2016

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) offers a two-year clinical Master’s Degree in CSD. Graduates of the program become certified as speech language pathologists (speech therapists) by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). This poster outlines the methods thorough which students’ clinical progress is tracked and struggling students are identified. The development and components of departmental remediation plans for such students is discussed along with follow up and determination results are presented.

Clinical Remediation Plan Processes in CSD

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) offers a two-year clinical …

The Communication Department’s mission is to meet the challenges and opportunities of communication in the emerging technological, multicultural, and global context of the twenty-first century. Our Master’s Program aims to build and exchange knowledge in the broad field of communication and our specific foci in organizational and intercultural communication, global communication, information and communication technologies, social media, and communication policy. This poster presents our first formal MA assessment using a new rubric. We note our seven program SLOs, linked to draft institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs). In 2015, seven graduating students’ work was assessed (n=7). The Graduate Chair used evidence of successful course completion to assess SLO1, and the remaining SLOs were assessed shortly after the final thesis defense, based on the written document and oral defense. Committee members for each student assessed their work using the rubric. Results for each SLO are presented below. Overall, our graduates are meeting or exceeding our expectations. However, the small sample size dictates that we need to accumulate more evidence over time to document progress and accomplishments. We describe how we used our results and we outline our intended next steps.

Communication MA Curriculum Assessment

The Communication Department’s mission is to meet the challenges and opportunities of communication in the emerging technological, multicultural, …

The Ocean and Resources Engineering (ORE) Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) is a small, highly specialized graduate department within the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology. Historically it has had 7-8 faculty and approximately 35 students, about one third pursuing a PhD degree and two thirds pursuing a Master’s degree. At the present time, numbers are down slightly because of a general downturn in the field. ORE is accredited by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). This rigorous accreditation occurs once every 6 years, requiring a 250-page comprehensive self-study report, a series of fully documented supporting rubrics and a site visit. ORE went through this process in Fall 2015 and received an unprecedented perfect score (the only department at UH to get this). This stellar level of accomplishment is attributed to strong rubrics measuring well-developed assessment procedures and very good support from the Department’s dedicated hands-on external advisory committees. The department has a very high level of satisfaction among its graduates, with virtually 100% of graduates having found good paying positions in the field upon graduation. Our poster highlights some of the department’s efforts to further enhance our procedures. Included is a sample rubric and assessment methods utilized by ORE, along with program outcomes and conclusions drawn from ABET success.

Developing Additionally Improved Rubrics Following a Very Successful ABET Accreditation of the Ocean and Resources Engineering Department

The Ocean and Resources Engineering (ORE) Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) is a small, …

Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has 6 teaching faculty and 20 majors enrolled each semester, including 85% underserved students. Writing and critical thinking skills are very important to us. In May 2014 faculty collected student course assignments and evaluated them collaboratively using a rough rubric. The results showed that 50% students were not meeting our expectations. Subsequently, we revised SLO4 and explored external learning opportunities (e.g., Eng 100, Writing Center, our own writing intensive courses) and discovered that they are not sufficient in helping students to achieve our expectations. As a result, we developed the Yeah, WRITE! program to enhance disciplinary writing across the curriculum. The program consists of a series of in-class workshops built around reading and note-taking skills, citation, information literacy, and stages of the writing processes for various genres. Further, we used students work to develop and refine an evaluation rubric and aligned the Yeah, WRITE curriculum with the rubric. We also implemented writing intensive designations in all major core courses. Preliminary data showed that the program is successful: students were happy to learn diverse approaches to the writing process; grateful for handouts and models useful for other classes; relieved to have tools to address writer’s block. We plan to systematically assess SLO 4 every two years to monitor the effect of the new program. The poster shares the program curriculum, strategies to engage faculty, and invite collaboration with campus committees in refining and utilizing the Yeah, WRITE! program.

Yeah, WRITE! New Disciplinary Writing Curriculum As Outcome of Assessment Cycle

Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has 6 teaching faculty and 20 majors enrolled …

This poster features the development and use of a rubric for program assessment. The Nursing PhD program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) developed program learning outcomes via best practices of doctoral programs and national documents featuring hallmarks of PhD in Nursing education. The core competencies for Nursing PhD students were developed from the program learning outcomes. This poster profiles the development of three rubrics based on the program learning outcomes and core competencies for the dissertation defense, dissertation proposal defense and the student comprehensive examination. The decision/action process undertaken by the PhD curriculum committee is also illustrated.

Evidence-Based Rubric Development for the Nursing PhD Program

This poster features the development and use of a rubric for program assessment. The Nursing PhD program at …

Basic program information: The Elementary Education Program (EEP) has about 30 instructional faculty and field supervisors who serve about 200 elementary teacher candidates every semester. The EEP offers undergraduate degrees in Elementary, Elementary and Special Education, Elementary and Early Childhood Education and certificates for teaching Multi-Lingual Learners. The EEP continuously uses assessment for formative and summative, and internal and external (national accreditation) purposes. Although we have established checks and balances to ensure that our graduates are prepared to be successful first year teachers, we are currently waiting for the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board (HTSB) and the Center for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) to make policy decisions about requirements for recommendation for licensure. We are waiting for their decisions before we proceed in collecting some data, but we continue to measure our students’ professional dispositions and InTASC standards measured during their final student teaching semester. The purpose of the assessment project is to present our program’s curriculum mapping and its role in program assessment and improvement. Curriculum maps of two of the programs within EEP will be shared. The process of mapping the curriculum provided opportunities to communicate curricular content, processes, skills, and strategies taught in required courses that contribute to and build our students’ skills over the four semesters in our programs. We identified the points where essential concepts and skills were introduced, reviewed, and mastered (for summative assessment). Collection and monitoring of evidence of student growth and achievement helped the faculty monitor our own effectiveness in teaching.

Curriculum Mapping for Program Assessment and Improvement

The Elementary Education Program (EEP) has about 30 instructional faculty and field supervisors who serve about 200 elementary …

The College of Education (COE) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was facing a challenge of developing a shared goal for program improvement across the college’s teacher preparation programs. This poster summarizes the COE’s process of improvement, provides examples of professional dispositions comparison, critical action items, and identifies main insights gained through the assessment process. Within the framework of the principles of improvement science, we implemented a process of disciplined inquiry to examine the variances and outcomes between COE teacher preparation programs. We determined that the COE needed to better align candidate intake, assessment, and graduation processes across our five teacher education programs. We have now taken strategic steps to create a set of common assessments for use across all of our teacher licensure programs.

Beginning Journey of an Assessment Coordinator Affecting Change

The Department of Nursing is conducting a needs assessment to answer the following questions: 1) How are assessments …

The College of Education (COE) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was facing a challenge of developing a shared goal for program improvement across the college’s teacher preparation programs. This poster summarizes the COE’s process of improvement, provides examples of professional dispositions comparison, critical action items, and identifies main insights gained through the assessment process. Within the framework of the principles of improvement science, we implemented a process of disciplined inquiry to examine the variances and outcomes between COE teacher preparation programs. We determined that the COE needed to better align candidate intake, assessment, and graduation processes across our five teacher education programs. We have now taken strategic steps to create a set of common assessments for use across all of our teacher licensure programs.

Utilizing Common Goals and Assessments Across Programs for Improvement

The College of Education (COE) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was facing a challenge of developing …

Assessment efforts at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa strive to help departments meet learning objectives the departments have set for themselves. As part of these efforts, departments have designed Program Learning Outcome (PLOs) for the departments as a whole, and individual faculty members have established Student Learning Outcome (SLOs) for the classes they teach; the SLOs are coordinated with the PLOs. Collecting data to assess how well the SLOs and PLOs are met has proven problematic though, in large part because the data collection effort is widely viewed as an additional workload increase for faculty, who are already stretched thin with research, teaching, administrative, and community service responsibilities. Unsurprisingly, many faculty are inclined to collect and provide small amounts of data. If the data are too meager, however, then an assessment that is both useful and fair is not possible. To deal with this, the Department of Geology and Geophysics is asking individual faculty members to provide a subset of data they regularly collect anyway as a normal part of the their grading procedures; in this sense no new data are required. In one-on-one meetings with the department’s assessment coordinator, instructors identify a suite of student responses (e.g., particular exam questions, particular laboratory assignments, parts of writing assignments, etc.) that would be appropriate and sufficiently comprehensive to assess how well the course is meeting its SLOs. The initial feedback has been that this approach is reasonable in terms of the time required and is perceived as fair.

A time-effective and fair way to collect assessment data

Assessment efforts at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa strive to help departments meet learning objectives the departments …

Establishing Signature Assessment For Graduate Programs: The use of the MS. and PhD. proposal as a tool for evaluating Graduate Program performance

Establishing Signature Assessment For Graduate Programs: The use of the MS. and PhD. proposal as a tool for evaluating Graduate Program performance

It is often hard to gauge the performance of a graduate student in a timely manner, or provide …

The Department of Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa began collaborative program assessment in the fall of 2012. Previously, the Department of Biology had student learning outcomes, but they were not defined and implemented by the entire faculty. Following the generation of collaborative student learning outcomes for the undergraduate BS in Marine Biology, the faculty created a curriculum map and began program level assessment in spring 2014. This poster presents the BS Marine Biology learning outcomes, a curriculum map, successful strategies, and next steps following the assessment.

Collaborative Curricular Improvement Guided by Assessment

The Department of Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa began collaborative program assessment in the fall …

The Come Back to Mānoa program, established in Summer 2014 by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and housed administratively in Outreach College, assists undergraduate seniors who stopped attending college to return and graduate. This poster provides an overview of the program’s development, including creating mission and vision statements and objectives; outreach efforts and participation data; and plans to implement an assessment survey of respondents. In addition to assessing outcomes, the survey evaluated why students left using broad categories from the UHM 2012 Leavers Survey and adding a few more reasons based on relevant literature. Most research on student attrition concentrates on first year and sophomore students, but very little literature focuses on senior attrition and how we might help those students persist to degree (Hunt et al., 2012). The information obtained from the survey is used to improve the Come Back to Mānoa program and contributes to the academic literature. Initial challenges and strategies are also presented.

Developing and Assessing the Come Back to Manoa Program: Why Seniors Leave and How to Help them Graduate

The Come Back to Mānoa program, established in Summer 2014 by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and …

Poster will outline new learning objectives for the Geography department as a result of a faculty discussion of the uniqueness of the discipline and the knowledge we want the students (majors) to take away from. Poster will then discuss methods of direct assessment of certain learning objectives that are included in the capstone course for majors.

Rethinking the Discipline and Student’s Learning Goal

Poster will outline new learning objectives for the Geography department as a result of a faculty discussion of …

Our accrediting body, the AACSB, when considering our assessment program, has praised our data collection and has provided feedback on developing substantive action plans, “closing the loop” and on College wide tracking of results. Our Faculty Assurance of Learning Committee is developing strategies to address each of these. It is also time to revisit our program assessment plans and we will begin with the BBA as it is our largest program.

From Rigorous Data Collection to Meaningful Results: Closing the Loop at Shidler

Our accrediting body, the AACSB, when considering our assessment program, has praised our data collection and has provided …

The Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work (SW) PhD program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa currently has 16 students and 10 graduate faculty members. Developing and implementing sustainable PhD assessment plans are necessary to reflect student learning and curriculum improvements. Articulating the PhD program rubrics into a program-level assessment plan is imperative. The SW PhD program has developed seven Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), assessable outcomes, and a curriculum map. In Fall of 2015, the PhD program committee revisited the SLOs and made revisions in alignment with the sustainable assessment plan for the program as a foundational step for creating program rubrics. The committee developed program rubrics for benchmarks—(a) specialization, (b) comprehensive examination (i.e., dissertation proposal), and (c) final exam (i.e., dissertation defense)—that are tied to the SLOs. The committee began collecting data using developed rubrics in Spring 2016 as a pilot to gain additional clarity on the rubrics in order to make them efficient and manageable as key parts of PhD program curriculum. During the process of developing the rubrics, the PhD committee collaborated to facilitate the assessment planning process. During this assessment process, the committee has utilized existing materials and sources, such as student products (e.g., dissertation proposal), evaluation criteria (e.g., dissertation evaluation), yearly advising sessions, and student reviews materials. This poster presents the strategies utilized in the pilot project as well as lessons learned through the project.

Articulating Social Work PhD program rubrics into a sustainable assessment

The Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work (SW) PhD program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa …

The purpose of this poster is to describe for faculty, staff and students what the ILOs are, why they are important and how faculty can help implement the ILOs. This poster details the ILOs, differentiates ILOs from SLOs and PLOs, and describes how ILOs and assessment fit into the unique context of the Mānoa campus.

Institutional Learning Objectives (ILOs): Shaping the Mānoa experience, adding meaning, quality and integrity to the Mānoa undergraduate degree

The purpose of this poster is to describe for faculty, staff and students what the ILOs are, why …

Fostering Grant Writing Skills: A Student Learning Objective of the Intercollege Nutrition PhD Program

Fostering Grant Writing Skills: A Student Learning Objective of the Intercollege Nutrition PhD Program

The Intercollege Nutrition PhD Program has seven student learning objectives (SLO). One SLO is to foster grant writing …

Rubrics to Curriculum Map: Assessment Tools Inform ACM Curriculum Plans

Animation is one of the three degree tracks in ACM Department. It has 2 full-time faculty positions and …