Unit: Earth Sciences
Program: Earth and Planetary Sciences (MS)
Degree: Master's
Date: Thu Oct 13, 2011 - 10:30:28 am

1) Below are your program student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.

  1. Acquire knowledge and skills that will enable her or him to advance the state of the Earth sciences and their application to societal problems.
  2. Evaluate the hypotheses, methods, results and conclusions of published literature relevant to a chosen scientific problem.
  3. Define an appropriate and tractable thesis objective, in consultation with his or her advisor.
  4. Present and defend her or his scientific findings in front of a public audience.
  5. Write a thesis which documents his or her contribution to the field.

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

Department Website URL: NA - in process of being added
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/resources/gg_documents.html
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online:
UHM Catalog. Page Number:
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: NA - in process of being added
Other:
Other:

3) Below is the link(s) to your program's curriculum map(s). If we do not have your curriculum map, please upload it as a PDF.

No map submitted.

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) For the period June 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.

For this year, assessment activities were focused on the Bachelor's degree

6) State the type(s) of evidence gathered to answer the assessment question and/or meet the assessment goals that were given in Question #5.

Student's progress, in terms of degree and SLOs, is assessed at a committee meeting of mentors held every semester.

Oral defense is part of assessment

Annual department meetings

GG610 assesses oral communication skills

All these are documented.

7) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.

8) 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:

9) 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:

10) For the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goal(s) stated in Question #5:
Summarize the actual results.

11) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.

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.

13) Other important information.
Please note: If the program did not engage in assessment, please explain. If the program created an assessment plan for next year, please give an overview.

Every year or two the Curriculum Committee of the department changes its members. This means that while a small group of faculty are up-to-date with the assessment project, every year new people need to be brought on board, briefed and then work on new aspects.