Departmental Assessment Update - Arts and Humanities Report
Department: Theatre
Program: MFA
Level: Graduate
1. List in detail your graduate Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for each degree/certificate offered.
(1) To have the professional competence to function successfully in the artistic concentration of the degree track, certified by the successful presentation of the MFA creative project.
(2) To have a broad knowledge of the context and functioning of related theatrical artistic areas to that of the chosen artistic concentration.
(3) To be able to function as a teacher of the artistic concentration, and contextual related areas, up to college-level, since the MFA is considered a terminal degree.
(4) To be able to progress, if desired, to the doctorate in Theatre with a research topic related to that of the MFA artistic concentration.
2. Where are these SLOs published (e.g., departmental web page)?
Online at http://www.hawaii.edu/theatre/departmental/department.html
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?
Each MFA concentration, and any further subdivision of emphasis (e.g., Design can be in Set, Lighting, or Costume), is broken down into Foundation (12 credits), Concentration (39 credits) and Electives (9 credits). (See Checklists for MFA Concentrations)
The degree requires 4-6 credits of Graduate Theatre Workshop, the course designation for actual participation in Kennedy Theatre productions other than the creative project, including the qualifying project(s). The public presentation of the creative project, which must include a written component that goes beyond a descriptive record of the project (e.g., a production book, essay, full-length play. etc.) The creative project is worth 6 credits.
For the MFA degree, there is no language requirement and no comprehensive exam other than that of the oral examination of the MFA creative project.
4. What population(s) is covered by your assessment(s)?
Covered are all MFA classified students
5. Please list/describe all the assessment events and devices used to monitor graduate student progress through the program. Consider the following questions:
(1) Screening: GRE exam scores, used as a diagnostic and part of application process; proof of having taken, at the undergraduate level, one course in theatre history, two in dramatic literature, one in acting, one in direction, and one in tech theatre/design. (If courses not so taken, and applicant is admitted, they must be made up C/NC concurrently with work towards the MFA); samples of artistic work in the concentration applied to (e.g., a video of acting, play direction; a production book; reviews; original playscripts; design portfolios.)
(2) Orientation includes an initial meeting of the incoming student with the Graduate Advisor and the beginning of a Check List in the requisite MFA concentration. The student keeps a copy.
(3) After forming a committee, student prepares a qualifying project in their area, which is evaluated by the committee.
(4) Proposal for culminating creative project is evaluate by the committee.
(5) After the creative project is implemented, the student prepares a written component. The project is then evaluated by the committee in an oral defense. In certain concentrations, such as directing, students involved in the production fill out confidential evaluations of the production process.
6. Please list/describe how your graduate students contribute to your discipline/academic area? Consider the following questions:
Contributions of students through publication, conference participation and performance.
Students occasionally make presentations to conferences through GSO support, or through being members of panels at national conferences such as ATHE. Several have also successfully published articles in professional journals. I would say that this happens on an average about three times a year. Certain courses such as Wessendorf's Script Analysis or Theory of Theatre require participation in small conferences modeled on professional international ones.Students perform regularly in Kennedy Theatre productions; they may receive credit in various forms for about half of these public appearances in KT, but typically appear in many more
performances than that. Some also perform elsewhere, for Honolulu theatre groups such as Diamond Head Theatre, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Kumu Kahua Theatre, Manoa Valley Theatre, etc. (Outside performances usually cannot carry academic credit.) They are assessed in these endeavors not only by our faculty and their peers but also by newspaper critics in the leading dailies and weeklies.
7. What attempts are made to monitor student post-graduate professional activities?
http://www.hawaii.edu/theatre/departmental/alumni.htm, tracking the activities of many of our students who are out teaching or working professionally. Many of our master's students go on for doctoral degrees with us, or elsewhere.
8. How were the assessment data/results used to inform decisions concerning the curriculum and administration of the program?
PROGRAM CHANGES
Feedback: Closer mentoring is desired to guide students through creative and academic components of the program.
Response: Implemented more meetings with advisor and the committee to evaluate the students' progress.
Feedback: Desire for a channel or forum to give feedback on the program
Response: The final evaluation essay written by the student will now also contain an evaluation of the program in terms of the following (subject to approval by full faculty).
- quality and consistency of interaction with faculty
- flexibility of program to be tailored towards student interest and career plans
- usefulness of feedback regarding creative and academic development
- level of collaboration between different programs
Feedback: Desire for a specialized MFA in Puppet Design
Response: Tammy Montgomery is researching the possibilities of such a degree track.
CHANGES TO COURSES
Feedback: Need more advanced acting classes
Response: THEA 422 Acting Styles VI, THEA 420 Intermediate Voice, THEA 492C Shakespeare in Performance, THEA 435 Movement for the Actor were revised by new faculty member Paul Mitri to meet needs of advanced acting students.
9. Has the program developed learning outcomes? Please indicate yes or no.
No.
10. Has the program published learning outcomes? Please indicate yes or no.
n/a
11. If so, please indicate how the program has published learning outcomes.
n/a
12. What evidence is used to determine achievement of student learning outcomes?
See item 5.
13. Who interprets the evidence?
MFA committee members.
14. What is the process of interpreting the evidence?
Assessment of student learning takes place at a number of junctures, including but not limited to the qualifier assessment, the MFA thesis proposal meeting, and the final thesis project defense. In the MFA Acting and Asian Performance degrees, the thesis consists of several projects, each of which is assessed. Subject to approval, the MFA final evaluation essay written by the student will now also contain an assessment of the degree program.
15. Indicate the date of last program review.
2000