Departmental Assessment Update - Natural Sciences Report

Department: Microbiology
Program: MA/PhD
Level: Graduate

1. List in detail your graduate Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for each degree/certificate offered.

General consideration for all graduate programs in Microbiology
The programs of the Department of Microbiology are designed to provide an atmosphere and environment of excellence, where the intellectual curiosity, research abilities and teaching qualities of each graduate student can be developed and expressed. Graduate programs are offered leading to the Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Depending upon previous preparation, each student starts his/her educational career in the Department by studying a core of essential course work in which microorganisms are explored in depth, at the functional, structural and molecular levels and with respect to their interaction with their environments and/or hosts. Further learning experiences towards the student's own professional goals are available through a broad range of courses determined by the student and his/her advisory committee.

These studies may include microbial genetics, cell biology, molecular genetics, microbial physiology and metabolic regulation, microbial ecology, pathogenesis of infectious agents, immunology, environmental microbiology, marine microbiology, virology, and course offerings in allied departments. The proportion of independent to supervised studies will depend on the student's previous training in the area chosen. Overall emphasis is placed on practice in critical and analytical thought and on the creative design and implementation of experimental procedures required for testing original and significant hypotheses.

Teaching experience can be gained by participation in instructional activities and by frequent presentation of literature and research seminars. Trainees have access to laboratories equipped for cell culture, virology, animal experimentation, immunobiological and immunochemical analyses, monoclonal antibody facility, ultrastructure, microbial genetics, physiology and environmental microbiology. The wide range of faculty interests and the availability of research space and facilities should give each student an opportunity to pursue the area of microbiology he/she wishes to study. In some cases, special interdisciplinary programs can be arranged.

Specific learning objective for the Master degree
The program leading to a Master of Science degree in microbiology is designed to provide students with basic knowledge of the field, to permit students to acquire technical competence in the fundamentals of research and to foster creative and independent thinking. Two calendar years for the completion of an original thesis (Plan A) or the passing of a comprehensive examination (Plan B) are usually needed to complete the recommended program of study.

Specific learning objective for the Ph.D. degree
The program leading to the Ph.D. degree is designed to develop the student's ability to pursue independent and original research in microbiology and allied fields, communicate the results of such research to the scientific community and serve as an effective teacher. Students normally enter the doctoral program after receiving a master's degree. Generally, four to six years are required to complete the program.

2. Where are these SLOs published (e.g., departmental web page)?

http://www.hawaii.edu/microbiology/grad2.htm (general information)
http://www.hawaii.edu/microbiology/ms.htm (MS degree information)
http://www.hawaii.edu/microbiology/phd.htm (Ph.D. degree information)

3. Explain how your SLOs map onto your curriculum, i.e., how does your program of graduate studies produce the specific SLOs in your students?

 

Both MS degree programs [Plan A (thesis) and Plan B (exam)] require student to take 30 hours of microbiology or related courses. (Students entering in the fall of 2008 and later, Plan A is the only path available for a MS degree.)  These courses are provided by our graduate faculty (8 Microbiology faculty and 14 other graduate faculty) and other gradute programs (e.g., Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Microbiology, Oceanography). The student’s program begins with a diagnostic exam testing the knowledge of each incoming student. The student and their advisor uses the results of this exam to design a program suited to the student’s interests and knowledge base. As part of the program, student are also required spend a significant amount of time in research laboratories learning the latest techniques in cell and molecular biology and learning the problem-solving skills used in a research environment. Thus, students have a balance between classroom instruction and research training. For Plan A the balance is tilted toward research and for Plan B the balance is tilted toward classroom learning. The success of our MS graduates in finding jobs in microbiology, or continuing there education in research or as health professionals, give us confidence that we are providing students with the training needed to become microbiology professionals.

The Ph.D. training program is very flexible but it clearly focuses on research and analytical skills need to do work in state-of-the-art research environments. Most of our Ph.D. students have a Master’s degree in Microbiology or a closely related field. Their research and training program revolves around the subdiscipline they have chosen (e.g., bacterial genetics, immunology, virology) and the laboratory where they spend most of their time doing research. The research and coursework needed for the Ph.D. are unique to each student and designed by the student, the advisor and the Ph.D. committee.

4. What population(s) is covered by your assessment(s)?

All Microbiology graduate courses (except 699 and some 695) have student evaluation and all students taking the courses are asked to participate in the evaluation.  In additions we have some data on the success of graduate in the workplace or in the continuation of their education. Additionally, we have begun surveying graduates after they finish the degree program to get an overall impression of their satisfaction with the programs.

Accordingly, all our students participate in assessment of the program 

5. Please list/describe all the assessment events and devices used to monitor graduate student progress through the program. Consider the following questions:

All incoming students take a diagnostic exam to determine their initial knowledge of microbiology subdisciplines and to aid in designing a program of study appropriate for their interests and knowledge base.

Most of the 600-level courses have exams or other means of testing to determine the student’s knowledge in the subject.

Plan A Master’s degree students must write and defend a thesis on their research and pass .

Plan B Master’s degree students must pass written comprehensive exams covering six areas of microbiology (general microbiology plus five additional exams in ares of their choice).

Ph.D. students must pass four qualifying exams covering general microbiology plus three areas of their choice to become degree candidates. They must also take a comprehensive exam that is provided by their Ph.D. advisory committee. This exam includes written answers to question provided by each committee member (five committee members is minimum). This is followed by an oral exam where the student must defend and/or further explain the written answers. Additionally, the student must orally answer question on any subject related to the written exam or their research discipline and their Ph.D. research plan.

All Plan A MS students and all Ph.D. students must write an approved thesis on their original laboratory research and must defend that research in a public seminar and to their advisory committee. Plan B MS students must write a short paper for the research laboratory where they did their MICR699 research.

All M.S and Ph.D. student are required to take 1 credit MICR690, Microbiology Seminar. This is a weekly research seminar series. Although all students are strongly encouraged to attend seminar every week, students that take the course for credit must give one of the seminars (usually on their current research).

Many of our other graduate courses require students to orally present their research or discuss current research reports from the scientific literature. Student presentation skills and their mastery of the material is usually the basis for grades in these types of courses.

6. Please list/describe how your graduate students contribute to your discipline/academic area? Consider the following questions:

Many of our graduate student present data (either as an oral presentation or a poster) at professional meeting. Usually 3-8 graduate students per year present research results at the national American Society for Microbiology (ASM) annual meeting. This meeting brings together more than 10,000 microbiologists. Students also participate in other national or international meetings, depending on there area of research. In addition, the Hawaii Branch of the ASM has an annual meeting where 12-16 students give oral presentation. The best presentations get monetary awards (often funds to attend the national ASM meeting). In addition, as part of the graduate program, every student must give an oral presentation at one of the Department’s weekly seminars.

The great majority of Master’s Plan A students and Ph.D. students, as well as many of the Master’s Plan B students, publish research results in peer-reviewed professional journals. It is rare when a faculty member publishes research results without one or more graduate students as co-authors (usually a graduate student is first author).

7. What attempts are made to monitor student post-graduate professional activities?

In 2006 be began collecting data on where are graduates are working or continuing their education.  We also began a program to survey the recent graduates to get their overall impression of the graduate training they received in our department. 

8. How were the assessment data/results used to inform decisions concerning the curriculum and administration of the program?

Our assessment of the Microbiology Graduate programs and classes has resulted in some changes in graduate courses. However, factors apart for assessment seem to be driving the major changes in our courses and our training program. One important factor in changing pedagogy is not the assessment of the program but increased enrollment. Ten years ago, most of the graduate courses had less than five students enrolled. Now, our program has grown such that most of the courses have more than five students and occasionally more than ten. Though these numbers are still small, they significantly change how instructors deal with students and how much participation each student has in classroom discussions and exercises. Another factor that has recently and significantly influenced pedagogy in Microbiology is the information available via computers and the internet. Much of molecular biology, the mainstay of modern microbiology, requires computers for designing experiments, gathering data, data analysis and graphic representation of the data. These changes change the way we do research and how the results are interpreted. In turn, this changes how certain courses are taught. Thus, as the department and the discipline of microbiology evolve, so does our teaching. Our assessment of graduate student leaning makes us think we are keeping up with the times but, at this time, changes in enrollment and science continue to lead the development of the instructional programs.

9. Has the program developed learning outcomes? Please indicate yes or no.

We do not articulated specific learning outcomes.  Nonetheless, learning outcomes are assessed by the the Ph.D. qualifying exam and the Master's and Ph.D. comprehensive exams.  These exams give a clear impression of the student’s general knowledge in various subdisciplines of microbiology and students are expected to raise to a certain, albit unspecifed, level of knowledge.

10. Has the program published learning outcomes? Please indicate yes or no.

no

11. If so, please indicate how the program has published learning outcomes.

NA

12. What evidence is used to determine achievement of student learning outcomes?

In part, the learning outcomes are assessed by course grades.  In addition, the the Ph.D. qualifying exam (taken after 1 year in the program) and the Master's and Ph.D. comprehensive exams (taken at the end of the program) show the student's academic progress.  These exams give a clear impression of the student’s general knowledge in various subdisciplines of microbiology.  These exams provide students with benchmarks that must be met on their educational journey and give the faculty a rather clear indication of the depth and breadth of a student's mastery of the field.

13. Who interprets the evidence?

Each exam is graded by an expert in the subdiscipline.  That is, a bacterial geneticist give the bacterial genetics exams and an immunologist give the immunology exam, and so on.  To help the students prepare, they are encouraged to consult with each examiner well before the exam to get information of the topics that might be covered and the depth of knowledge needed to pass the exam.

14. What is the process of interpreting the evidence?

Each exam is grade by anexpert in the field covered by the exam

15. Indicate the date of last program review.

There is a program review underway now.  We submitted out Self Study in January 2007