Degree Program Assessment Reports

Department Website URL: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/hshk/degrees-programs/graduate-degrees/
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: via Native Hawaiian Student Services website http://manoa.hawaii.edu/nhss/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014-Kawaihuelani-Grad-Student-Handbook.pdf
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online:
UHM Catalog. Page Number:
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online:
Other: website for Native Hawaiian Student Services http://manoa.hawaii.edu/nhss/academicadvising/kawaihuelani-majors/undergraduate-program-requirements/
Other:

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

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:

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:

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:

Tables 1 and 2 below provide a summary of the results of our assessment of this student’s Plan B final paper and oral defense.

Table 1: Rubric Results for Hawaiian M.A. Student Plan B Non-Thesis (How many students were rated at each level? N=1)

Student Learning Objectives	Exemplary/ Distinguished	Competent/ Proficient	Developing/Not Yet Competent
Writing: Formal Research Paper		x
Culture: Worldview, Cultural Norms		x
Research: Culturally sensitive research project		x
Reading		x
OVERALL		x

 

Table 2: Rubric Results for Hawaiian M.A. Student Plan B Public Presentation (How many students were rated at each level? N=1)

Student Learning Objectives	Exemplary/ Distinguished	Competent/ Proficient	Developing/Not Yet Competent
Speaking: Public Presentation		x
Listening Comprehension		x
Culture: Worldview, Cultural Norms		x
OVERALL		x

This student was defined as competent and proficient in the eyes of her committee members in all areas being assessed: writing, research, speaking, listening, culture, and overall performance. These results are right in line with the levels of our previous students who have gone through our rubric assessment process. This collection of assessment data over the past three years confirms that our MA graduates in Hawaiian demonstrated quality research skills as well as Hawaiian language and culture proficiency. We are excited that their contributions to our community after graduation will have a positive impact on the understanding of Hawaiian and the development of the teaching and learning of Hawaiian.

After reviewing course SLOs for HAW 604 & 605 and their relationship to their current course pre-requisites and our current program requirements, we identified the following areas that needed addressing:

• We realized that content from HAW 604 (Writing a Hawaiian Master's Proposal) is critical to the achievement of successful academic outcomes in HAW 605, in that, students identify their research topic and get approval via their proposal in HAW 604 so that they can begin their actual research in HAW 605. This sequence ensures that work done in HAW 605 leads directly to successful completion of their final Plan A or B. However, at the time of our assessment, students could take HAW 605 without taking HAW 604 first. Furthermore, students could choose not to take HAW 604 at all because it was not required for all students.

• We realized that content from the only prerequisite for HAW 604 (HAW 601, related to Hawaiian literature) was not critical to the achievement of course SLOs for HAW 604.

• We realized that given the focus of HAW 604 on proposal writing, students should wait until at least their second semester before enrolling when they have had time to become acclimated to our graduate program and our expectations, however, at the time, there was nothing informing our students of this in the course catalog.

In terms of our rubric assessment results, an area we have been watching closely over the last several years has been the level of student attainment of our cultural SLO in both their written work as well as their oral defense. Even though the trend of their level of attainment of this SLO has been going up since first implementing this assessment activity in 2012 (none of the students scored exemplary in this area for their written work and only one performed at this high level in their oral defense in 2012 while two years later, one of our students scored exemplary in this area for their final paper and two scored exemplary in this area for their oral defense in 2014), our faculty still recognized that we needed to be providing students with more opportunities to be introduced to and practice different ways to express Hawaiian cultural values and worldviews through their language. Therefore, we decided to offer a new graduate course in ʻōlelo Niʻihau, the dialect of the Hawaiian language from the island of Niʻihau spoken and perpetuated primarily by native speakers from this small, isolated Hawaiian community. HAW 654 engages students in advanced analysis and research of ʻōlelo Niʻihau, through face-to-face conversations with Ni‘ihau Native speakers, listening to audio recordings, and watching video recordings of Ni‘ihau Native speakers. It is the first of its kind ever to be offered at the University of Hawai‘i and in the world. Furthermore, it was developed and is taught by a mānaleo or Native speaker of ʻōlelo Niʻihau who is a professor in our department. The addition of this course no only gives Hawaiian language students the opportunity to access new knowledge, create new ways of expressing themselves, and open up new avenues for their graduate research in the field of Hawaiian language, but it also allows them to learn to appropriately interact with Native speakers, many of whom are kūpuna, whose style of speech reflects Hawaiian worldview and cultural values and whose depth of cultural knowledge deeply connects to our ancestors. For example, students in this course help to plan, develop, and coordinate Lā Mānaleo (Native Hawaiian Language Speaker Day), a day for the Ni‘ihau Native speakers to come and share their knowledge of language and culture and to interact with all Hawaiian language students and faculty, by assisting in the hosting and interviewing of the guest speakers, thus allowing them an opportunity to practice their speaking, listening comprehension, and interviewing skills in ʻōlelo Niʻihau with actual Native speakers, which requires competent cultural engagement skills. We are excited about this new addition to our coursework and look forward to seeing how its addition will impact student learning and achievement of our program SLOs, especially those in the areas of speaking, listening, and culture.

Based on our investigation of our overall graduate curriculum coherence, we made the following programmatic changes to support student achievement and success.

• We modified HAW 604 by deleting HAW 601 as a prerequisite and adding a line to the course description that encourages majors not to enroll in this course until after they have completed at least one semester in the program.

• We made HAW 604 a required course for all of our MA students because it focuses on the development of research proposals, a requirement for all students in our program anyway; therefore we decided they should all benefit from the direct guidance provided in HAW 604.

• Modify HAW 605 by adding HAW 604 as a prerequisite.