STUDENT INVOLVEMENT IN ASSESSMENT

Classical Studies Department
The Classical Studies Department began development of an Independent Study rubric to assess the effectiveness of its major in achieving the department's student learning goals in the spring of 2006.  In late spring, after seniors in the department had completed their IS and all of the requirements for their major, the faculty asked them to review and comment on the rubric.  The initial feedback from students was very helpful.  Students commented on both the substance and the tone of the rubric.  While they thought most of the formulations were acceptable, they found some parts of the rubric less relevant to their own experience with the IS thesis.  Students also objected to language they found too supervisory of their projects.  The rubric was revised during the summer of 2006.  It now includes a broader conception of the IS project and incorporates clearer language for assessing student responses to guidance suggestions and departmental standards.

Seniors during the 2006-07 academic year were given the rubric and understand that their senior IS will be assessed with the rubric, which will be the first time it has been used.  The rubric is also included in the department’s Independent Study Handbook.  Students have provided some feedback on the rubric during the year.  The department has found that student familiarity (not to mention faculty familiarity) with the IS assessment rubric has made it possible for students to develop a more concrete idea of the expectations for their culminating oral defense.  Upon completion of their IS, the department plans to gather additional feedback from its senior students.  With this additional student feedback and faculty feedback from its initial use, the department will continue to review the rubric.
   
Philosophy Department
As a Philosophy major and a member of the Philosophy Department Student Assessment Committee, Abigail Kline reported on the Philosophy Department’s student involvement in assessment during a February 2007 Assessment Matters brown bag lunch.  As part of the process of developing its assessment plan, the Philosophy Department held a departmental retreat where faculty members unveiled the department’s mission statement, its student learning goals and the primary traits associated with the goals to its students.  Approximately 60 students attended the retreat.  Small groups of students worked with individual faculty members to discuss and review the department’s draft documents.  The primary goal was to solicit student feedback and start a conversation about the purpose of assessment.

Students reviewed a matrix that displayed a list of the primary traits associated with the five major departmental learning goals on each row and a list of all the courses that the department offers as the columns of the matrix.  Each cell of the matrix that intersected a trait with a course described the degree to which the trait was addressed within the course.  Students provided feedback on the traits of the student learning goals and the matrix.  After the retreat the faculty met to discuss student comments.  This process of student feedback resulted in revisions to the learning goals, the primary traits, and the matrix.

Since the beginning of the 2006-07 academic year, all juniors and seniors have been informed about the assessment process within the department.  A group of nine juniors and seniors, who make up the department’s Student Assessment Committee, meet every Wednesday and discuss ways to assess and think about questions that can be used in a departmental assessment.  The seniors who are writing their Independent Study projects are developing assessment questions around the topics of their theses.  Each student will produce three to four questions and present them to the faculty for inclusion in a pre- and post-test on fundamental concepts in different areas of Philosophy.  The group has also discussed rubrics and a revision of Junior Independent Study.  The Philosophy Department will expand its student involvement in spring 2007 by meeting with all sophomores, when it plans to distribute an assessment handout and discuss the department’s mission and student learning goals and how they relate to the curriculum.

Women’s Studies Program
The Women’s Studies Program has two students, who serve on the Curriculum Committee.  Seniors, Jackie Arcy and Elizabeth Sorice, who are majoring in Women’s Studies, were involved in the initial development of the program’s student learning goals. In September 2006, the Women’s Studies Program held a workshop focused on the program’s curriculum, which was funded by the Hewlett-Mellon Presidential Discretionary Fund for Institutional Renewal.  One of the results of the workshop was the development of the program’s student learning goals, which were finalized after further discussions with program faculty and students, and affiliated faculty.