Minutes
Core Committee
November 20, 2007
Lorentzen Conference Room
Members Present: M. Burchill, P. Fretham, S. Schwartz, A. Ingberg, D.
The meeting focused on exploring the possibility of coordinating the efforts of Core Committee and Assessment. Kay Schneider, Director of Assessment and Institutional Research, was our guest.
Electronic Portfolio: We explored the possibilities of the electronic portfolio. It will consist of student responses to Becoming Responsibly Engaged in the World questions (rather than student work submitted for courses). This year, for example, all first-year students will write an answer to a question of how their work in class and out of class relates to LLG #1 and one of the other LLG (#2 to #5). In this way, the college will have student self-reports on all first-year students’ understanding of the overarching goal of the Core and on one fourth of the respondents’ understanding of each of the other four goals. The Core Curriculum would eventually be assessed with corresponding self-reports in the fourth year (and perhaps in the intervening years). Some difficulties associated with the electronic portfolio include (1) questions of coding/quantifying the responses and (2) difficulties discerning how core courses, as opposed to courses in majors/minors, contribute to students’ progress, and (3) questions of how seriously students will take the writing task. This last question seems related to who will read and whether anyone will respond to their writing. Is a carrot or a stick approach the most appropriate for this purpose? The answers probably hinge on how advisors and faculty present the assessment task to students.
We discussed whether departments could be responsible for tracking the Core learning outcomes in the core courses they offer. This might perhaps be done in connection with Departmental self-studies. We also discussed whether students’ progress toward the goals of the Core Curriculum could be tracked through surveys on the TOCAR survey model.
“Assessment Day”: There have been preliminary discussions of a campus-wide “assessment day” during which regular classes would be cancelled and faculty and students could focus on assessment. Such an arrangement might help us develop appropriate attention to the importance of assessment activities.
Respectfully submitted,
Alfhild Ingberg