Unit: Public Administration
Program: Public Administration (MPA)
Degree: Master's
Date: Wed Sep 24, 2014 - 3:52:34 pm

1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.

PLO1: Students will Lead and manage people effectively by applying policies, concepts, and skills of HRM and identifying labor management issues such as grievances, collective bargaining, and civil service systems 

PLO2: Students will Apply/practice inter-organizational and inter-personal collaborative theories and best practices, and conflict resolution and negotiation skills 

PLO3: Students will Appraise the organizational environment, both internal and external, as well as the culture, politics, and institutional setting 

PLO4: Students will Use a budget to make decisions by preparing and analyzing the budget in a public policy context 

PLO5: Students will Lead effectively by recognizing and assessing a variety of leadership techniques and styles and valuing different perspectives 

PLO6: Students will Describe policy making processes, goals and actors 

PLO7: Students will Evaluate public policy using policy analysis tools and skills, and applying public service values 

PLO8: Students will Value the responsibilities of public service by demonstrating responsiveness to their publics, and recognizing the legal and ethical responsibilities and engaging in professional behavior 

PLO9: Students will Regularly employ a coherent framework to think critically about an issue (e.g. policy, ethical, HRM, etc.) in order to decide what, if any, action to take 

PLO10: Students will Frame research questions, identify and gather appropriate information, and recognize applicable statistical techniques for systematically analyzing evidence, in order to answer the research questions. 

PLO11: Students will Communicate effectively orally and in written form, by tailoring to the mode of communication to different audiences 

 

 

2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.

Department Website URL:
Student Handbook. URL, if available online:
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online:
UHM Catalog. Page Number:
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online:
Other:
Other: Will update all materials by January 1, 2015 once new curriculum has been approved by UHM

3) Select one option:

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2014:

4) For your program, the percentage of courses that have course SLOs explicitly stated on the syllabus, a website, or other publicly available document is as follows. Please update as needed.

0%
1-50%
51-80%
81-99%
100%

5) Did your program engage in any program assessment activities between June 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014? (e.g., establishing/revising outcomes, aligning the curriculum to outcomes, collecting evidence, interpreting evidence, using results, revising the assessment plan, creating surveys or tests, etc.)

Yes
No (skip to question 14)

6) For the period between June 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.

We completed a curriculum map of our existing curriculum on our accrediting body's 5 core competencies.  

We also conducted focus groups with stakeholders, and distributed a student and alumni survey asking about how well our program acheived our learning outcomes (and the core competencies) 

 

7) State the type(s) of evidence gathered to answer the assessment question and/or meet the assessment goals that were given in Question #6.

We had someone from the accrediting body come out and look at our program.  

Information from stakeholder focus groups 

Survey data from current students and alumni

8) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.

1 person from the accrediting body

Focus groups-25 people (state and city government managers, some nonprofit leaders)

Survey data-13 current students, 22 alumni

9) Who interpreted or analyzed the evidence that was collected? (Check all that apply.)

Course instructor(s)
Faculty committee
Ad hoc faculty group
Department chairperson
Persons or organization outside the university
Faculty advisor
Advisors (in student support services)
Students (graduate or undergraduate)
Dean/Director
Other:

10) How did they evaluate, analyze, or interpret the evidence? (Check all that apply.)

Used a rubric or scoring guide
Scored exams/tests/quizzes
Used professional judgment (no rubric or scoring guide used)
Compiled survey results
Used qualitative methods on interview, focus group, open-ended response data
External organization/person analyzed data (e.g., external organization administered and scored the nursing licensing exam)
Other:

11) For the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goal(s) stated in Question #6:
Summarize the actual results.

Consultant had specific recommendations about number and types of required courses.  

Focus groups: important to teach about ethics, research methods, the person's role in their organization, policy implementation and evaluation

Student surveys: they said everything was good 

12) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.

We have revised our curriculum and program learning outcomes.  We have also started aligning course student learning outcomes to our program learning outcomes, when needed.  

13) Beyond the results, were there additional conclusions or discoveries?
This can include insights about assessment procedures, teaching and learning, program aspects and so on.

Faculty have little knowledge about assessment, or what we are doing in each other's classes. Stakeholders are positive and want to help us anyway they can. 

14) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please explain.
Or, if the program did engage in assessment activities, please add any other important information here.

We are working on a more detailed, formal curriculum map with our revised curriculum and new program learning outcomes.  

We are in the process of designing several assessment activities this fall to be put into place for the spring semester.  

We will also ask the assessment office to come in and help faculty understand assessment activities and processes.