Program: Developmental & Reproductive Biology (PhD)
Degree: Doctorate
Date: Tue Oct 16, 2012 - 11:48:29 am
1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.
At the completion of the Developmental and Reproductive Biology Graduate Program, the doctoral candidate will be able to:
1. Demonstrate sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge to effectively teach classes in biomedical sciences.
2. Demonstrate mastery of evaluating scientific publications, including: techniques for searching the literature; applying principles of measurement; and interpretation of the findings reported in scientific publications.
3. Prepare and present reports on their work at seminars or meetings of scientific societies.
4. Demonstrate the ability to formulate testable hypotheses, and design experiments to accurately test the hypothesis utilizing sound principles of scientific experimentation and research.
5. Generate new experimental data that addresses a specific hypothesis.
6. Publish at least one (M.S.) or two (Ph.D.) scientific manuscripts.
Assessments Tools:
1. Student and faculty evaluations of TAs or of faculty who graduated from our program.
2. Assessment tools used to contribute to the formulation of the grade for DRB 614.
3. Presentations accepted for national meetings and for MS-A and PhD proposals.
4. Assessment of proposals students make for MS-A or PhD.
5. Completion of MS-A or PhD
6. Publications.
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: http://www3.jabsom.hawaii.edu/Grad_DRB/index.html Student Handbook. URL, if available online: http://www3.jabsom.hawaii.edu/Grad_DRB/students.html
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: UHM Catalog. Page Number: Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: Other: Other: 3) Select one option:
- 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) Did your program engage in any program assessment activities between June 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012? (e.g., establishing/revising outcomes, aligning the curriculum to outcomes, collecting evidence, interpreting evidence, using results, revising the assessment plan, creating surveys or tests, etc.)
Yes No (skip to question 14)6) For the period June 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.
Our four main courses, DRB613, DRB614, DRB 601, and CMB 621 all have course assessments by the students. We
have also begun tracking our GRE scores of all applicants and all accepted students.
7) State the type(s) of evidence gathered to answer the assessment question and/or meet the assessment goals that were given in Question #6.
Questionaires, and GRE Scores
8) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
Four different persons submitted the evidence.
9) 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: 10) 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: 11) For the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goal(s) stated in Question #6:
Summarize the actual results.
The courses are being taught well, as judged by the students.
We have had an increase in GRE scores in the past year from our applicants. We deem this as due to the website that we
maintain. This is an imporant major goal for our program, in that we have been trying to change it from primarily one that
offers only courses to one that focuses more on research. Our applicants have increasingly stated that one reason they
apply to our program is that there are so few in the country that specialize in developmental and reproductive biology.
12) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.
1. We decided to limit the number of students to those for whom we could find support. This lowered the number of
students that we would normally accept.
2. Classes are generally taught well, so no changes were made.
13) Beyond the results, were there additional conclusions or discoveries?
This can include insights about assessment procedures, teaching and learning, program aspects and so on.
We significantly altered our review of external candidates. We formed a more structured committee, and increased the
efficiency of processing our applications.
14) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please explain.
Or, if the program did engage in assessment activities, please add any other important information here.
In our program, the assessment for the PhD and MS programs are essentially the same because they have the same
coursework.