Unit: Languages & Literatures of Europe and the Americas
Program: Russian (BA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Tue Oct 31, 2017 - 4:46:12 pm

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

1. LANGUAGE: SLO1. The student can vocalize Russian non-technical texts with correct placement of stress in words and with the observance of pronunciation rules (i.e. reduction of unstressed vowels, voicing and devoicing of consonants individually and in clusters as dictated by the environment, and assimilation of consonants according to current Russian pronunciation norms).

(1a. General education, 1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

2. LANGUAGE: SLO2. The student can write Cyrillic in longhand and type Cyrillic using either the phonetic or standard keyboard arrangement.

(1a. General education, 1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 5. Proficiently communicate and disseminate information in a manner relevant to the field and intended audience., 6. Conduct research or projects as a responsible and ethical professional, including consideration of and respect for other cultural perspectives., 7. Interact professionally with others., 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

3. LANGUAGE: SLO3. The student can engage in oral and written communication in Russian in various everyday and educational communicative contexts (e.g. asking directions, ordering in a restaurant, expressing opinions in a conversation or a written composition).

(1a. General education, 2. Demonstrate understanding of research methodology and techniques specific to one’s field of study., 2a. Think critically and creatively, 2b. Conduct research, 6. Conduct research or projects as a responsible and ethical professional, including consideration of and respect for other cultural perspectives., 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

4. LANGUAGE: SLO4. The student can read and comprehend non-technical texts in Russian from a variety of sources including magazines, newspapers, internet pages such as those found in the Russian Wikipedia, and belles-lettres.

(1a. General education, 1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 4. Critically analyze, synthesize, and utilize information and data related to one’s field of study., 5. Proficiently communicate and disseminate information in a manner relevant to the field and intended audience., 6. Conduct research or projects as a responsible and ethical professional, including consideration of and respect for other cultural perspectives., 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

5. LANGUAGE: SLO5. The student can recognize and identify and has a familiarity with key aspects of Russian culture (e.g. famous Russians;, representative pictures, music and symbols; common Russian dishes).

(1a. General education, 2. Demonstrate understanding of research methodology and techniques specific to one’s field of study., 4. Critically analyze, synthesize, and utilize information and data related to one’s field of study., 2b. Conduct research, 2c. Communicate and report, 7. Interact professionally with others., 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

6. LITERATURE: SLO6. Familiarity with key works of literature of the major authors of the 19th century (Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov), 20th century (Belyj, Blok, Zoshchenko, Zamiatin, Sholokhov, Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn) and 21st century (Pelevin, Tolstaya, Ulitskaya, Petrushevskaya).

(1a. General education, 1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 4. Critically analyze, synthesize, and utilize information and data related to one’s field of study., 2b. Conduct research, 2c. Communicate and report, 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

7. CULTURE: SLO7. The student can recognize and identify and has a familiarity with key aspects of Russian culture (e.g. famous Russians with key aspects of Russian culture (e.g. famous Russians; representative pictures, films, music and symbols; common Russian dishes). Familiarity with Russian material and intellectual history from pre-Christian times through the present. Should be acquainted with significant pictorial artists, composers, and film makers.

(1. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge in one or more general subject areas related to, but not confined to, a specific area of interest., 2. Demonstrate understanding of research methodology and techniques specific to one’s field of study., 2a. Think critically and creatively, 5. Proficiently communicate and disseminate information in a manner relevant to the field and intended audience., 6. Conduct research or projects as a responsible and ethical professional, including consideration of and respect for other cultural perspectives., 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

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

Department Website URL: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/llea/russian/
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: http://www.lll.hawaii.edu:3455/first/2186 and http://www.lll.hawaii.edu:3455/sectrus/975
Other: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/ovcaa/programsheets/2014-2015PDFs/FourYearPlans/CArtsSciences/LLLBARussian4.pdf
Other:

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

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2017:

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, 2015 and October 31, 2017?

Yes
No (skip to question 16)

6) What best describes the program-level learning assessment activities that took place for the period June 1, 2015 to October 31, 2017? (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 28 months.

The Russian Division is still in flux at this time, due to a retirement in June 2015 and no replacement for the position. In the year 2015-2016, there were two Russian instructors, one of them a Visiting Assistant Professor, the other - a Visiting Instructor on exchange from Vladivostok. In the year 2016-2017, there was a Visiting Fulbright Instructor from Russia. For the year 2017-2018 a new Russian lecturer has been hired. The program Chair helped the temporary hires to develop the syllabi for their courses using the standard Russian Program SLOs. 

The only permanent faculty member is still adjusting to her position and duties as Russian Division Chair. In the meantime, she was involved in the following activities:

  • Worked with the UH and LLEA Department specialists to catch up on the intermediate aspects of program assessment.

  • Worked with LLL and LLEA specialists on the changes in the Program Sheet and Plan Template, and the new curriculum map for the Russian BA, which were previously updated in 2014 and are currently being  implemented. We plan to introduce a couple of lower division English language GenEd courses aimed at 1st and 2nd year students in order to recruit students for RUS courses and Russian Majors. One of these courses, Introduction to Russian Studies, will be included as a requirement for the Russian BA.

  • Invested a considerable amount of time in personal conversations/consultations with students to explain to them benefits and long-term career opportunities that a BA or a Certificate in Russian studies provide them; wrote letters of support to students applying for various scholarships inside and outside the UH.

  • Guided existing Russian BA and Certificate students through their degrees.

  • Introduced two faculty members from VSUES to the American university system and facilitated their work throughout the academic year 2015-2016. They taught Russian courses and served as Russian Club hosts in Fall (Yulia Konovalova) and Spring (Ekaterina Goncharuk) in the framework of this agreement.

  • Introduced a Fulbright scholar in residence, Elena Sedova in academic year 2016-2017 to the American university system and supervised her academic and extracurricular work with the Russian Club throughout the year.

  • Introduced the new Russian lecturer, Olga Mukhortova, to the UH Russian Division in Fall 2017 and supervise her teaching.

  • Administered the LLEA Russian Program and Russian Club and Russian Studies at UH Manoa pages on Facebook and used them as tools for the program assessment and promotion.

  • Overlooked the design and production of the new Russian Program “Onion dome with a Hawaiian twist” logo, AK’s idea being developed by a student graphic-designer. The design has been used on a variety of the promotional materials distributed at various promotional and outreach events at UH Manoa and beyond: fliers, banners, bookmarks, stickers, T-shirts, backpacks, pens, and fidget spinners.

 

Russian BA

  • Years 2015-2017 proved particularly fruitful in terms of recruitment for the Russian BA. The number of Majors has been around ten during these two years. At the present moment we have a 1:5 ratio of Majors to the number of students enrolled in Russian and LLEA classes or 1:3 ratio of Majors to the number of students enrolled in Russian language classes alone. By the end of Spring semester 2017, ten students declared Russian as their Major. In Spring 2017, one student graduated with a BA in Russian and three students graduated with a Russian Certificate. In Fall 2017 three new Russian Majors enrolled in RUS 101.

  • We asses student language levels before they go on a study abroad program and assess proficiency levels for incoming heritage speakers and students with previous Russian studies experience.

  • A Russian student enrolled in theUHM Honors Program Honors thesis: Linguistic Relativity in Action: A Comparison of Motion Perception in English and Russian Speakers, the thesis won first place in Arts and Humanities section at Undergraduate Research Showcase in Spring 2017.

 

  • A Russian Certificate student and a graduate student in History won the History Department award as Best Research Paper for his paper about Russian Far East "Treating Plague, Regulating Bodies: Health Regimens in the Russian Far East" in Spring 2017. The paper grew out ofof his trip to Vladivostok in Summer 2016 to collect materials for his paper in the local archives while studying Russian. He also finished the language requirements for his Certificate in Russian.

 

  • A Russian Major who is a first year student of Russian published an article “Russian Orthographic Reform” in Manoa Horizons journal.

 

  • In Fall 2017 we administered OPI proficiency interviews at the beginning of the semester for the incoming students enrolled in 3rd year Russian classes, including the Vladivostok study abroad program returnees.

 

  • We plan to implement an intensive RUS 101/102 course in Summer 2018 to be taught by a lecturer. 

 

 

Study Abroad

  • Exchange between Russian Programs at UHM and Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service started functioning in Spring 2015 via Manoa International Exchange. Three UH Manoa students studied in Russia for a semester to finish their BA and a Minor in Russian. In Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 we hosted two instructors from Vladivostok. Each of them taught three upper division Russian courses and prepared activities for the Russian Club. In Summer 2016, six students went to Vladivostok to study Russian for eight weeks; one student spent his 2016 Fall semester there; three students went to Vladivostok in Summer 2017. We also do regular information sessions and individual consultations about our study abroad program.

Russian Club activities are used to assess the level of students' interest in the program and provide additional learning of Russian Culture.

  • The Russian program emphasizes continuity in the work of the Russian Club as important for maintaining in students a sense of community and belonging, which is necessary for the program’s sustenance and growth. That is why it meets every week in spite of being very time consuming.

  • Weekly meetings of the Russian Club allow more diverse and hands on activities both in the Russian language and culture. 

  • From September 2015 to April 2017, 66 meetings for the Russian Club and the Russian Conversation Table were held.

 

 

Recruitment and Outreach activities are used to assess the level of interest in the program among the UH Manoa students, high school students and the wider Oahu community; they are also used to inform others about the UH Russian program and to promote the study of Russian as a language critical for US security.

  • A talk to UH Manoa AFROTC students and ROTC faculty in Spring 2016.

 

  • Two talks to students enrolled in Global Issues class on current relationship between Russia and the US and its implication for the study of Global Politics followed by a discussion to upper-division Mid-Pacific Institute (approx. 60), October 2016.

 

  • A talk about UH Russian Program to students enrolled in European History course at Punahou School, October 2016.

 

  • Outreach event for students of James Campbell High School at Ewa Beach to inform them about the UHM Russian Program and to give a talk about the place of Russia in the contemporary world and the Russian language as critical for US security, October 2017. UH Manoa Russian team gave a Powerpoint presentation and distributed RUSSIAN@UH promo materials and Russian sweets. Relationships with the school College Councelor, ROTC adviser, the Head of Social Studies Department, and the History instructors were established. We negotiated our further collaboration in order to establish continuity across high school and Russian as a university academic program, provide early academic and professional orientation to students in terms of language instruction in Russian, serving as a mentor for high school projects in Humanities and Social Sciences, etc. I also accepted the invitations extended by two History instructors to give talks on the topics pertaining to WWII and the Cold War as a guest speaker in their History classes next semester. In addition to four JC students already coming to our weekly Russian Club meetings, several more students expressed interests in participating.

 

  • Russian Film week as part of UH Manoa International Education week. Students enrolled in my LLEA 355: Russian Film course will present new Russian movies and discuss them with the audience, Novemeber 13-17.

 

  • Russian Division booth LLL Moore Hall Open House to recruit students to the program and Russian Majors in August 2017.

 

  • Russian Division booth at The Mānoa Experience: University Preview Day, April 2016 and 2017.

 

  • Russian Division booth at “Explore Mānoa: Application Day” fair to showcase Russian opportunities, services, and resources to prospective Hawai'i students and their families in November 2016 and 2017.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsAfAW09yG0)

 

  • Two annual Welcome Luncheons for Russian Majors at Russian Collections of UH Manoa Hamilton Library. The Majors met with the Deans L. Lyons and K. Kondo-Brown, College of LLL, the LLEA Department Chair, the Russian Librarian, and the LLEA Russian faculty in informal settings.

 

  • Russian Division booth at Kapi‘olani Community College 2017 College Transfer and Employment Fair, March 2017.

 

  • Russian Division booth at 29th Annual International Festival at KCC, March 2017.

 

  • We maintain ties with the Russian community in Hawaii for our students. We organize info sessions about what the Russian program can offer to native and heritage Russian speakers in terms of back credits, requirement wavers, etc. At the moment, there are six heritage students enrolled in our classes at various levels.


 

8) What types of evidence did the program use as part of the assessment activities checked in question 6? (Check all that apply.)

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
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
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.

two individual students

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.

99% of students achieved each SLO

a lecturer was hired

course content was partially modified

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 program decided to propose new lower division LLEA courses in Russian Culture in order to attract more students in the beginning of their careers.

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.

Please see answers for #7

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

N/A