Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2020-2021 Level: Undergraduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: Physics BS (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
– Force Concept Inventory / Mechanics Baseline testing
– Exit survey data
– Standardized evaluations for all Senior Thesis presentations (made by Undergraduate Affairs Comm. members)
– Data on number of undergraduate students presenting research at national conferences
– Tracking of alumni
Note: We have eliminated the ‘GRE Physics Subject Test’ as an assessment metric because (a) the number of schools requiring GRE subject exams has decreased significantly and (b) very few of our students actually sent us their GRE scores (despite our offer to pay for any extra cost).
Review Process:
The Undergraduate Affairs Committee (UAC) and department Administrator will collect data and, along with the department Chairperson, and Teaching Committee if appropriate, analyze data. Subsequently, the UAC and/or Chairperson will:
– work with individual instructors to develop specific strategies to better meet our learning goals;
– propose to the faculty modifications to the curriculum in order to address perceived deficiencies or otherwise better meet our learning goals; and
– work with department Chairperson and office staff to develop and implement extracurricular programs to support our learning goals.
Resulting Program Changes:
Over the past few years one request has continually reappeared in our student exit surveys: create a physics department-based course on mathematical techniques in order to reduce the number co-requisite courses in the Math Department. After faculty debate we unanimously decided to create a Mathematical Physics course geared toward our sophomore physics majors. It turns out the Department of Human Centered Engineering is also interested in creating such a course, and we are jointly exploring the development of a single (team-taught) course serving both departments. Roughly 50% of our graduating class of 16 physics majors will be attending graduate school in physics or engineering, demonstrating our graduates can “compete successfully for admission to graduate programs.” Here are the known graduate programs (so far): Brown, U. Florida, UNH, UC Santa Cruz, Cornell, Tufts, and Boston University. Four seniors (3 majors, one minor) made thesis presentations via Zoom that were evaluated by our Undergraduate Affairs Committee. All students received scores of 4 or 5 (scale of 1 = poor, 5 = excellent) in all our relevant outcome criteria. No changes are required in our research experiences for undergraduates.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
Over the past few years one request has continually reappeared in our student exit surveys: create a physics department-based course on mathematical techniques in order to reduce the number co-requisite courses in the Math Department. After faculty debate we unanimously decided to create a Mathematical Physics course geared toward our sophomore physics majors. It turns out the Department of Human Centered Engineering is also interested in creating such a course, and we are jointly exploring the development of a single (team-taught) course serving both departments. Roughly 50% of our graduating class of 16 physics majors will be attending graduate school in physics or engineering, demonstrating our graduates can “compete successfully for admission to graduate programs.” Here are the known graduate programs (so far): Brown, U. Florida, UNH, UC Santa Cruz, Cornell, Tufts, and Boston University. Four seniors (3 majors, one minor) made thesis presentations via Zoom that were evaluated by our Undergraduate Affairs Committee. All students received scores of 4 or 5 (scale of 1 = poor, 5 = excellent) in all our relevant outcome criteria. No changes are required in our research experiences for undergraduates.
Attachments (if available)