Archived Assessment Report
| Program | AFST Social Behavioral Gen Ed |
| Assessment Reporter | [email protected] |
| Theme | Practicing Community |
| Review Year | 2024-2025 - Midpoint Report |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Focus Area |
|---|---|
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | By mid-semester, what percentage of AFST 1110 students can demonstrate their use of intercultural reasoning and competence at the exceptional, developing, beginning, and no evidence levels of assessment? |
| 3b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | By mid-semester, what percentage of AFST 1110 students can apply their comprehension of civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement, locally and globally, at the exceptional, developing, beginning, and no evidence levels of assessment? |
| 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 | Each student will complete a discussion board assignment. For the assignment, they are asked to recall a historical figure they previously selected and use their intercultural reasoning and competence to analyze and identify African or African American social movements in which the historical figure may participate. Students must also discuss their rationale for selecting the social movement and how the movement fits with their historical figure's ideology. | AFST 1110 | Data will be analyzed to identify initial levels of exceptional, developing, and beginning thresholds for future assessments in Africana Studies. |
| 3b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | Each student will complete a discussion board assignment. For the assignment, they will use their comprehension of civic discourse, civic knowledge, and engagement to explain why it is important for them, as Africana Studies students, to understand social movements, locally and globally. They are also asked to analyze and discuss a social movement they would like to learn more about as an Africana Studies student. | AFST 1110 | Data will be analyzed to identify initial levels of exceptional, developing, and beginning thresholds for future assessments in Africana Studies. |
| 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 | Ten out of fourteen students completed the assignment used for this assessment. Of those ten completers, 80% scored at Level 2—Beginning, and 20% scored at Level 3—Developing. This was the case for both intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence, as well as civic discourse, civic knowledge, and engagement - local and global. | The original purpose of this research was to identify a baseline for future assessments of these areas. It is important to set the initial benchmark now so we can better assess the reliability and validity of the tool/assignment to measure students' performance. Since this is the first time we are developing an assessment for the Introduction to Africana Studies course, the test population is small. However, if more sections are offered in the future, we can test it against multiple sections to see if we get similar results. | Based on the resulting data, most of the students in the Fall 2024 section were at the beginning level of writing that reflects intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence, as well as civic discourse, civic knowledge, and engagement - local and global. This is expected from students in an introductory course because they are just being introduced to different ways of thinking, knowing, and writing about culture. Since there are no prerequisites for the course, it is unsurprising that many of the students may not have the experience writing in more detail that would assist me in better evaluating their overall competence in these areas. That said, I believe I can get more written work for assessment from the students if I revise the assignment description to be more prescriptive. That helps students write in more detail, which will help with the consistency of evaluator review from section to section across semesters. |
| 3b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | Ten out of fourteen students completed the assignment used for this assessment. Of those ten completers, 80% scored at Level 2—Beginning, and 20% scored at Level 3—Developing. This was the case for both intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence, as well as civic discourse, civic knowledge, and engagement - local and global. | The original purpose of this research was to identify a baseline for future assessments of these areas. It is important to set the initial benchmark now so we can better assess the reliability and validity of the tool/assignment to measure students' performance. Since this is the first time we are developing an assessment for the Introduction to Africana Studies course, the test population is small. However, if more sections are offered in the future, we can test it against multiple sections to see if we get similar results. | Based on the resulting data, most of the students in the Fall 2024 section were at the beginning level of writing that reflects intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence, as well as civic discourse, civic knowledge, and engagement - local and global. This is expected from students in an introductory course because they are just being introduced to different ways of thinking, knowing, and writing about culture. Since there are no prerequisites for the course, it is unsurprising that many of the students may not have the experience writing in more detail that would assist me in better evaluating their overall competence in these areas. That said, I believe I can get more written work for assessment from the students if I revise the assignment description to be more prescriptive. That helps students write in more detail, which will help with the consistency of evaluator review from section to section across semesters. |
| 3a. Personal and Social Responsibility: Intercultural reasoning and intercultural competence | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | For Spring 2025, I will revise the writing instructions for the DB 3 assignment. The written instructions will be more prescriptive, asking students to provide more details in their responses. I will also add language that includes intercultural reasoning and competence measures. |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | No, the assessment approach or rubric used to score it will not need to be changed. |
| What data motivated the change? | I analyzed the Fall 2024 course data to determine a change I could make. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | Although 80% of the students scored at Level 2, I believe that a revision in the written instructions for the assignment may lead to more students scoring at Level 3 or even Level 4. |
| 3b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | |
|---|---|
| Describe the change that was implemented. | For Spring 2025, I will revise the writing instructions for the DB 3 assignment. The written instructions will be more prescriptive, asking students to provide more details in their responses. I will also add language that includes civic discourse, civic knowledge, and engagement. |
| Type of Change |
|
| Change in Assessment Approach or Tools? | No, the assessment approach or rubric used to score it will not need to be changed. |
| What data motivated the change? | I analyzed the Fall 2024 course data to determine a change I could make. |
| Hypothesis about the effect the change will have? | Although 80% of the students scored at Level 2, I believe that a revision in the written instructions for the assignment may lead to more students scoring at Level 3 or even Level 4. |
| 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 | I will continue to use the Discussion Board 3 assignment. It is a graded assignment. I have set-up in Brightspace to grade the assignment with one rubric and then a score for assessment with a second rubric. | AFST 1110 - Introduction to Africana Studies Section D01, CRN: 85924 |
| 3b. Personal and Social Responsibility: Civic discourse, civic knowledge and engagement – local and global | I will continue to use the Discussion Board 3 assignment. It is a graded assignment. I have set-up in Brightspace to grade the assignment with one rubric and then a score for assessment with a second rubric. | AFST 1110 - Introduction to Africana Studies Section D01, CRN: 85924 |
| 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.