Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2020-2021 Level: Undergraduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Core [UG]
Program Name: PULSE Core (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
INDIRECT EVIDENCE: PULSE gathers indirect evidence through beginning-of-year and end-of-year survey tools about student learning in which students self-report. In addition, PULSE has been studied by outside researchers about its effectiveness as a service-learning program. These outside researchers have compared PULSE student responses to validated national surveys, and have identified statistically significant outcomes. This is very powerful “indirect” evidence (see Appendices 1-3). Given how complex we expected the 2020-2021 year to be because of the impacts of Covid-19 on service (all service was remote, and service hours were significantly reduced) and classroom learning (more than half of all PULSE courses were offered as remote synchronous courses), we decided that in the interests of keeping things as simple as possible for the students, we did not administer the student survey this year.
DIRECT EVIDENCE:
At its Faculty Days in June, 2016, the PULSE faculty decided to begin doing direct assessment of PULSE core learning goals. We decided that we would assess one PULSE core learning goal each year. Given how complex we expected the 2020-2021 year to be because of the impacts of Covid-19 on service (all service was remote) and classroom learning (more than half of all PULSE courses were offered as remote synchronous courses), we decided that in the interests of keeping things as simple as possible for the students and faculty, we did not assess a core learning goal this year.
Core Assessment AY 2021-2022
Our hope is that in AY 2021-2022, things will return to some form of “normal” in PULSE. However, because we expect there to still be disruptions in the service component of the course, we are approaching assessment as follows: We do plan to undertake indirect assessment through beginning-of-year and end-of-year surveys, but we are suspending direct assessment for one more year.
Review Process:
INDIRECT EVIDENCE:
The internally-administered surveys are interpreted by the PULSE Program staff (director and assistant director). The internal survey questions are reviewed at the beginning of each academic year, and the survey results are read by the program staff at the end of each academic year with special attention paid to difficulties students may have encountered, especially with their PULSE service placements. The external surveys, which are sporadic in their implementation according to the research needs of the researchers, are interpreted by the professional researchers using advanced statistical methodologies and measure students’ self-reported impact of PULSE on themselves.
DIRECT EVIDENCE:
A standing committee comprised of a few PULSE faculty members assesses the direct evidence. The committee members vary from year to year.
Attachments (if available)