Unit: Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology, & Pharmacology
Program: Biomedical Sciences: Tropical Medicine (PhD)
Degree: Doctorate
Date: Sun Oct 05, 2014 - 9:01:10 pm

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

PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Tropical Medicine)

  1. Demonstrate a knowledge base in the various disciplines of Tropical Medicine.

  2. Demonstrate a mastery of technical and experimental research methodologies.

  3. Demonstrate the ability to plan, execute, interpret, and evaluate experimental studies.

  4. Demonstrate skills required for instruction, assessment and mentoring of undergraduate and MS students.

  5. Demonstrate proficiency in written and verbal communication skills in various teaching formats and in professional presentations.

  6. Demonstrate sufficient mastery and scientific maturity to assess the work of peers in related fields.

  7. Demonstrate skills for instruction, assessment and mentoring of PhD students.

  8. Demonstrate written communication skills as required in various professional duties including manuscripts for publication, grant applications, and course development.

  9. Develop administrative skills to manage a research laboratory, supervise technical and professional staff, and provide leadership as a faculty member.

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

Department Website URL: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/tropicalmedicine/?page_id=368
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/tropicalmedicine/?page_id=240
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online:
UHM Catalog. Page Number:
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online:
Other:
Other:

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.

A new bioinformatics course was offered last semester to replace a course that was offered by a faculty member who moved to another institution.  This course was planned by the instructor in consultation with Tropical Medicine faculty to cover areas that were relevant to students in biomedical sciences and, more specifically, Tropical Medicine graduate students  Students who enrolled in this course were queried through the course evaluation to determine whether this course met their needs in this subject area.

SLO: Demonstrate a fundamental knowledge base in the major subdisciplines of the field of Tropical Medicine:  bacteriology, virology, mycology, parasitology, immunology, molecular epidemiology, and infectious disease ecology, pharmacology and bioinformatics.

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.

Course evaluation.

Student interviews.

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

12 student submitted course evaluations. All 19 students were provided with the course evaluation tool but participation was voluntary.

Informal interviews were conducted of Tropical Medicine students attending the course.

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: Graduate Program Chair.

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.

Regarding the evaluation results all were scored as favorable to highly favorable.  Highly rated questions were:

•  How much practical knowledge have you gained from this course? (Highly favorable)

•  The course objectives were met. (Favorable)

•  Examples and assignments support course objectives. (Favorable)

•  Amount of reading you were ased to do was appropriate. (Favorable)

•  Amount of writing or assignments were enough. (Favorable)

•  What overall rating would you give the course. (Favorable)

Regarding the course workload:

•  Rate the amount of work you did. (More than what was assigned).

Strengths of the course noted in the comments of the students were the quality of the instructor and the information provided.  Weaknesses were cited as the large class size,  a need for more lab time and practical exercises, and the large amount of information conveyed.

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

The Tropical Medicine curriculum committee will use the results of the evaluation as well as informal interviews of the students who were enrolled to propose modifications to the course instructor.  However, it should be noted that the overall response to the course has been positive, and this will also be conveyed to the instructor.  This course appears to meet the needs of the students for bioinformatics training and it will continue to be recommended as acceptable to fulfill the bioinformatics course requirement in the core curriculum.

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.

None.

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.