The project in a nutshell:
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) was selected as one of the only 18 institutions in the U.S. to participate in the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ (AAC&U) Advancing Evidence on Civic and Community-Based Engagement in Higher Education project in 2021. Through this project, UHM will collect student assignments as evidence of learning in civic engagement and submit a systematically curated sample to AAC&U to be evaluated by nationally trained raters. UHM is committed to providing professional development opportunities for civic engagement teaching and learning. This project is jointly sponsored by the Assessment and Curriculum Support Center, Office of Civic and Community Engagement (OCCE), and the College of Social Sciences Program for Civic Engagement.
Seven faculty members submitted student works from 12 assignments in nine courses. We selected 100 artifacts, redacted personally identifiable information, and submitted them to AAC&U in June 2022. The result, received in 2023, showed that at least 85% of the scorable artifacts meet Milestone 2 (scoring a 2 out of 4) on each evaluation criterion, which includes: Diversity of Communities and Cultures, Analysis of Knowledge, Civic Identity and Commitment; Civic Communication, Civic Action and Reflection; and Civic Contexts/Structures. However, very few artifacts (0 to 5%) achieved the Capstone level (scoring a 4 out of 4). Additionally, about one-third of the assignments were deemed unscorable. See the project report.
Plan for action: The assessment team will plan meetings with participating instructors and other stakeholders (e.g., students and community members) to interpret the results and plan improvement actions.
Faculty Participant Recruitment Information
Who will be invited to participate?
Faculty and staff at UH-Manoa that provide civic engagement learning opportunities for students and have access to student assignments targeting civic engagement are invited to participate in this research project.
What will the participants do?
Participating faculty and staff will:
- Collect student assignments that target civic engagement related knowledge, skills, and values.
- Submit student assignments.
- The assignments need to address one or more of the criteria assessed on the Civic Engagement VALUE Rubric.
Where do the participants submit materials?
Participants will submit completed student assignments to a Google Folder created by the Assessment and Curriculum Support Center and shared only with each individual participant.
What will happen with the submitted materials?
The assignments sent for scoring will be anonymized and kept confidential. The Assessment and Curriculum Support Center will read through each student assignment and redact all personal identifying information from the assignments.
FAQ:
- What is this project?
UH Mānoa is one of 18 institutions selected to participate in AAC&U’s “Advancing Evidence on Civic and Community-Based Engagement in Higher Education” a new project designed to develop national baselines for student performance on civic outcomes. Project participants include two-year and four-year institutions, both public and private. The project is supported by a grant from the Lumina Foundation. For more information about our partner colleges and universities, please see the AAC&U announcement.
- What is involved in participating in this project at the institutional level?
Each participating institution will submit at least one hundred student work artifacts (products) to AAC&U’s Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) Institute.
- What does our institution get out of this project?
The project will culminate in the release of a summary report to the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa that will include recommendations of how our individual campus—and higher education as a whole—can best support civic skill-building for all students.
- What do individual faculty participants get out of this project?
Our artifacts will be scored by certified VALUE scorers. Individual instructors will receive the result for their students selected for the scoring process. Participants will also have opportunities to participate in networking events and professional development opportunities specifically designed for them. Faculty, who want to take on the commitment, will receive training on scoring artifacts and on civic engagement curriculum design.
- Do faculty need to gain students’ consent to participate in the project?
We take strict measures to protect students’ and faculty members’ confidentiality by redacting personally identifying information from student assignments before submitting them for scoring. That being said, as stated in the campus policy, “Collection of Student Work for Assessment Purposes,“ we do not need to gain consent from students to submit their assignments. However, students do have the option to opt out. Faculty can inform students of the purpose of the assessment and the option to opt out, and we provide a sample information letter that faculty can adapt to their needs.