Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes
Degree Program Report
College: College of the Sciences
Program: Environmental Studies
Prepared by: Pamela McMullin-Messier
Department: n/a
Degree: Bachelor of Science
Academic Year of Report: 2014-2015
1. What student learning outcomes were assessed this year, and why?
The specific student learning outcome we assessed this year from the CWU Strategic Plan is
“Outcome 1.1.1: Students will achieve programmatic learning outcomes”, which are stated in
our program student learning outcomes as “Students will demonstrate a fundamental
understanding of multiple environmental problems” (ENST 201 and 202) and “Students will
demonstrate depth of knowledge and skill in an area of environmental specialization” (ENST
444). Our learning outcomes do not directly measure attitudes or dispositions towards
environmental problems, as the mission of our program is to offer students an interdisciplinary
approach to increase their environmental literacy.

The reason for assessing these outcomes is because they are essential to the framework of
our program in educating our students with critical thinking skills and depth of
knowledge and environmental literacy, and we have the necessary data.

This particular outcome is related to College Goals I and II and our program goal to
maintain and strengthen and outstanding academic and student life to facilitate
understanding of environmental problems and it also relates to the University Goals I, II,
and our program goal to expand the university’s role in providing environmental
expertise and education to the region.
2. How were the student learning outcomes assessed?
A) What methods were used?
Assessment methods used:
1. Course grades for ENST majors who were enrolled in ENST 201, 202. These overall
grades are direct measures of assessing whether students achieved the necessary
“knowledge and understanding of environmental problems.” The specific standard of
mastery is that all majors receive a grade of C- or higher in these courses.
2. Course grades from class taken by graduating seniors in the ENST program. This
demonstrates a direct measure of assessing knowledge for ENST 444. The specific
standard of mastery is that all majors receive greater than 80% in this class.
3. A final report (with portfolio) was also submitted by the graduating seniors for ENST 444
and was assessed by “quality of writing,” “clear understanding of the environmental
issue covered,” whether the “final report on policy topic presents perspectives from at
least three different constituencies,” demonstrated an “ability to present logical argument
for different policy choices,” and finally whether “students can describe environmental
implications of decisions they have recently made”. The specific standard of mastery is
that all majors receive greater than 80% on this report.
rev. 1/15
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B) Who was assessed? And C) When was it assessed?
1. Nine ENST majors in ENST 201 (out of 88 total students) taken in Fall 2014.
2. Two ENST majors in ENST 202 (out of 75 total students) taken in Winter 2015.
3. Thirteen ENST majors in ENST 444 taken in Spring 2015.
3. What was learned?
Quantitative results of each of the three assessment methods as listed below, including
comparison to the criterion of achievement and analysis of the results:
i) Course grades for ENST majors, in ENST 201, 202:
ENST 201 Fall 2014, Clay Arango and Bob Hickey
This is a sublist (containing only ENST majors) of the 88 students who took the course.
Student Name
Course Grade
1 Angela Caprio
B2 Jonathan Carroll
AC
3 Ian Fingado
4 Alexandra Lacure
B
5 Devlin Peyton
B6 Nathan Potter
C
7 Nathan Schepker
B8 Zachary Turner
C
9 Rachel Vetch
B+
ENST 202 Winter 2014, Susan Kaspari and Jennifer Lipton
This is a sublist (containing only ENST majors) of the 75 students who took the course.
Student Name
Course Grade
1 Emily Engel
C+
2 Thomas Valinske
B
Criterion of Achievement: All majors must earn a grade of C- or higher in ENST 201 and
ENST 202; All of the majors (100%) met this criterion, in that they have demonstrated a
fundamental understanding of environmental problems through the successful completion
of the ENST coursework.
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ii) Course grade for graduating seniors in ENST 444, and
iii) Score from final paper that “reflects clear understanding of environmental issues
covered” and “demonstrates depth of knowledge and skill in an area of environmental
specialization” in ENST 444:
ENST 444 Spring 2015, Holly English
Student Name
Casey Cranston
Evan Low
Amanda Kennedy
Hannah Pygott
Sarah Tikka-Dills-Lovasz
Jessica Baker
Kelsey Gibbs
Jacob Presher
Colton Weils
Nathan Regal
Mitchell Haldane
Curtis Reid
Michael Balda
Final Paper
Score
85
Overall Grade
86
88.5
87
94
94
94
90
87
82
85
90
85
94
88
89
93
93
89
92
91
86
88
88
88
90
Criteria of Achievement
100% of majors
All majors receive greater than met this
80% in ENST 444 criterion
All ENST 444 final reports 100% of majors
reflect clear understanding of met this
the environmental issue criterion
covered
4. What will the department or program do as a result of that information?
Results seem to indicate that our program is doing very well in these learning outcomes and
does not warrant significant changes, but we are considering other elements of method
assessment for other learning outcomes in the next year. For example, after years of signing
up students into our major, we are finding that a subset of students choose ENST because
there are no admissions requirements and we do not require the same math as other natural
and social sciences departments. Thus, it seems that ENST may be capturing a number of
students who want to be in the physical sciences but who do not have the necessary math
skills to go into one of the harder sciences. The ENST program advisory committee has
discussed the option of imposing math requirements, however, we also feel that there is a
place for these students to succeed in ENST without such requirements and have therefore
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not made changes. This will be an ongoing discussion that will continue during our
program review this academic year (2015-2016).
i)
In addition, how has/will the department report the results and changes to internal and/or
external constituents (e.g., advisory groups, newsletters, forums, etc.)
The results of this report will be presented to faculty who teach in the core courses of our
program as well as to all members of the advisory committee for Environmental Studies.
In addition, we anticipate the use of this and prior assessment reports for our upcoming
program review.
5. What did the department or program do in response to previous years’ assessment
results, and what was the effect of those changes?
ii) Describe any changes that have been made to improve student learning based on previous
assessment results
iii) Were those changes effective?
As we have had a change in program leadership and are currently undergoing program
review, the changes to student learning outcomes based on previous assessment results had
not been fully addressed until recently regarding attitudes/dispositions. We did improve upon
evaluating single learning outcomes for ENST 444.We are also looking for ways to meet
University Objective 1.2: Enhance the effectiveness of student support services, as this is a
critical element for student success, based on our surveying of current majors and alumni.
Our program was able to secure a long-term secretarial position (0.25 FTE – unfortunately,
we have not been able to secure a physical one-stop shop for students yet); our new secretary
(as of Fall 2015) is currently working on creating a better way to keep track of ENST majors
and minors and entering the necessary information on our web page for students to access.
iv) Discuss any changes to your assessment plan or assessment methods
We are currently undergoing Program Review for Environmental Studies, where we will be
expanding our methods of assessing ENST majors in the future (2016-2017). We have not
changed the assessment plan since the initial program formation in 2008, but changes are
expected to be made across the board based on feedback from the program reviewers. For
example, based on our assessment of alumni through survey data, we will be making
adjustments to our student learning outcomes and helping students secure more expertise in
environmental management and consulting through internship opportunities, to meet
University Objective 1.1 Enhance student success by continually improving the curricular,
co-curricular, and extracurricular programs. In response to the previous years’ assessment
results, we do plan to assess environmental attitudinal/dispositional change in the future
(starting in 2016) with a survey that will be given to ENST students, which will be given preand post- ENST 201/202 classes to examine change in knowledge and attitudes. While
attitudinal change is not a student learning outcome for our program, it is important to
demonstrate how dispositions may (or may not) shift with learning how to think critically
about environmental problems and evaluating scientific research.