Program: English (MA)
Degree: Master's
Date: Sun Oct 11, 2009 - 3:11:30 pm
1) List your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs).
2) Where are your program's SLOs published?
Department Website URL: http://www.english.hawaii.edu/grad/grad.html
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: UHM Catalog. Page Number: 116 Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: Other: English Department Mission Statement and Strategic Plan, p. 2 at http://www.english.hawaii.edu/users Other: 3) Upload your program's current curriculum map(s) as a PDF.
4) What percentage of courses have the course SLOs explicitly stated on the course syllabus, department website, or other publicly available document? (Check one)
0%
1-50% 51-80% 81-99% 100%5) State the SLO(s) that was Assessed, Targeted, or Studied
No M.A. SLOs were assessed in 2008-2009.
6) State the Assessment Question(s) and/or Goal(s) of Assessment Activity
NA
7) State the Type(s) of Evidence Gathered
NA
8) State How the Evidence was Interpreted, Evaluated, or Analyzed
NA
9) State How Many Pieces of Evidence Were Collected
NA
10) Summarize the Actual Results
NA
11) Briefly Describe the Distribution and Discussion of Results
NA
12) Describe Conclusions and Discoveries
NA
13) Use of Results/Program Modifications: State How the Program Used the Results --or-- Explain Planned Use of Results
NA
14) Reflect on the Assessment Process
NA
15) Other Important Information
At the end of the spring 2009 semester, the Department initiated two policy changes that will impact indirect assessment of the program in the years to come:
1. student evaluations of all graduate courses may now be examined and assessed by the Graduate Chair as well as the Department Chairs, and the Grad Chair's review of the evaluations may be taken into acccount in assigning courses in the future
2. syllabi for all courses must be submitted to the Chair on a semesterly basis; The Department Assessment Committee will be reviewing them this semester and hereafter to see whether or not basic minima for syllabi are being met and whether or not course SLOs appear.
Another indirect assessment activity derives from the College-wide survey of graduating B.A.s, M.A.s, and Ph.D.s in English that was initiated in Spring 2009. Student reponses will be disseminated to the Department and all programs will be asked to take them into account in assessing strengths and weaknesses of the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. programs as seen by recent graduates.
The Graduate Program Committee also initiated a number of important changes this year. The GPC reviewed the results of and comments by students to the MA Survey conducted by LLL. As a result, we are tightening advising procedures and giving an enhanced and more consistent role to faculty who serve as the Concentration Advisors in Composition and Rhetoric, Creative Writing, Cultural Studies in Asia/Pacific and Literary Studies in English. Advising forms will be given to students and the Concentration Advisors so that students can more easily track their progress towards the degree.In addition, the Graduate Program has moved towards a two-year curriculum cycle starting this year, so that all MA students entering AY 2010-2011 and later, will know at the beginning of their course of study all of the courses available to them during their period of course work, and thus will be able to map out more effectively a course of study. This two-year curriculum should also curtail the need for 699 Directed Readings, and thus also ensure that faculty work load is more equitable and that enrollments in regularly offered courses remain healthy.
As part of that two-year cycle, we are also rearranging courses in Composition and Rhetoric so that they more effectively build from the 600 to the 700 level, and are also working more generally throughout the curriculum to ensure both range in any given semester and a more effective sequencing of courses that builds from more introductory courses to those with more specialized content.