Archived Assessment Report
| Program | Pre-Health Sciences Degree: Pre-Nursing |
| Assessment Reporter | [email protected] |
| Theme | Practicing Community |
| Review Year | 2024-2025 - Midpoint Report |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Focus Area |
|---|
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. | Do students demonstrate clear and concise oral and/or written scientific communication? |
| 7. Properly operate laboratory equipment to collect relevant and quality data. | Do students demonstrate proper operation of laboratory equipment including electronic balances and microscopes? |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. | Are students able to utilize a Punnett square to generate data and examine results from a cross involving a genetic disease? |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population or Courses Assessed | Hypothetical Analysis/Target |
|---|
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. | Students will be measured on their ability to verbally communicate procedures and results with their lab partners during Osmosis lab (BIOL 1140L). Written communication will be measured via Gram-Staining lab reports (BIOL 2310L). A checklist and/or rubric will be used to track student data. | BIOL 1140L and BIOL 2310L | 75% or better of students should demonstrate successful oral and written communication skills. |
| 7. Properly operate laboratory equipment to collect relevant and quality data. | Students will be measured on their ability to use electronic balances and microscopes successfully during the Osmosis lab (BIOL 1140L) and demonstrate proper gram-staining technique in Microbiology lab (BIOL 2310L)
| BIOL 1140L and BIOL 2310L | 75% or better of students should demonstrate successful usage of laboratory equipment. |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. | During the final lab practical, students will complete and properly analyze the results from a Punnett square on Huntington's disease. | BIOL 1140L | 75% or better of students should demonstrate the ability to work and analyze the results from the Punnett Square. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Summary of Results | Reflection on Focus Area | Intepretation of Results |
|---|
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. | BIOL 1140L results:
Three sections of 1140L were assessed, totaling 52 students. A rubric & check-marks (points) were used to evaluate 4 areas of communication/social responsibility.
• Overall - 43/52 students, or 83%, received 75% (our benchmark) or better of all possible points for this lab activity.
Breakdown:
• "student talks with peers to plan experiment" - 43/52 or 83% received a point for this measure
• "Records mass of egg before and after soak using correct units" - 42/52 or 81% received a point
• "Records egg mass & reports visible changes in notebook" - 47/52 or 90% received a point
• Performs microscope steps to correctly view a slide - 44/52 or 84% received a point for this.
BIOL 2310L results:
158 out of 205 students, or 77%, earned at least a 70% or better on the final lab report.
| BIOL 1140L: The majority of our students demonstrated a strong ability to communicate with their peers in experiment planning, as well as the ability to record accurate data for future analysis.
BIOL 2310L: the majority of students demonstrate a the ability to properly create a written report of lab results. | BIOL 1140L: While the majority of our students demonstrate good oral and written communication skills, it was observed (anecdotally) that there is a small group of students that do not engage with their peers during a group activity. Another subset did not record any data from the experiment. It is noted that only three sections of Bio lab were assessed, for a total of only 52 students.
|
| 7. Properly operate laboratory equipment to collect relevant and quality data. | This learning outcome was moved to another Universal Theme where it fit better. | N/A | N/A |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. | 79 students across 6 sections of BIOL 1140L were assessed. Overall, 80% of students were able to successfully complete and analyze this Punnett square. | The results support the hypothesis that at least 75% of our students will be able to work and analyze this problem. | The results indicated 80% of students were able to successfully complete and analyze this Punnett square. Interestingly, there were no big differences in students abilities to complete the three parts of the problem (solving the Punnett square, interpreting the results, and analyzing the results - 81, 77 and 82% respectively). It is possible that there are students who simply are unable to answer any of the three parts, thus accounting for the 20% who were unable to successfully complete the problem, but the data don't actually suggest this. When we break it down by student scores, we see that ~70% of students received 3 out of 3 points, but ~90% of students received 2 out of 3 points. This suggests that students are likely only missing one of the components. |
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. |
|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | BIOL 1140L: no changes will be made to improve outcomes at this time as 80% or higher of students demonstrated competency with this outcome. However, as only a small number of instructors participated in assessment, changes will be made to simplify data collection.
BIOL 2310L: steps will be taken to identify why a subset of students were unable to successfully complete the assignment.
|
| Type of Change | |
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | BIOL 1140L: yes, the rubric used for data collection has been simplified.
BIOL 2310L: at this time no change is planned in the assessment approach. Instead the focus is on better student performance with the assignment. |
| What data motivated the change? | BIOL 1140L: See above.
BIOL 2310L: Approximately 23% of students did not demonstrate a 70% competency on their final lab reports. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | BIOL 1140L: We don't expect a significant change in student performance, just better numbers to support the conclusions.
BIOL 2310L: Identifying why a subset of students struggle with the assignment should improve performance in future labs. |
| 7. Properly operate laboratory equipment to collect relevant and quality data. |
|---|
| 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 |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. |
|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | No changes are planned at this time. The results indicated that ~80% of students were successful in the assessment measure. However, the first round of assessment was based on a small number of class sections, so round two will be used to increase numbers for better data analysis.
|
| Type of Change | |
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | No |
| What data motivated the change? | N/A- the only changes made will be to get better faculty participation to increase confidence in the data and conclusions. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | N/A- the only changes made will be to get better faculty participation to increase confidence in the data and conclusions. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population of Courses Assessed |
|---|
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. | BIOL 1140L: Same tool used for round one, but simplified for better participation and data collection.
BIOL 2310L: same tool will be used for assessment | BIOL 1140L & BIOL 2310L |
| 7. Properly operate laboratory equipment to collect relevant and quality data. | N/A | N/A |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. | Same tool used for round 1 - Analysis of Huntington's Disease Punnett square. | BIOL 1140L |
| 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 |
|---|
Describe any change in student achievement observed as part of this assessment process, and what led to those changes.
Describe long-term changes in the program(s) that the assessment process led to, and what motivated those changes?
What did you learn about the teaching and learning of "Practicing Community" in your programs?
Describe any external factors affecting the program or affecting assessment of the program.