For the past five years, the Office of Assessment has facilitated a three- to four-day workshop to assess undergraduate student learning in general education. We began by assessing student work aligned with the public affairs mission and outcomes. Student work was collected from courses with public affairs outcomes, de-identified, and reported in aggregate–the goal was to take what we learned and document ways that we might better teach these outcomes.

The question we asked is, “What are students learning about public affairs and what can we do to help them?” We then modified the senior exit exam and asked students to write about public affairs experiences.

In 2015, HLC commended our university assessment process and recommended utilizing the same process for assessing general education goals. Last summer, we collected student work from gen ed courses with Public Affairs outcomes. This summer we are reviewing Human Cultures and Information Literacy (General Goal 6, 7, 8, 9). 

We’re committed to a process that respects and supports faculty, and this collaborative review of work is focused on the overall goals of gen ed–not a course review.

Faculty who instruct these courses: 

• Submit student work. You will receive a $15 gift card to Starbucks and we will pick up the work, copy it, and return it within a 48 hour period.
• Submit student work and participate as a reviewer. You will receive a $500 stipend for your participation during the duration of the workshop. Participation in this process can serve multiple purposes–including utilizing this process for the periodic review for your college’s gen ed courses.

These four general goals cover many of our general education courses shown below.