Archived Assessment Report
| Program | DGST Flex Gen Ed |
| Assessment Reporter | [email protected] |
| Theme | Practicing Community |
| Review Year | 2024-2025 - Final Report |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Focus Area |
|---|---|
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | Goal: At least 75% of the students will achieve at least 17 out of 20 points in the Historical/Cultural context category of their Digital Ethnography project. |
| 3e. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | Goal: At least 75% of the students will achieve at least 17 out of 20 points in the Research category of their Digital Ethnography project. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population or Courses Assessed | Hypothetical Analysis/Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | Students will conduct a digital ethnography of a digital space of their choosing, and are required to do background research, observations, and cultural discourse analysis. | DGST 1110-D01, Fall 2023 | Students will be assessed based on their performance of the "Historical/Cultural Context" and "Research" (which uses discourse analysis and observation) categories of the digital ethnology. Threshold is 75% of the students getting at least 17 points out of 20 in both categories. |
| 3e. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | Students will conduct a digital ethnography of a digital space of their choosing, and are required to do background research, observations, and cultural discourse analysis. | DGST 1110-D01, Fall 2023 | Students will be assessed based on their performance of the "Historical/Cultural Context" and "Research" (which uses discourse analysis and observation) categories of the digital ethnology. Threshold is 75% of the students getting at least 17 points out of 20 in both categories. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Summary of Results | Reflection on Focus Area | Intepretation of Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | 6 out of 7 students (85.7%) had a 17 or higher in the category of "Historical Cultural Context", and 6 out of 7 students had a 17 or higher in the category of "Research". (85.7%) | The results do support the hypothesis in terms of achieving the goal. | From the data (which is unavoidably a small sample size), students are achieving the learning outcome. |
| 3e. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | 6 out of 7 students (85.7%) had a 17 or higher in the category of "Historical Cultural Context", and 6 out of 7 students had a 17 or higher in the category of "Research". (85.7%) | The results do support the hypothesis in terms of achieving the goal. | From the data (which is unavoidably a small sample size), students are achieving the learning outcome. |
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | Additional resources will be supplemented in the modules leading up to the digital ethnography to provide methodologies that allow students to research cultural contexts and recognize important cultural dynamics. |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | No, the changes are being made before the assessment tool is assigned in the course. |
| What data motivated the change? | One student failed to achieve the 17 out of 20 threshold for the two categories being assessed. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | These additional resources should at least maintain the 85.7% achievement rate, if not elevate this outcome in the first round. |
| 3e. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | Additional resources will be supplemented in the modules leading up to the digital ethnography to provide methodologies that allow students to research cultural contexts and recognize important cultural dynamics. |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | No, the changes are being made before the assessment tool is assigned in the course. |
| What data motivated the change? | One student failed to achieve the 17 out of 20 threshold for the two categories being assessed. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | These additional resources should at least maintain the 85.7% achievement rate, if not elevate this outcome in the first round. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population of Courses Assessed |
|---|---|---|
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | Students will conduct a digital ethnography of a digital space of their choosing, and are required to do background research, observations, and cultural discourse analysis. | DGST 1110-D01, Fall 2024 |
| 3e. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | Students will conduct a digital ethnography of a digital space of their choosing, and are required to do background research, observations, and cultural discourse analysis. | DGST 1110-D01, Fall 2024 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | 10 out of 13 students (76.9%) achieved a 17 or higher in "Historical/Cultural Context" and 9 out of 13 students (69.2%) achieved a 17 or higher in "Research". | Additional instructions in the assignment may be helpful to assist students in achieving the 17 point threshold in these two categories. Also, perhaps more explicit discussion in ethnography may be helpful as well. | |
| 3e. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | 10 out of 13 students (76.9%) achieved a 17 or higher in "Historical/Cultural Context" and 9 out of 13 students (69.2%) achieved a 17 or higher in "Research". | Additional instructions in the assignment may be helpful to assist students in achieving the 17 point threshold in these two categories. Also, perhaps more explicit discussion in ethnography may be helpful as well. |
Describe any change in student achievement observed as part of this assessment process, and what led to those changes.
There was a decrease in achievement from the first to second round, which may be due to confounding variables and small sample size. Those in the second round who achieved above a 17 collectively averaged higher than those in the first round, but we had a few more students falling below the 17 point threshold compared to the first.
Describe long-term changes in the program(s) that the assessment process led to, and what motivated those changes?
There is some development currently on the modules surrounding the digital ethnography assignment to help students improve their methodologies in researching digital communities. There is also some development in digital research ethics to highlight the concerns researchers recently have raised in the field about collecting online data.
What did you learn about the teaching and learning of "Practicing Community" in your programs?
At least 75% of our students are achieving sufficient awareness of historical and cultural context when researching digital communities, and generally students demonstrated sensitivity to cultural dynamics and being ethical as they do their digital research. Most of these research projects did involve communities that the students themselves were involved in, and thus their analysis often involved a reflection on social issues that were showing up for them once they were looking closer through discourse analysis and critical frameworks.
Describe any external factors affecting the program or affecting assessment of the program.
The offering of this course is limited to one section in Fall semester, so enrollment is usually low and offers a limited data sample.