Degree Program Assessment Reports

The current SLOs for the Master's Degree Program in Communication within the School of Communications are to build and exchange knowledge in areas relevant to the broad field of Communication and our specific foci in organizational and intercultural communication, global communication, information and communication technologies, social media, and communication policy and planning.  This knowledge is defined in our program as including both  sociocultural and sociotechnical perspectives.  These SLOs are supported by our curriculum, research activity, and networking with faculty, fellow students and outside resources.  Our SLOs are published in varying wordings in our Program informational brochures, our Program website, our Student Handbook, and--most extensively--described and discussed in our new student orientation presented in August prior to each new academic year.  Note that these SLOs will be somewhat modified as a result of an internal review of our program by our graduate faculty conducted in spring, 2008.  That review led to changes in our program (in spring 2009) that have been approved by the College of Social Science and the Graduate Division and have been implemented in fall, 2010.

The SLOs that were targeted were to build and exchange knowledge in areas relevant to the broad field of Communication and our specific foci in organizational and intercultural communication, global communication, information and communication technologies, social media, and communication policy and planning.  This knowledge is defined in our program as including both  sociocultural and sociotechnical perspectives.

We always attempt to assess the degree to which all the SLOs described are being met in a valid and efficient manner consistent within the existing Program structure within the context for maximizing information relevant to necessary or desirable program modification.  This is most typically done--and was again this year--through the examination of student MA theses and practica in terms of SLOs and subsequent discussion by the graduate faculty of their perceptions of the degree to which the SLOs are being met.  Additionally, every few years we have a more general program review and discussion and--if found necessary or desirable--program modifications are made to better support the SLOs.  Such a general discussion was held by the faculty during a two-day retreat in spring, 2008 and the modifications agreed upon during that retreat were approved by the College of Social Science and the Graduate Division (in spring 2009) and were implemented for fall, 2010.  For that reason, no additional review was held during the last year. 

Evidence from the population (not sample) of student theses for each year--including the 9  that graduated the June 2009 to September 2010 assessment year--is considered.  Since Program modifications based on our extensive internal faculty review during spring 2008 are being implemented in fall 2010, additional evidence was not evaluated during the last year.

Since Program modifications based on our extensive internal faculty review of our Graduate Program during spring 2008 were forwarded to the College of Social Science and the Graduate Division (in spring 2009) and were approved for implementation for fall 2010, additional information was not distributed for this year to those or other agents.  No addition modifications were proposed based on assessment of SLOs this last year. During the last assessment period, we focused on developing and disseminating new materials (brochures, student handbook, website) consistent with the Program modifications.