Program: Dance (BA), Dance Theatre (BFA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Sat Oct 29, 2011 - 12:13:45 am
1) Below are your program student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.
BA DANCE -Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of the BFA degree students should have gained, developed and refined essential knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes
Dance Technique
SLO 1: kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions
Performance
SLO 2: ability to effectively engage in the rehearsal process and demonstrate intended stylistic nuances, technically accuracy, musicality and creative intent in dance performance.
Kinesiology / Laban
SLO 3: ability to understand, embody, analyze and communicate structural details of movement
History / Distinction in World Cultures
SLO 4: understanding theoretical, conceptual and or historical aspects of dance
Literacy
SLO 5: Effective oral and written communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of dance concepts and related topics.
BFA DANCE -Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of the BFA degree students should have gained, developed and refined essential knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes.
Technique
SLO 1: kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions
Performance
SLO 2: ability to effectively engage in the rehearsal process and demonstrate intended stylistic nuances, technical accuracy, musicality and creative intent of dance performance pieces
Choreography
SLO 3: ability to create original work that effectively communicates creative intent and demonstrates clear understanding of choreographic tools and production elements
Kinesiology / Laban
SLO 4: ability to understand, embody, analyze and communicate structural details of movement
History
SLO 5: understanding theoretical, conceptual and or historical aspects of dance
Literacy
SLO 6: Effective oral and written communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of dance concepts and related topics.
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~uhmdance/
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: NA Other: Senior Portfolio Requirements 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.
- File (03/16/2020)
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.
Each year the dance program conducts a set of ongoing formative and summative assessment activities to assess students progress towards desired BA or BFA degree outcomes. In addition to our ongoing assessments we selected two areas within our SLOs to target during this past assessment period (June 1, 2010 - September 20, 2011).
Our overall program assessment goal was to continue to formalize our assessment activities by: developing more explicit evaluation criteria, increasing and improving the documentation of student results, disseminating results more widely and efficiently, and involving a broader range of stake holders in our assessment designs and evaluation processes.
Our targeted assessment questions for this assessment period included the following:
1. Are BA and BFA students effectively engaging in the rehearsal process?
SLO 2: ability to effectively engage in the rehearsal process and demonstrate intended stylistic nuances, technically accuracy, musicality and creative intent in dance performance.
Recent student feedback and faculty observations brought forth concern that many students were not effectively engaging in the rehearsal process. The faculty felt it was critical to evaluate and address this area of concern more closely.
2. Are BFA students engaging in the choreographic process sufficiently enough prior to their "senior projects" to be well prepared for successful project completion?
BFA - SLO 3: ability to create original work that effectively communicates creative intent and demonstrates clear understanding of choreographic tools and production elements
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.
Ongoing Annual Assessments:
-
Annual Student Placement Class
- this class is faculty organized and led
- faculty observe students based on level criteria
- faculty discuss observations and determine appropriate placement for each new and returning dance student
- students are informed of their placement and encouraged to meet with faculty to discuss
-
Annual BFA Audition / Assessment Class
- students in the BFA program must re-audition each year to remain in the BFA program
- students participate in an assessment class that is observed by the entire faculty
- faculty members decide what material should be included in the assessment class to best demonstrate students abilities and understandings of desired degree outcomes
- following the class faculty members meet to discuss each students progress
- students are required to meet with individual faculty for feedback
-
Bi-Annual Concert Auditions
- three plus concert auditions are held per year
- all faculty members attend auditions to observe and give feedback
- faculty convene after the audition to discuss student abilities
-
faculty members are assigned individual students to mentor
- mentoring involves meeting with the students to give feedback and formally observing them in the creative process
-
Bi-Annual Annual Concert Performances
-
Faculty Led Concerts
- faculty meet with select students multiple times a week over a six to nine month period to prepare for the concert. Throughout that time students are given constant feedback on their performance progress.
- concerts are formally reviewed by the public and local dance critics
- a concert post-mortem is held with all of the students to evaluate the the concert outcomes
- students receive a final performance grade from concert Director
-
Student Led Concerts
- each student participating in a concert is assigned a faculty mentor who oversees the length of their creative project
- student concerts host a public "talk back" session where fellow students, faculty and community members share their feedback and questions with the student performers, choreographers, designers, etc.
- students meet with faculty members to have post-concert discussion
-
Faculty Led Concerts
Summative Evidence:
-
Degree Exit Interviews
- All graduating students are required to attend an exit interview. The entire dance faculty is present at the exit interview. Students are required to present their portfolios and answer a series of faculty questions. Open discussion time is also allowed for students to share feedback about their program experiences.
-
Degree Exit Survey
- Students are required to complete an exit survey where they identify how well they feel they achieved intended degree outcomes goals and what aspects of the program most supported their success. Students are also asked to give feedback on program improvement.
-
Senior Portfolios (degree outcomes essay, work samples, resume)
- students are required to submit a degree portfolio in the month before they graduate
- faculty review each student portfolios prior to the final exit interview
- portfolio feedback is given at the final interview
-
Senior Project (BFA's Only)
- students are required to create an original choreographic work for public presentation and review
- students receive extensive faculty mentorship throughout the length of their project
- students must audition their work for whole faculty review
- faculty evaluate each senior project and submit a pass or fail vote
Targeted Assessment Activities:
In order to assess if our BFA students were engaging in the choreographic process sufficiently enough prior to their "senior projects" to be well prepared for successful project completion we engaged in the following evidence gathering activities:
1. Faculty looked at audition records to see how often our BFA students were presenting choreographic works for faculty review prior to their final year.
2. We informally interviewed select BFA students to determine why they were or were not actively submitting choreographic works.
3. We looked at requirements and course sequencing to asses how choreographic development was being supported by the degree layout.
7) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
We had a combined total of 45 BA and BFA students participate in our ongoing assessment activities.
We had six graduating BA/BFA's participate in our summative assessment activities.
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: Many of our student events are open to the public. Audience members are invited to participate in "talk back" sessions were they are encouraged to give feedback and ask students questions about their work. 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.
The results of our overall assessment goal of continuing to formalize our assessment activities by: 1. developing more explicit evaluation criteria, 2. increasing and improving the documentation of student results, 3. disseminating results more widely and efficiently, and 4. involving a broader range of stake holders in our assessment designs and evaluation processes; were addressed in the following ways:
1. We are currently developing more explicit criteria for our BFA assessment class. We will pilot the new criteria in Spring 2012.
2. During the past academic year our department significantly invested in the purchasing of new computer software and documentation technologies. Faculty members researched what technologies other performance-based programs were using to best document student results. Equipment purchases were completed by the end of the Spring semester and most of the equipment has arrived this Fall 2011 semester. We will now have the ability to more widely document student results and better edit, store and share those results.
3. Our department has hired an outside web designer that is currently updating all of our programs web pages. The dance program is invested in adding a “students results” section to highlight our student’s accomplishments. We are also looking into organizing a student event in the library where arts (dance, theatre, music and visual art) students can share their academic work with the larger student population.
4. As means of involving more of our stake holders (students, dance lecturers, dance community members, concert supporters, etc.) in our assessment activities we felt it was critical to start by organizing community-building activities. This past academic year we hosted several community master classes and organized social events related to our production events. We also organized student gatherings to build community within our program.
The results of our targeted assessment questions were as follows:
Target Question 1: Are students effectively engaging in the rehearsal process?
Results: Through a variety of evidence gathering activities it became evident that about 50% of our students were not effectively engaging in the rehearsal process. The reasons identified included:
- lack of prior rehearsal experiences before coming to college
- lack of knowledge of expected standards of rehearsal conduct
- difficulty in managing work and rehearsal schedules (the majority of our students are financially dependent on working outside of school)
- over committed issues (it is common for most advanced dancers to be involved in several projects at one time)
- student choreographers had no means of holding fellow students accountable for poor rehearsal conduct
- disorganization on behave of student choreographers
- difficulty in finding available dancers to complete required projects often caused choreographers to condone poor rehearsal conduct
- poor communication from dancers to choreographers
Target Question 2: Are BFA students engaging in the choreographic process sufficiently enough prior to their "senior projects" to be well prepared for successful project completion?
Results: It was evident that an increasing amount of our BFA students were not creating original choreographic works for formal review until their final senior project.
- there was no stated degree requirement that BFA students had to present original work prior to their senior project
- students were not feeling confident enough to present their work publicly
- students felt they wanted to complete enough course work before presenting their own original work
11) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.
During this past academic year the dance program engaged in the process of hiring a new faculty member to replace a faculty member that recently retired. Our program utilized results from our ongoing assessment activities to determine what revisions to the position description would best support future program improvement. Revisions to the position included a call for someone with expertise in dance media and emerging technologies, strength in teaching technique and experience in dance production. Under the new job description we hired a new faculty member that has brought the needed areas of expertise to help strengthen our program.
Results from target question 1 were used to develop a Dance Rehearsal Policy Statement. The policy statement was disseminated by our program chair during dance technique classes and at the student concert audition. The policy was not only disseminated, but discussed in great detail with the students. We wanted to make sure our students were aware of why the policy was created and what we hoped would be accomplished with the policy.
Results from target question 2 were used to instate a new requirement for our BFA students. BFA students are now required to audition original choreography before they can move on to their senior project. Further stated in the requirement is a recommendation that BFA students begin to submit original work by their fourth semester. We are also looking at how our MFA choreographers might peer mentor the BFA choreographers.
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.
It was very helpful for our program to define an overall assessment goal. Our overall assessment goal is reflective of our program vision for the future. We realize that assessment practices and results will play a critical role in shaping our future. Making program changes based off assessment results offers a reassurance that we are moving our program in the right direction.
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.
For the 2011-2012 academic year our program will continue to work towards reaching our overall assessment goal of formalizing our assessment activities by: developing more explicit evaluation criteria, increasing and improving the documentation of student results, disseminating results more widely and efficiently, and involving a broader range of stake holders in our assessment designs and evaluation processes.
Towards that goal we hope to:
- pilot our new evaluation criteria for our annual BFA assessment class
- implement new technologies to document student results
- complete the updating of our website that will include a "student results" page
- continue to build community with our stake holders by involving them in our program events and begin to discuss how they can participate in the design and implementation of our assessment activities