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2008-2009 Assessment

Departmental Assessment

Institutional Assessment

Every instructor teaching a 40% load or higher should assess one of his/her sections.  You should plan to assess one of your courses based on the following hierarchy:

• Literature course

• Upper level writing course (ENG 201, 210)

• ENG 102

• ENG 101

In other words, if you are teaching a literature course, please assess that course.  If not, keep moving along the list until you find a course you are teaching.  If you are teaching multiple sections of your course, you may choose the section you would like to assess.

This semester, we are using the C3 proficiency:

C3.    Demonstrate a large and varied vocabulary

You can find the assessment rosters in public folders by following this path:

Public Folders->Initiatives (Colleges-Wide)->Assessment-> Assessment Rosters->English

All of the classes that your campus is teaching will be listed there; find and save the one for the class you plan to assess.  Then, using either the last or second-to-last writing assignment for the semester, assess the students using the rubric below. Return the completed roster to Gregg Nettesheim (not to Greg Ahernhoerster or Cassie Phillips).  If you have problems with this (especially with navigating public folders), ask a department member on your campus who has dome this before.  Or, of course, you can e-mail Cassie or Greg with questions.

Fall 2008

Statement for Syllabi:  From Department Assessment Co-Coordinator Greg Ahrenhoerster:  As you probably know, senate policy requires us to include a statement about assessment in our syllabus for each course.  Below is the statement about assessment that you can include in your fall 2008 syllabi, even if that course isn't being assessed this semester:    

ASSESSMENT: The UW Colleges-wide assessment program was established to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the curriculum, programs, and services of the institution.  The institution-wide assessment activities focus on analytical, quantitative, communication, and aesthetic skills because they are of primary importance in the general education of our students.  This semester, students in composition will be assessed on communication skills, specifically the ability to demonstrate a large and varied vocabulary.

Each department also conducts assessment activities that address discipline-specific learning goals.  This year, the English Department is researching the effectiveness of the English placement exam.  As a part of this project, students may be asked to complete one or two impromptu writing assignments.

Departmental Assessment

 As discussed at the Fall 2008 Department Meeting, this semester our department assessment will involve students in Mike Mattek's, Matt Bartkowiak's, Joanne Giordano's, Christina McCaslin's, and Jen Heinert's classes reading a short article and writing responses to the following prompt: "In an organized essay, identify the main point and supporting details of this article and evaluate the strengths and/or weaknesses of the author’s argument."

Institutional Assessment

From Laura Lee, Institutional Assessment Coordinator:

For the 2008 – 2009 academic year the departments will be following the established proficiency rotation system by shifting from the Analytical and Aesthetic Skills proficiencies we assessed in 2007 – 2008 back to the Quantitative and Communication Skills that we last used in 2006-2007. There have been no changes made to either of the performance indicators or the evaluative rubrics that we use to assess student proficiency in these areas since then.  [The performance indicator for Communication Skills, the English Department's choice, is follows]: 

3. Communication skills 

Performance Indicators:  Student should be able to:
1.                    Read, observe, and listen with comprehension and critical perception
2.                    Communicate clearly, precisely, and in a well-organized manner
3.                    Demonstrate a large and varied vocabulary
4.                    Recognize and use a variety of communication forms and styles|
5.                    Use computer technologies for communication

The rubrics to be used in evaluating student proficiency in each of the performance indicators cited above are attached. Just as in previous years, our focus in the fall term will be on assessing students enrolled in highly-enrolled courses in each department and our focus in the spring semester will on assessing students enrolled in sophomore-level courses.  For more information on the assessment process, please contact your DAC [Greg Ahrenhoerster and Cassie Phillips] or go to the UW Colleges’ Assessment website: http://www.uwc.edu/resources/assess/index.htm. 

Details from Gregg Nettesheim:  (Note: there was a mixup with the ENG rosters, so see Cassie's message below.)

General Education Assessment Rosters

The university wide general education assessment rosters are now available. You can retrieve your roster(s) by navigating to: Public Folders->Initiatives (Colleges-Wide)->Assessment-> Assessment Rosters->{your department}   Don't be misled if you see Amanda Roberson as the author. Amanda is a UW Madison student working in the Office of Academic Affairs this year and she moved the files into the appropriate public folders. 

Naming Convention

The rosters in these folders all follow the same naming convention: 

·         If the course is taught via any mode of distance education (online, compressed video, wisline web, computer based training) the first two characters of the name are “DE.” Otherwise the first 3 characters are the campus acronym (BRB=Baraboo, BRN=Barron, FDL=Fond du Lac, etc.).

·         After the campus identifier there is a course ID, e.g. Anthropology 101 is ANT101.

·         Following the course ID is a 3 digit section identifier, followed by “Fall 2008 Gen.Ed.Assessment Roster”.

·         At the end of the name is the acronym “rtf” for rich text format. This type of file can be opened by Microsoft Word. Simply double click on the document and it should open.

 For example, let’s say you are teaching section 1 of Anthropology 101 at the UW-Baraboo/Sauk County campus.  You can find your roster in the Anthropology/Sociology folder (ANT) as a file named “BRB ANT101 Sec 001 Fall 2008Gen.Ed.Assessment Roster.rtf.”

Multiple Rosters

Each department has selected a limited set of courses to assess this fall. For these courses a roster has been generated for every class section. If you and your department assessment coordinator have already agreed upon which section(s) you will assess then please complete the rosters for these sections. Otherwise you are free to choose. For all faculty and instructional academic staff with appointments of 40% or more the expectation is that you will assess one class section.

Completing the Rosters

After you have found your file and opened it, I suggest you use the {File}{Save As} command to save it in a place you’ll remember (not the place that your computer would automatically put the document).

Later, when you are ready to enter assessment information for your students, complete the roster following the instructions at the bottom of the page. You can use your mouse to put your cursor between the brackets for each student, click once, then type in the appropriate letter code (use either upper or lower case). Save the completed roster for your records. Then, email the roster to me (gregg.nettesheim@uwc.edu) as an attachment.  As an alternative to the above, you always have the option of printing the roster, completing it by hand, and dropping it in campus or conventional mail to me.  Please let me know if you have questions, comments or concerns about any part of this process.

Details from Greg and Cassie

There was a mixup with the list of ENG courses, so here is a list of courses to be assessed this semester. You should be able to find your name on the list, as well as which course you will be assessing with the C3 proficiency.  Please let me know if there are any problems.--Cassie

The actual assessment is pretty straightforward. Choose the last or second-to-last paper for the semester and assess it using the following rubric (don’t be troubled by the name of the proficiency, which should, perhaps, more accurately be called “Uses diction effectively, appropriately and correctly” or something like that.).  As always, contact Cassie or me if you have any questions about this.  --Greg

C3.    Demonstrate a large and varied vocabulary

Exceeds Expectations	·         Consistently addresses audience appropriately given purpose of writing or speaking ·         Consistently identifies the correct meaning of words within the context ·         Consistently uses a rich and varied vocabulary to convey ideas ·         Consistently uses correct/appropriate word choice and discipline-specific terminology
Meets Expectations	·         Addresses audience given purpose of writing or speaking ·         Generally identifies the correct meaning of words within the context ·         Uses a varied vocabulary to convey ideas, using little ineffective repetition or limited diction ·         Generally uses correct/appropriate word choice and discipline-specific terminology
Does Not Meet Expectations	·         Does not consider audience or purpose of writing or speaking ·         Incorrectly identifies the correct meaning of many words within the context ·         Relies on repetition or limited diction to convey ideas ·         Misuses discipline-specific terminology or basic vocabulary

 

2007-2008 Assessment

Assessment Handout from Fall 2007 English Department Meeting (What is assessment? Why do we do it?  Who does it?  What's required this semester?  Who can help if I have a question?)

Statement for Syllabi:  From Department Assessment Co-Coordinator Greg Ahrenhoerster:  As you probably know, senate policy requires us to include a statement about assessment in our syllabus for each course.  Below is the statement about assessment that you can include in your fall 2008 syllabi, even if that course isn't being assessed this semester:    

ASSESSMENT: The UW Colleges-wide assessment program was established to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the curriculum, programs, and services of the institution.  The institution-wide assessment activities focus on analytical, quantitative, communication, and aesthetic skills because they are of primary importance in the general education of our students.  This semester, students in composition will be assessed on communication skills, specifically the ability to demonstrate a large and varied vocabulary.

Each department also conducts assessment activities that address discipline-specific learning goals.  This year, the English Department is researching the effectiveness of the English placement exam.  As a part of this project, students may be asked to complete one or two impromptu writing assignments.

1. "Student Survey"--to be completed at the beginning of the semester.  All instructors should distribute this survey to one of their composition courses within the next week or two.  If you are not teaching a composition course, you do not need to distribute the survey.  We are hoping that the Associate Chair on each campus will make arrangements to collect the materials and mail them to Greg at:

   Greg Ahrehoerster

   UW Waukesha

   1500 N. University Drive

   Waukesha, WI 53188

2. "Open-ended Survey"--Before the semester ends, please administer the attached survey in one section of composition.  As we have done in the past, please have each campus' Associate Chair collect the surveys for the campus and mail them to me at 1500 N. University Drive, Waukesha, WI 53188.  Five of you have agreed to administer a different, open-ended survey to one of your sections. If you are one of those five people, Cassie will send you a reminder and a copy of the survey.

Institutional Assessment, Spring 2008

English Department Assessment Plan and Report Form 2006-2007

Institutional Assessment: Email instructions from English Department Assessment Co-Coordinator Greg Ahrenhoerster; The UW Colleges' Assessment website and the email from Laura Lee (the Institutional Assessment Coordinator) detailing Fall 2007 institutional assessment plans

General Education Assessment Rosters:  Information from Gregg Nettesheim (November 2 Email)

General Findings from Fall 2005-Spring 2007 Assessment Activities on Peer Review

2006-2007  Assessment Materials

Greg Ahrenhoerster (Greg.Ahrenhoerster@uwc.edu) and Cassie Phillips (Cassandra.Phillips@uwc.edu) continue as Department Assessment Coordinators ("Co-DACs"), so any questions should go to them. Cassie sent the following instructions:  The English Department will be assessing its courses on two levels:

 Read this handout for answers to these questions:

• What is assessment and why do we do it?

• Who does it?

• What did we learn last year?

• What will be required this semester?

• Who can help me if I have a question?

Also, here is the general assessment information provided by Renee Gralewicz, the Institutional Assessment Coordinator

2005-2006  Assessment Materials

Fall 2005 Assessment Information
The department assessment activity will be part of a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project undertaken by the Department Assessment Committee.  Look for explanatory emails from Greg and Cassie.  Click here to see the preliminary materials, as well as an article introducing SoTL.

2004-2005  Assessment Materials

Spring 2005 Assessment Rubrics and Explanation; English Department Report Forms 2004-2005 (departmental, institutional, plan and report form); Closing the Loop (strategies for improving teaching and learning, based on what our department learned from this year's assessment activities)

Fall 2004 Assessment Rubrics and Explanations

Rubrics developed by members of the English Department for ENG 101 and ENG 102 (not required for assessment)

2003-2004 Assessment Materials

• Explanation of the process
  
• Spring 2004 Department Assessment Rubric (use this sheet to assess each essay)
• Spring 2004 Institutional Analytical Skills Assessment Rubric (see the above Explanation for details)
• English Department Report Forms 2003-2004 (departmental, institutional, plan and report form); Closing the Loop (strategies for improving teaching and learning, based on what our department learned from this year's assessment activities)
  

• Explanation of the process
• Fall 2003 Department Assessment Rubric (use this sheet to assess each essay)
• Fall 2003 Department Assessment Tally Sheet (use this sheet to record the total numbers of all essays in your assessed class and submit to the Department Assessment Coordinators Nancy Chick and Holly Hassel)

• Explanation of the process
• Fall 2003 General Education Analytical Skills Assessment Rubric
• Sample explanatory handout to give students
• Greg Lampe's Email to Students
  

Past Assessment Committee Reports
English 101
English 250
English 278