Archived Assessment Report
| Program | Explosives Technician Certificate |
| Assessment Reporter | [email protected] |
| Theme | Practicing Community |
| Review Year | 2024-2025 - Final Report |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Focus Area |
|---|---|
| 4. Contribute, as member of a team, to the successful accomplishment of organizational tasks, projects, and goals. | Do at least 80% of the students make a meaningful contribution to the successful accomplishment of a group goal? |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population or Courses Assessed | Hypothetical Analysis/Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4. Contribute, as member of a team, to the successful accomplishment of organizational tasks, projects, and goals. | The student's will complete a Member Contributions Document where they will self and peer review their contributions to the design, report, and presentation deliverables of Project 1. | ENGR 1101 Surveying of Engineering | Students, working in groups of 3-4, will successfully design a wrench that can reach a torque of 40 lb-in. They will then complete a report and presentation about the engineering design process they went through to complete the design. The threshold will be that at least 80% of the student's successfully contributed to all deliverables of the project. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Summary of Results | Reflection on Focus Area | Intepretation of Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4. Contribute, as member of a team, to the successful accomplishment of organizational tasks, projects, and goals. | Based on 5 criteria from the Member Contributions document, more than 80% of students contributed to the project deliverables. The Member Contributions documented allowed for peer review of their group members in addition to a self-review. This data is based on the results of the students reviews. 89% of students participated in developing ideas and planning project; 94% of the students were willing to discuss the ideas with of others; 97% of the students cooperated with other group members; 95% of students were interested and enthusiastic about the project; and 90% of the students participated in leading and facilitating discussion. | The results do support the original focus area; however, there is room for improvement on the specific rating criteria in addition to how the student's grades are assessed. | This shows us that the students were able to effectively work in groups to succeed in meeting the project design criteria. |
| 4. Contribute, as member of a team, to the successful accomplishment of organizational tasks, projects, and goals. | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | We will be developing a Member Contributions Document that more accurately reflects a group members contributions to each of the deliverables in the group project. |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | Yes, a New Member Contributions Document will be developed. |
| What data motivated the change? | Students were able to give self-and peer-review feedback, but the assessment questions were broad and did not allow the student's to give specific feedback. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | The goal of these changes are to get more honest feedback from the students about their positive or negative experiences working in their groups. We hope that we can still maintain that at least 80% of the students will contribute to the deliverables and that these more pointed assessments will give us more specific feedback than the previous assessment. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population of Courses Assessed |
|---|---|---|
| 4. Contribute, as member of a team, to the successful accomplishment of organizational tasks, projects, and goals. | The students will complete a Member Contributions Document for each project deliverable. This will include Design 1, Design 2, Design 3, a Project Report, and Project Presentation. The students will give each other and themselves a contribution percentage for the agreed upon workload for each deliverable. This percentage will affect their grade for each deliverable. | ENGR 1101 Surveying of Engineering |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4. Contribute, as member of a team, to the successful accomplishment of organizational tasks, projects, and goals. | During the second round of assessment, more detailed feedback was obtained from the students about the contribution of each member for the five project deliverables. 85% of the students completed and submitted the Member Contributions Document. The results were as follows: (1) 95.6% of students contributed meaningfully to their groups for the Test Day 1 deliverable; (2) 91.2% of students contributed meaningfully to their groups for the Test Day 2 deliverable; (3) 94.7% of students contributed meaningfully to their groups for the Test Day 3 deliverable; (4) 92% of students contributed meaningfully to their groups report deliverable; and (5) 94% of students contributed meaningfully to their groups presentation deliverable. | We believe that the current assessment provides good feedback on the group's ability to work as a team and contribute to their projects success. The project lasts for about 7-8 weeks so in the future, it might be useful to do a mid-project Member Contributions Document and try to solve any group conflicts and then compare that to a final Member Contributions Document. |
Describe any change in student achievement observed as part of this assessment process, and what led to those changes.
The most significant change we observed came from revising the Member Contributions Document and how individual contributions impacted students’ grades. In the initial assessment, feedback from this document was broader and counted as a separate participation grade. For the reassessment, the document was updated to evaluate each member’s specific contributions to individual project deliverables. As a result, the feedback directly influenced the grade of the deliverable itself rather than a separate participation score. This adjustment led to more honest peer evaluations and increased accountability among students.
Describe long-term changes in the program(s) that the assessment process led to, and what motivated those changes?
No, the assessment results met the goals and did not lead to any long term changes to the program.
What did you learn about the teaching and learning of "Practicing Community" in your programs?
We learned that, given the opportunity, students in our program are able to contribute effectively to a group project. The students recognized collaboration as a shared responsibility and were able to grow in skills such as active listening and problem-solving.
Describe any external factors affecting the program or affecting assessment of the program.
The assessment ran as normal. No significant external factors influenced our assessment; however, there are some concerns regarding the future of the program.
We currently only have one instructor qualified to teach the ENGR 2150 Explosives Tech & Safety class. If that instructor were unable to continue teaching the course, the program would be without a qualified instructor.
Another concern is many of the program’s learning outcomes are achieved through courses offered outside our department. In future assessment cycles, this may present challenges in evaluating outcomes that fall beyond our direct oversight.