Pierce CollegeCSUN-Pierce Paths Project Outcomes Report 2013

Context for Assessment Results: Fall 2013The CSUN-Pierce Paths Project

Since 2011, Pierce faculty and administrators have developed five Paths: Social Justice Global Studies Sustainability Health and Wellness Art and Culture

DQP Competencies, LEAPs, and the Pierce College GE Learning Outcomes (GELOs) Communication: The student will demonstrate proficiency in communication skills, including

active listening, textual interpretation and comprehension, and oral and written expression.

Critical Thinking: The student will demonstrate proficiency in identifying and clarifying issues, problems, questions, and assumptions; analyzing data and relevant information including alternative approaches; differentiating between facts, opinions, and biases; synthesizing and generating solutions and possible outcomes; and using evidence and reasoning to support conclusions.

Research and Information Literacy: The student will demonstrate proficiency in modes of inquiry specific to the discipline of study and discernment of relevant and appropriate sources of information.

Civic Responsibility and Ethical Reasoning in a Diverse Society: The student will demonstrate proficiency in understanding, and engaging with, contemporary notions of the public good in a democratic and diverse society and the relevant principles, concepts, and arguments that guide ethical decision-making.

Quantitative Analysis and Scientific Reasoning: The student will demonstrate proficiency in the interpretation and description of quantitative data and situations and relevant graphs, symbols, or mathematical relationships and concepts to solve problems.

Arts & Cultural Awareness: The student will demonstrate proficiency in the identification, recognition, description, and explanation of his or her interaction with, and understanding of, cultural practices and social structures.

CSUN-Pierce Path Outcomes Alignment

At least one Pierce Path course SLO is mapped to at least one CSUN Path SLO.

Pierce Path courses are thematically aligned with CSUN Paths.

Next steps…

Pierce Path Sample Assignments and Next Steps

Projects

Essays

Papers

Short Answer

Multiple Choice

Grappling with Common Assessments and Developing Norming RubricsPierce’s current practice is that discipline

faculty determine whether or not to administer common assessments.

Those courses that are assessed using different instruments are normed either by common rubrics or faculty dialogue.

Next steps for Pierce’s Path courses and cross-disciplinary assessing.

Pierce Path Assessment Results: Fall 2013 As with all the Paths, courses range across

disciplines, so one of the goals for the Spring 2014 semester is to integrate findings in a way that allows faculty to have a meaningful understanding of their Path as such. It’s very similar to the college’s goal for its General Education program. (Unfortunately, our college has lacked a researcher for over a year. We have a wonderful analyst who has been serving the college well, but a one-person office cannot handle the volume of data requests and requirements institution-wide.) Meanwhile, however, an attempt has been made to find some commonalities among course reports in a given Path.

The DQP and Pierce Paths Our general view is that the benefit of the DQP has

largely been to re-orient and intensify our focus on the coherence and value of a liberal arts education by way of the GE program for transfer (lower division coursework).

What we find particularly heartening is the complementary affirmation of our work (toward strengthening the GE program at Pierce and fortifying the educational continuity between Pierce and CSUN) and the aims of the AAC&U DQP project. To that end, at future faculty and institution-wide meetings, we will provide information and discuss the relevance of the DQP and related projects to national trends and our Path and GE work.

The Pierce Paths Assessment Story: Fall 2013 Pierce College faculty have been writing outcomes reports for

a number of years now, and are largely comfortable with the process. The Pierce Paths group has capitalized on this experience in support of reporting on Path outcomes.

Faculty were asked to respond to the following questions: How were students assessed? How were assessments used? In other words, how does your

assessment reflect that your course maps to one or more CSUN Path SLOs?

How have you emphasized the Path theme in your course? Based on your experience and professional judgment, how well do

think your students know the purported significance of a thematic GE program? In other words, do they make thematic connections between your course and other courses (in or outside the Path) in the GE program?