CSU-ITL GE Symposium:
Assessing GE at the program
level
Each CSU campus shall define its GE student learning outcomes, to fit
within the framework of the four “Essential Learning Outcomes”
drawn from the Liberal Education and American Promise (LEAP)
campaign, an initiative of the Association of American Colleges and
Universities.
Each campus shall provide for regular periodic reviews of general
education program policies and practices in a manner comparable to
those of major programs, including evaluation by an external reviewer.
The review should include an assessment of general education student
learning outcomes …
From EO 1065.
What do these images all have in
common?
Legend
General Edward Logan
General Joseph Pershing
General Lloyd Newton
General Lee
Major General Baden
Powell
General Ann Dunwoody
General Michelle
Compton
General Phil Sheridan
General Walter Gaskin
(USMC)
Your Task• Develop an action plan whose elements:
– Lead to implementation of GE assessment under
the provisions of EO 1065 or improve your current
assessment plan
• Address specific weaknesses in the current GE
assessment plan
• Can be implemented in the immediate future
• Will provide evidence that leads to continuous
improvement of GE outcomes achievement
Campus Assessment of GE Outcomes
Early: we know we need to do
this, but haven't really started
3%
18%
22%
Emerging: we have a model
for program assessment of GE,
but it isn't fully developed or
implemented yet
Maturing: we have begun
program assessment of GE,
but need to make some
change to the mode
57%
Fully developed: we measure
the GE learning outcomes of
our students, in ways that help
continuously improve GE
curriculum and pedagogy
Personally, I would rate my campus's response in
the assessment of GE outcomes so far as
4. Fully developed:
2. Emerging: we have 3. Maturing: we have we measure the GE
a model for program begun program
learning outcomes of
1. Early: we know we
assessment of GE,
assessment of GE,
our students in ways
need to do this, but
but it is fully
but need to make
that help
haven’t really started
developed or
some change to the
continuously
implemented yet
model.
improve curriculum
and pedagogy.
Faculty Awareness of GE Outcomes in
their GE course
unaware of which GE
outcomes their course
addresses
3.1%
10.8%
35.4%
50.8%
somewhat aware of which GE
outcomes their course
addresses
aware of which GE outcomes
their course addresses
design their course to focus
on the GE outcomes it
addresses
Personally, I believe that, in general, faculty
teaching GE courses on my campus are:
1. Unaware of which
GE outcomes their
course addresses
2. Somewhat aware
of which outcomes
their GE course
addresses
3. Aware of which
outcomes their GE
course addresses
4. Design their
course to focus on
the GE outcomes it
addresses
GE Assessment Measures
To assess general education learning outcomes, my
campus uses: (check all that apply)
50
50
45
35
40
35
30
25
26
24
19
20
20
15
10
5
0
capstone
courses
electronic
portfolios
questionaires
samples of
student
written work
surveys
embedded
questions
Faculty Development Needs
Personally, I believe that, in general, faculty teaching GE courses on my campus
would benefit from faculty development in: (check all that apply)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
assessment of
student writing
e-portfolio design
and use
learning
management
system use
personal response
system use
(clickers)
Regular Review of GE Courses for
Outcomes Achievement?
How would you respond to the following statement?
"The University academic governance body responsible
for General Education regularly reviews courses in the
GE program for student achievement of their GE outcomes."
10.8%
23.1%
Strongly agree
Agree
40.0%
26.2%
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
"The University academic governance body
responsible for General Education regularly
reviews courses in the GE program for student
achievement of their GE outcomes."
1. Strongly disagree
2. Disagree
3. Agree
4. Strongly agree
What’s in an assessment plan?
• What is the assessment plan going to
accomplish?
– Statement of these goals
• Responsibilities for the different goals
– Who does what
• Clear objectives
– What is to be assessed and how
• Timeline
– When does each step get accomplished
Implement
methods to
deliver
outcomes and
methods to
gather data
resource
allocation or
reallocation if
needed to
improve outcome
delivery
Gather Data
(evidence)
Mission/Purpos
es
Goals
Outcomes
Make decisions
based on
evidence to
improve
outcomes
Interpret the
data
Questions an assessment plan should
answer.
1) What are the salient SLOs we want information about?
2) What is a valid yet easy way to evaluate student achievement
of the targeted learning outcomes? The measure should allow
for sufficient variability and be directly tied to the SLO.
3) How will we collect and enter this data?
– Are we sampling or collecting the information on the
entire population?
– Who will be responsible for making sure this happens?
4) Who will prepare an initial analysis of the data? (Aggregate
the data and report it a meaningful and easy to read manner.)
5) When will faculty meet to interpret the data and make a plan
based on the findings?
Your Task• Develop an action plan whose elements:
– Lead to implementation of GE assessment under
the provisions of EO 1065 or improve your current
assessment plan
• Address specific weaknesses in the current GE
assessment plan
• Can be implemented in the immediate future
• Will provide evidence that leads to continuous
improvement of student achievement
Symposium Outcomes.
Campus teams will:
• develop a common understanding of the current
state of their GE assessment
• develop common and realistic goals and
outcomes for their action plan
• use information and team time at the CSU and
WASC meetings to develop an action plan to
implement program level GE assessment
• work at their home campuses to implement the
action plan
• apply to the summer institute on GE assessment
to disseminate their progress and pitfalls.
Answer some questions and earn
consensus on your replies…
• What is the current state of assessment of GE as
a program?
• What are areas of strength?
• What areas need improvement?
• What is the path to implementation?
– What governance bodies will be involved in the
approval and implementation of a new GE
implementation plan?
– What areas outside of faculty governance need to be
brought into executing the plan?
Breakout time!
• Rooms- 20 each
– California Foyer (here)
– Santa Barbara, room (3rd floor)
– Sacramento Room (2nd floor)
– La Jolla Room (3rd floor)