Program: Sociology (BA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Thu Oct 14, 2010 - 8:51:17 pm
1) Below are the program student learning outcomes submitted last year. Please add/delete/modify as needed.
I. CONCEPTUALIZATION: reflects an ability to present sociological ideas.
· is informative
· reflects a sociological significance of the topic
· displays familiarity with relevant literature
· relates the topic to sociological theory, states hypotheses, etc.
II. EVIDENCE: displays ability to collect and report relevant data/information.
· develops research methodology
· gathers data scientifically, relying on original or secondary data collected systematically
· is honestly presented, clarifying what are the student's values and personal opinions
· presents data that are relevant to the research topic
· presents data and results/findings in easily understandable formats, conforming to acceptable standards (e.g. contingency tables, graphs, quoted field notes, etc.)
III. INTERPRETATION: displays an ability to analyze data.
· displays ability to understand and interpret data
· demonstrates reasonably clear and logical reasoning in interpreting data
· understands the relevance of findings to theory
IV. WRITING SKILLS: shows acceptable writing skills.
· the prose is usually clear and the meaning of ideas is effectively conveyed
· displays a wide vocabulary and proper choice of words
· exhibits proper sentence structure, some sentence variety, and cohesion between sentences
· show minimum errors in grammar, observes conventions of standard written English
2) As of last year, your program's SLOs were published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: 
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: NA Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: NA UHM Catalog. Page Number: Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: http://socialsciences.people.hawaii.edu/esyllabi/?subject=soc Other: Other: 3) Below is the link to your program's curriculum map (if submitted in 2009). If it has changed or if we do not have your program's curriculum map, please upload it as a PDF.
- File (03/16/2020)
4) The percentage of courses in 2009 that had course SLOs explicitly stated on the syllabus, a website, or other publicly available document is indicated below. Please update as needed.
0% 1-50%
51-80% 81-99% 100%5) State the assessment question(s) and/or goals of the assessment activity. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.
It is the policy of the Department of Sociology that each faculty member of courses that are “Writing Intensive” or otherwise require a good amount of writing (term papers, research projects, etc.), ask all students to keep copies of their written work on a disk or submitted to the instructor as e-mail attachments. The instructor turns in the written work from the class to the Department at semester’s end. Student’s names should be attached for tracking purposes, but during actual assessment writer’s identities will be removed.
For the annual assessment, we randomly select a sample of papers from each course level: freshman/sophomore (100-200 level courses), junior (300 level courses), and senior (400 level courses. Two members of the undergraduate studies committee (which may be a faculty member and the graduate student member or two faculty members) to read and evaluate each paper on the following four dimensions, on a scale of 5 to 1, as follows: 5= Excellent, A; 4=Good, B; 3= Fair, C; 2= Weak, D; 1= Fail, F.
The two scores for each paper are averaged, and then the scores for each course level are analyzed to assess whether the department’s curriculum is meeting its academic goals and identify areas for improvement of the program.
I. CONCEPTUALIZATION: The paper reflects an ability to present sociological ideas.
_____
-is informative
-reflects a sociological significance of the topic
-displays familiarity with relevant literature
-relates the topic to sociological theory, states hypotheses, etc.
II. EVIDENCE: The paper displays an ability to collect and report relevant data/information. _____
-develops research methodology
-gathers data scientifically, relying on original or secondary data collected systematically
-is honestly presented, clarifying what are the author’s values and personal opinions
-presents data that are relevant to the research topic
-presents data and results/findings in easily understandable formats, conforming to acceptable standards (e.g. contingency tables, graphs, quoted field notes, etc.)
III. INTERPRETATION: The paper displays an ability to analyze data. _____
-displays ability to understand and interpret data
-demonstrates reasonably clear and logical reasoning in interpreting data
-understands the relevance of findings to theory
IV. WRITING SKILLS: The paper shows the writer has acceptable writing skills. _____
-the prose is usually clear and the meaning of ideas is effectively conveyed
-displays a wide vocabulary and proper choice of words
-exhibits proper sentence structure, some sentence variety, and cohesion between sentences
-show minimum errors in grammar, observes conventions of standard written English
TOTAL _____
The goals of the assessment activity are to assess the extent to which our courses at all levels of undergraduate study are meeting our expectations as stated above. Where discrepancies are found these are discussed at the Undergraduate Studies Committee and action is taken either by that committee or at the departmental levels on recommendation of that committee.
6) State the type(s) of evidence gathered.
As mentioned, a sample of completed papers was selected from each of the levels of courses at the undergraduate level that were collected as a result of the departmental policy mentioned previously.
7) Who interpreted or analyzed the evidence that was collected?
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: 8) How did they evaluate, analyze, or interpret the evidence?
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: 9) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated.
If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
30 students
a random sample selected from sociology student papers submitted in 2009F-2010S
10) Summarize the actual results.
Overall the average scores for all levels of classes were:
Total Score 12.2 of a possible 20 points
Conceptualization Score 3.2 of a possible 5 points
Evidence Score 3.2 of a possible 5 points
Interpretation Score 2.8 of a possible 5 points
Writing Score 3.1 of a possible 5 points
Of the 100-200 level courses scores were
Total=11.2/20 | Conceptualization=3.3/5 | Evidence=2.6/5 | Interpretation=2.5/5 | Writing=2.8/5
Of the 300 level courses scores were:
Total=11.2/20 | Conceptualization=2.7/5 | Evidence=3.1/5 | Interpretation=2.6/5 | Writing=2.9/5
Of the 400 level courses scores were:
Total=14.0/20 | Conceptualization=3.6/5 | Evidence=3.7/5 | Interpretation=3.3/5 | Writing=3.4/5
11) How did your program use the results? --or-- Explain planned use of results.
Please be specific.
Results were discussed at the Undergraduate Studies Committee and it was recommended that the results be discussed at the departmental meeting of October 15, 2010. For example, one outcome might be to encourage students to use the writing center in the campus.
12) Beyond the results, were there additional conclusions or discoveries? This can include insights about assessment procedures, teaching and learning, program aspects and so on.
The scores of the assessment were discussed and incorporated into a larger effort being undertaken by the Undergraduate Studies Committee, namely a curricular review of the undergraduate offerings.
13) Other important information:
None