Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2020-2021 Level: Undergraduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Core [UG]
Program Name: German Studies Core
Description of Data Collection:
To assess whether students in our Core courses achieve the stated learning outcomes, we have begun instituting interim and final course assignments tailored specifically to the respective objectives of each course. In GERM2163 (formerly GERM1063), for instance, students complete three long-form writing assignments and one in-class solo presentation—one literary close reading, one thesis paper, one creative project to allow for interdisciplinary and multimedia approaches to critical response, and a teaching presentation for their peers—to demonstrate mastery of the disciplinary and thematic outcomes for this course on modernism. In GERM1701, students completed these same three writing assignment types to practice their respective disciplinary and thematic skills, and they then proposed, designed, and completed a large final project, which they then workshopped with classmates and their two instructors and presented in a plenary session of the paired courses. The projects were designed to assess achievement of each course’s learning outcomes (listed above) and the integration of literary with sociological inquiry. In addition to our own evaluation of student achievement, we add questions to course evaluations to survey students’ perceptions of their own achievement of the stated learning outcomes. In GERM2163, for example, the question prompts read as follows:
“1. In this course, I gained deeper insight into the ways in which literary and cinematic modernism (in the German tradition) challenged conventional understandings and conceptions of meaning, language, civilization, sexuality, identity, and death.
2. Together with my peers and my instructor, I engaged in critical inquiry and reflected meaningfully on alternative ways of looking at the world through literature.
3. This course introduced me to (or helped me develop) the disciplinary practices of literary study, including close reading, textual analysis, visual analysis, critical thought, the practice of writing, and effective presentation skills.”
Review Process:
Instructors interpret course-level assignments to evaluate whether students are on track to achieve course learning outcomes. Representative samples of student work are maintained in the instructors’ files. Randomized examples of the large-scale, capstone-like final projects (from GERM1701 and SOCY1710) have been submitted to the Office of the Core for evaluation, along with instructor comments. Course evaluations, furthermore, are interpreted both by the instructor and the department chair, and survey results are shared and interpreted by the entire department faculty. In the case of these particular surveys of Core courses, data are also shared with the Core Program officers. Recommendations for changes in curriculum or assignments are made in consultation with department colleagues on a two-year cycle (the cycle on which these courses are typically given) at departmental meetings.
Resulting Program Changes:
After our new Literature Core course was launched in Spring 2016 and Fall 2017 (GERM2221/FREN3315/ENGL2210), the instructor redesigned the course with Prof. Stephen
Pfohl of the Sociology Department in order to offer an Enduring Questions seminar as part of Core Renewal. That new course, GERM1701, was offered in Spring 2019, and data were very positive. Data from our most recent Literature Core course, GERM2221, suggest strong evidence that our students attain the desired learning outcomes:
[5 = strongly agree, 4 = agree, 3 = uncertain, 2 = disagree, 1 = strongly disagree)
1. In this course I was able to cultivate, develop further, and articulate strategies for approaching and interpreting new texts: 4.64 mean, 5 median, 5 mode
2. This course helped me understand literature as a site of cultural debate, contestation, and history: 4.82 mean, 5 median, 5 mode.
3. This course helped me recognize the limits and drawbacks of binary thinking: 4.64 mean, 5 median, 5 mode.
4. This course helped me think critically and in an ethically-informed manner about the poetics of deviance: 4.73 mean, 5 median, 5 mode.
As a result of prior assignments and surveys, however, learning outcomes for each Core course offered have been articulated more concretely and precisely, and assessments better scaffolded to prepare and guide students to achieve those outcomes.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
After our new Literature Core course was launched in Spring 2016 and Fall 2017 (GERM2221/FREN3315/ENGL2210), the instructor redesigned the course with Prof. Stephen
Pfohl of the Sociology Department in order to offer an Enduring Questions seminar as part of Core Renewal. That new course, GERM1701, was offered in Spring 2019, and data were very positive. Data from our most recent Literature Core course, GERM2221, suggest strong evidence that our students attain the desired learning outcomes:
[5 = strongly agree, 4 = agree, 3 = uncertain, 2 = disagree, 1 = strongly disagree)
1. In this course I was able to cultivate, develop further, and articulate strategies for approaching and interpreting new texts: 4.64 mean, 5 median, 5 mode
2. This course helped me understand literature as a site of cultural debate, contestation, and history: 4.82 mean, 5 median, 5 mode.
3. This course helped me recognize the limits and drawbacks of binary thinking: 4.64 mean, 5 median, 5 mode.
4. This course helped me think critically and in an ethically-informed manner about the poetics of deviance: 4.73 mean, 5 median, 5 mode.
As a result of prior assignments and surveys, however, learning outcomes for each Core course offered have been articulated more concretely and precisely, and assessments better scaffolded to prepare and guide students to achieve those outcomes.
Attachments (if available)