Program: Dance (MA, MFA)
Degree: Master's
Date: Fri Oct 16, 2015 - 5:57:34 pm
1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.
MA - Culture and Performance Studies
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the MA Plan A dance ethnology focus degree students should have gained, developed, and refined essential knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes:
SLO 1:kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions, including understanding how dance is embedded in the belief systems of the people who create it, and how dance forms change and why;
SLO 2: effective oral and communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of scholarly dance research concepts and related topics;
SLO 3: the ability to critically evaluate sources and clearly differentiate between one’s ideas and the ideas of others, particularly those of indigenous practitioners and scholars, and to respect divergent perspectives;
SLO 4: knowledge of the history, practices, and concepts of dance ethnology, including related published literature and current developments in the field;
SLO 5: ability to conduct and report on scholarly dance ethnology research in oral, written, and other forms;
SLO 6: ability to define individual goals and to choose appropriate pathways to achieve these goals.
MA - Dance Education
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the MA Plan B dance education focus degree students should have gained, developed and refined essential knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes.
SLO 1: kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions;
SLO 2: comprehensive knowledge of educational theories, best practices, related published literature and current developments in the field;
SLO 3: effective oral and written communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of dance education concepts and related topics;
SLO 4: ability to critically evaluate sources and clearly differentiate between one’s ideas and the ideas of others;
SLO 5: ability to design curriculum that demonstrates understanding of appropriate sequential development, multiple learning modalities, content organization and effective assessment strategies
SLO 6: ability to asses one’s own teaching and the development of one’s students as related to Hawaii State and National educational standards;
SLO 7: ability to define individual goals and choose appropriate pathways to achieve those goals.
MFA DANCE
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of the MFA Plan A degree students should have gained, developed and refined essential knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes.
SLO 1: Kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions
SLO 2: Effective oral and written communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of dance concepts and related topics.
SLO 3: Ability to critically evaluate sources and clearly differentiate between one’s ideas and the ideas of others
SLO 4: Knowledge of the meanings, practice, theory, history and production of dance; the ability to apply, respond, reference, relate and synthesize that knowledge; the ability to draw on this knowledge and prior experience in new settings/contexts.
SLO 5: Familiarity with dance styles from diverse geographic regions
SLO 6: Development of choreographic skills and a personal style that demonstrate original works, knowledge of compositional techniques, choreographic range and effective conceptualization and conveyance of intent.
SLO 7: Ability to define individual goals and choose appropriate pathways to achieve those goals
1) Institutional Learning Objectives (ILOs) and Program Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/dance/ Student Handbook. URL, if available online: Dance Graduate Student Handbook
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: UHM Catalog. Page Number: Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: Other: Other: 3) Please review, add, replace, or delete the existing curriculum map.
- File (03/16/2020)
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 learning assessment activities between June 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015?
Yes No (skip to question 16)6) What best describes the program-level learning assessment activities that took place for the period June 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015? (Check all that apply.)
Create/modify/discuss program learning assessment procedures (e.g., SLOs, curriculum map, mechanism to collect student work, rubric, survey) Collect/evaluate student work/performance to determine SLO achievement Collect/analyze student self-reports of SLO achievement via surveys, interviews, or focus groups Use assessment results to make programmatic decisions (e.g., change course content or pedagogy, design new course, hiring) Investigate curriculum coherence. This includes investigating how well courses address the SLOs, course sequencing and adequacy, the effect of pre-requisites on learning achievement. Investigate other pressing issue related to student learning achievement for the program (explain in question 7) Other: 7) Briefly explain the assessment activities that took place in the last 18 months.
Assessment Activity #1:
After mapping the program SLOs to the ILOs we discovered that revisions to our SLOs were needed to better articulate our degree activities with the institutional objectives. ILO items such as civic engagement and respect for people and cultures are major outcomes of our degree, but do not appear in the current language of our SLOs.
Assessment Activity #2:
Our program evaluated our curriculum to determine what was most needed in a job description for a new hire in our program. We based our evaluation around national trends and standards for our field, state/local community needs/interest, departmental needs, student interview and survey feedback, faculty observations of needs, faculty and student research interests, industry demands and needs for job placement, and the future mission and vision within our program and UHM.
8) What types of evidence did the program use as part of the assessment activities checked in question 6? (Check all that apply.)
Direct evidence of student learning (student work products)
Artistic exhibition/performance Assignment/exam/paper completed as part of regular coursework and used for program-level assessment Capstone work product (e.g., written project or non-thesis paper) Exam created by an external organization (e.g., professional association for licensure) Exit exam created by the program IRB approval of research Oral performance (oral defense, oral presentation, conference presentation) Portfolio of student work Publication or grant proposal Qualifying exam or comprehensive exam for program-level assessment in addition to individual student evaluation (graduate level only) Supervisor or employer evaluation of student performance outside the classroom (internship, clinical, practicum) Thesis or dissertation used for program-level assessment in addition to individual student evaluation Other 1: Other 2: Indirect evidence of student learning
Alumni survey that contains self-reports of SLO achievement Employer meetings/discussions/survey/interview of student SLO achievement Interviews or focus groups that contain self-reports of SLO achievement Student reflective writing assignment (essay, journal entry, self-assessment) on their SLO achievement. Student surveys that contain self-reports of SLO achievement Other 1: Other 2: Program evidence related to learning and assessment
(more applicable when the program focused on the use of results or assessment procedure/tools in this reporting period instead of data collection)
Assessment-related such as assessment plan, SLOs, curriculum map, etc. Program or course materials (syllabi, assignments, requirements, etc.) Other 1: Other 2: 9) State the number of students (or persons) who submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
Assessment Activity #1 - Revising program SLOs to better align with ILOs
In this assessment activity we identified courses or assignments within a course that had ILO related activities that were not expressed in the program SLOs. We checked to see if all degree students would in fact come in contact with these courses and or assignment activities before graduation and to what degree of variance might occur. IT was critical that we determine the extend to which our program was truly engaging all of our students in civic engagement, respect for people and cultures, etc. before deciding if it was appropriate and or reasonable to include it in our SLOs.
Assessment Activity #2 - Writing a New Faculty Job Description
In this assessment activity we looked and the breadth and depth of our course offerings, we evaluated 10 recent student portfolios, we looked at exit interview data over the past five years, we utilized alumni survey data that included 20 responses, we referenced national field standards, we shared community feedback, faculty shared their own observations, we looked at career paths of our alumni and program and course enrollment numbers.
10) 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: 11) 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: 12) Summarize the results of the assessment activities checked in question 6. For example, report the percent of students who achieved each SLO.
Activity #1 Results: Revising Program SLOs
Current PLOs do not articulate all areas of alignment with the ILOs, particulary in regards to civic engagement and respect for people and cultures.
Activity #2 Results: Writing a New Faculty Job Description
Survey feedback, student portfolios and faculty observation indicated a need for more dance technique training and choreographic output from students, more engagement with Asia and Pacific dance forms, and more teacher training to support post graduation career paths. Additionally, expanding our dance science and technology areas will better align us with field trends and support needed skill sets for 21 century dance students.
13) What best describes how the program used the results? (Check all that apply.)
Assessment procedure changes (SLOs, curriculum map, rubrics, evidence collected, sampling, communications with faculty, etc.) Course changes (course content, pedagogy, courses offered, new course, pre-requisites, requirements) Personnel or resource allocation changes Program policy changes (e.g., admissions requirements, student probation policies, common course evaluation form) Students' out-of-course experience changes (advising, co-curricular experiences, program website, program handbook, brown-bag lunches, workshops) Celebration of student success! Results indicated no action needed because students met expectations Use is pending (typical reasons: insufficient number of students in population, evidence not evaluated or interpreted yet, faculty discussions continue) Other: 14) Please briefly describe how the program used the results.
The results of our assessment activities led to the revising of our program SLOs. They are currently still under draft and will not be formally adopted until academic year 2016-2017. We retitled several of our courses to better match the course content and rewrote the coinciding catalog descriptions. We also identified potential changes to the offering status of several courses. We identified needs/gaps in our curriculum compared to national trends, student interest and alumni career paths. Additionally, we wrote a new job description that will fulfill critical curricular needs within our program and more strongly align our program with the ILOs.
15) Beyond the results, were there additional conclusions or discoveries? This can include insights about assessment procedures, teaching and learning, and great achievements regarding program assessment in this reporting period.
Our assessment activities have proved invaluable towards revising our curriculum and thinking about the future goals of the program. Assessment results have provided the guide and assurance that we are making the best choices for our current and future students. Discussions around student outcomes have provided a means for sharing best practices amonf faculty and celebrating student successes. Surveying alumni has allowed us to reconnect with them and utilize their valuable insights and resources.
16) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please explain.
N/A