required but probably rushed to the answer. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | We hope prompting the students to draw a picture will slow them down and help them see the relationships between the quantities asked about. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population of Courses Assessed |
|---|---|---|
| 2. Personal and Social Responsibility (2 of 5 components) | N/A | N/A |
| 2b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Sustainability and the natural and human worlds | Question contained in "The Sky Above Us" lab activity. | ASTR 1010L |
| 2d. Personal and Social Responsibility: Collaboration skills, teamwork and value systems | New rubric with 5 levels of performance to choose from. | ASTR 1110L |
| 3b. Quantitative Reasoning: Analysis of Quantitative Arguments | Final exam question. | ASTR 1010 |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Summary of Second Round Results | Intepretation of Results, Pre- and Post-Change | Follow up questions, possible next steps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. Personal and Social Responsibility (2 of 5 components) | N/A | N/A | |
| 2b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Sustainability and the natural and human worlds | This was our first round of results and they were very successful. We assessed two sections of ASTR 1010L with a total of 24 students assessed. Students were asked to relate two or more human activities to seasonal star observations. All 24 of the students provided two or more correct examples, thus the assessment was passed by 100% of the students. | None at this time. | |
| 2d. Personal and Social Responsibility: Collaboration skills, teamwork and value systems | There was only one section of the class in Spring 2025 and it was canceled three weeks into the semester due to lack of attendance. No second round of assessments were conducted. | N/A | |
| 3b. Quantitative Reasoning: Analysis of Quantitative Arguments | Of the 46 students assessed, 40 (or 87%) correctly answered a question about solar eclipses that required that they interpret quantitative information presented by others. | For the in-person classes, it might be interesting to see how many students go through the step of creating a sketch, and of those who do, how many got the question correct. |
Describe any change in student achievement observed as part of this assessment process, and what led to those changes.
At the beginning of the semester, student groups often default to dividing tasks ("you do the math, I'll write the intro"). Through guidance from the instructors and practicing community, the students learn that discussion and negotiations lead to better comprehension for both themselves and everyone else in the group.
Describe long-term changes in the program(s) that the assessment process led to, and what motivated those changes?
No, the assessment program ran smoothly and the students' scores demonstrated their achievement of the objectives.
What did you learn about the teaching and learning of "Practicing Community" in your programs?
We were reminded that not only do students practice community while taking our astronomy classes through shared inquiry and collaborative problem-solving, but also they witness that the very structure of the science of astronomy requires community--we rely on data collected by thousands of scientists across cultures, countries, and centuries.
Describe any external factors affecting the program or affecting assessment of the program.
Currently, 5 of our 13 lab exercises for ASTR 1110L are simulation-based, relying on software that is no longer being updated by the developer. With every Windows update, compatibility issues increase. Eventually these 5 labs will need to be replaced, and currently there is nothing comparable to these exercises on the market. Replacement will likely require new labs to be written by CNM faculty, which is large request when this will have to happen on their own time.