Unit: Geography
Program: Geography (BA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Sat Oct 10, 2015 - 9:44:02 pm

1) Institutional Learning Objectives (ILOs) and Program Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

1. Human Geography Stream: Students will be able to explain and critically evaluate the complex relationship between the environment, society, and culture.

2. Human Geography Stream: Students will be able to explain and critically evaluate how economic, political, and cultural processes at different scales are reshaping human experiences globally.

3. Human Geography Stream: Student will be able to apply appropriate analytic methods to describe spatial patterns and associations in the human environment.

4. Environmental Geography Stream: Students will be able to explain the basic operation of environmental systems (biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere).

5. Environmental Geography Stream: Students will be able to describe how human activities can influence the functioning of basic environmental systems.

6. Environmental Geography Stream: Students will be able to apply appropriate analytical methods and techniques to describe spatial patterns and change in the physical environment.

7. Geographic Technologies Stream: Students will be able to identify the specific characteristics of spatial data sources.

8. Geographic Technologies Stream: Students will be able to apply appropriate techniques to display spatial patterns and change in the human and physical environment.

9. Geographic Technologies Stream: Students will be able to produce maps in a professional manner.

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

Department Website URL: http://www.geography.hawaii.edu/undergradOverview.html
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:

3) Please review, add, replace, or delete the existing curriculum map.

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2015:

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.

In the capstone course geog 493 during Spring 2015, the instructor conducted a survey of all graduating majors on all the nine SLOs. The survey only included two levels of self-assessment: Whether students feel they have met the particular objective, or not. 15 students participated in the survey. 

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.

15 students in the capstone course Geog 493 participated in the survey - all are graduating majors. 

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: Students' self-reported competency is considered as valid.

12) Summarize the results of the assessment activities checked in question 6. For example, report the percent of students who achieved each SLO.

Of all the 9 SLOs, all but SLO #3 for Environmental Geography stream received 100% self-reported competency. For SLO #3 for Environmental Geography stream (ability to apply appropriate analytical methods and techniques to describe spatial patterns and change in the physical environment), only 8 students in this stream answered the quesiton, 3 of whom did not believe they were competent. While the survey offers us some basis for assessment, our sample size is small, expecially given that we separate the SLOs in three streams. 

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.

To improve undergraduates' ability to apply appropriate analytical methods and techniques to describe spatial patterns and change in the physical environment, we believe that we need to teach our quantitative methods core course GEOG 380 regularly, instead of relying on substitute courses taught in other departments due to our lack of instructional resources. Of course, we have only students' self-reported data, with limited sample size, and will need to collect direct assessment data to calibrate the assessment - we plan to do so in the coming year. 

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.

We realized that separating the SLOs into three streams hampers our ability to gain the needed sample size, because some streams have less than 20 students. We plan to rework our SLOs in the next semester to combine the objectives of all streams. 

16) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please explain.