Creating a Comprehensive General Education Assessment Model A

Creating a Comprehensive General Education Assessment Model: A Call for Executive Support, Collaboration of Key Stakeholders, and Triangulation of Measures by Dr. Shawn Van Etten, Director of Institutional Research & Assessment Dr. Mark Prus, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences State University of New York, College at Cortland SUNY GENERAL EDUCATION ASSESSMENT CONFERENCE November 13 -14 th 2003, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Albany, New York

Cortland General Education Assessment: A Solid Foundation *Fall 1999: Formal & Comprehensive Assessment of 8 Cortland General Education Categories & Skill Areas THE CORTLAND ASSESSMENT PROCESS 1. President, Provost, Deans, Faculty Senate, GE Committee, Faculty, and Institutional Research Supported GE Assessment; 2. Faculty Senate Endorsed Policy Guiding GE Assessment ; 1. Faculty Teaching Courses in Each GE Category Requested to Develop Essays Questions;

The Cortland Assessment Process Continued 4. GE Committee & Institutional Research Reviewed Items & Selected 1 Item Per Category (Now 2 Items) – Items Best Representing the Goals & Objectives of the Category; 5. Standardized Administration Procedures Developed for ‘Take-Home’ vs ‘In-Class’ and ‘No-Credit Assignment’ vs ‘Credit Assignment’ (Now Recommended ‘In-Class’ and ‘Credit Assignment’); 6. Faculty Trained and Scored Essays Using Two Rubrics (1 General; 1 Specific); Stipend Awarded; 7. Institutional Research Disseminated Results for Formative & Summative Purposes.

Cortland GE Strengths & Voiced Concerns STRENGTHS A. Executive Administrators – Provided: (1) Experts to Support Efforts and Training; (2) Time to Develop; (3) Funding; and (4) Campus-Wide Encouragement. B. Faculty, Faculty Senate, GE Committee, Institutional Research – Collaborated on: (1) Instrument & Rubric Development; (2) Implementation Procedures; and (3) Dissemination of Results. VOICED CONCERNS A. B. C. D. Sampled Faculty Need Ample Time to Build into Syllabi; Assessments Should Be Administered During Class Time; Students Should Be Assigned Grades for Essays; and Assessments Should Be Multidimensional & Automated When Possible.

Cortland GE to SUNY GE: The Transition ISSUES TO CONSIDER A. B. C. D. Faculty Vested in Cortland GE – Resolution of Cortland & SUNY GE’s; Stakeholder Awareness of SUNY GE Knowledge & Skill Area Requirements; Instrument & Rubric Modification/Development to Assess SUNY GE Goals; Timeliness: A Resolution of Administrator and Faculty Timelines. THE TRANSITION PROCESS A. B. C. D. Key Stakeholder Informational Meetings; Quasi-Seamless Cortland SUNY GE Programs; GE Committee, Institutional Research, & Faculty Collaborate to Modify Tools; Timelines Developed and Implemented.

Triangulation of Results - The development of a comprehensive, valid, and reliable assessment system necessitates triangulation of information across measures, participants, and researchers; without triangulation we base important and often costly decisions on results that may lack both reliability and validity. - SUNY Cortland is in the process of moving from a unidimensional to multidimensional assessment approach, an approach that tries to best represent the various modalities through which students acquire and represent knowledge (e. g. , Foreign Language Assessment)