Unit: Languages & Literatures of Europe and the Americas
Program: Spanish (MA)
Degree: Master's
Date: Fri Nov 09, 2018 - 5:34:56 pm

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

1. Demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing, and speaking Spanish for professional purposes.

(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.)

2. Critically analyze, synthesize, and utilize information related to Hispanic literary, cultural, or linguistic fields.

(2. Demonstrate understanding of research methodology and techniques specific to one’s field of study., 3. Apply research methodology and/or scholarly inquiry techniques specific to one’s field of study., 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.)

3. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of Hispanic literature, and one of the following: linguistics, cultural studies, film, translation, U.S. Latino studies.

(1. Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge in one or more general subject areas related to, but not confined to, a specific area of interest., 6. Conduct research or projects as a responsible and ethical professional, including consideration of and respect for other cultural perspectives.)

4. (Teaching Assistants only) Demonstrate knowledge of current L2 teaching methodologies, language learning technologies and practices.

(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., 3. Apply research methodology and/or scholarly inquiry techniques specific to one’s field of study., 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.)

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

Department Website URL: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/llea/spanish/graduate/
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: Will be included in Spanish MA Student Guide Book-Spring 2019
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online:
UHM Catalog. Page Number:
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: On all course syllabi
Other:
Other:

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

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2018:

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) Does the program have learning achievement results for its program SLOs? (Example of achievement results: "80% of students met expectations on SLO 1.")(check one):

No
Yes, on some(1-50%) of the program SLOs
Yes, on most(51-99%) of the program SLOs
Yes, on all(100%) of the program SLOs

6) Did your program engage in any program learning assessment activities between June 1, 2015 and October 31, 2018?

Yes
No (skip to question 17)

7) What best describes the program-level learning assessment activities that took place for the period June 1, 2015 to October 31, 2018? (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)
No (skip to question 17)
Investigate other pressing issue related to student learning achievement for the program (explain in question 7)
Other:

8) Briefly explain the assessment activities that took place.

Student self-reports: graduation surveys, course evaluations

 Program assessment: Evaulation of course syllabi, evaluation of course final projects, evaluation of program capstone activities-Plan A Thesis, and Plan B Compurehensivie Exams

 .

9) What types of evidence did the program use as part of the assessment activities checked in question 7? (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:

10) State the number of students (or persons) who submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.

Student self-report surveys Fall 2014-Summer 2018  19 students

Student self report course evaluations 2015-2018 23 students   

Course final projects-23 students

Capstone Activities-23 students

11) 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:

12) 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:

13) Summarize the results of the assessment activities checked in question 7. For example, report the percentage of students who achieved each SLO.

Course Final Projects-100% of students achieved program SLOs 1-4

Capstone Activities -96% of students achieved progam SLOs 1-3

14) 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:

15) Please briefly describe how the program used the results.

On the basis of our student self-reports (graduation surveys, course evaluations) and capstone activities assessment-Plan A Thesis and Plan B Scholarly Paper and Comprehensive Exams program assessment, the Spanish MA made changes to assessment procedures, to students’ out-of-course experiences, to our program SLOs, and to the Spanish MA curriculum map.

Assessment Procedure Changes: For the Plan B (non-thesis) track we redesigned the comprehensive exams 1) to highlight more specifically the course work of our literature curriculum; 2) to continue to give students the opportunity to choose a secondary “focus” area (such as linguistics, translation, pedagogy, cultural studies, or U.S. Latino Studies); 3) and we eliminated the Plan B scholarly paper option that was contributing to a delay in student graduation.

Out-of-course Experiences: We initiated an end-of-semester graduation and awards special event to honor graduating students and scholarship and grant awardees. We increased our graduate orientations during on-duty week from one to two meetings: one just for new graduate students, and the second for all MA students (new and continuing). We also created a Spanish MA graduate student booklet that includes all the information from the orientation and information about services available to graduate students at UHM in general. In addition, we have created an annual series of events for students to showcase their academic and creative work.

Spanish MA SLOs and Program Curriculum Map: We reviewed our SLOs with respect to our course offerings and assessment practices, and also considered how they related to the Graduate Division ILOs. We reduced our SLOs from seven to four. Our new SLOs are more in keeping with the Graduate Division ILOs and allow us to more effectively assess our curriculum at the program level. Consequently, we created a new curriculum map that corresponds to our new SLOs.

16) 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 began to schedule additional program meetings throughout the semester on a regular basis. We found that face-to-face communication after sharing google docs, or laulima materials, made for better communication.

We also began to include more opportunities for students for creative and artistic projects as extracurricular events. This has become very popular with the students and has built morale as it supports transdisciplinary practices.

17) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please justify.