Unit: Communicology
Program: Communicology (BA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Mon Nov 19, 2012 - 7:20:49 pm

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

  • To demonstrate understanding of key concepts and theories in communication
    1. To demonstrate understanding of key concepts and theories of message processing
    2. To demonstrate understanding of key concepts and theories of social influence
    3. To demonstrate understanding of key concepts and theories of relational communication
    4. To demonstrate understanding of the relationship between culture and communication

  • To demonstrate the ability to apply the understanding of key concepts and theories in communication in a variety of contexts, including:
    1. To demonstrate the ability to apply the understanding of key concepts and theories of message processing
    2. To demonstrate the ability to apply the understanding of key concepts and theories of social influence
    3. To demonstrate the ability to apply the understanding of key concepts and theories of relational communication
    4. To demonstrate the ability to apply the understanding of the relationship between culture and communication

  • To demonstrate understanding of basic communication research concepts and processes, including:
    1. The ethics involved in conducting human subjects research
    2. Basic library and Internet research
    3. Basic research design, data collection, and analysis
    4. Structure of basic research reports

  • To demonstrate the ability to analyze demographic and situational factors and the ability to apply that information to achieve communicative goals

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

Department Website URL:
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: http://www.hawaii.edu/speech/c_description.php
Other:
Other:

3) Select one option:

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2012:

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.

In addition to our normal assessment activities we have continued to develop a revised assessment plan that will replace the program we have used for the past decade.

The revised plan calls for 1) standardization of course content for all of the required courses tied to specific learning outcomes for each course; 2) item generation for each required course that will allow assessment of learning outcomes independent of any course testing; and 3) procedure for collecting entry level data from all majors on SLOs to be compared to exit assessment of SLOs. Step #3 will allow for establishing a delta for each student on each of the SLOs thus providing a more valid assessment of what they learned as a major in Communicology.

Status: SLOs have been articulated for most of the required courses. Next step is to generate pool of assessment items from which entry/exit assessments can be constructed.

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.

While revising our assessment program we continue to collect data using our present assessment plan. We assess Communicology majors' acquisition of fundamental content in human communication as presented in our required classes: COMG301, Theories in Speech Communication; COMG251, Public Speaking; COMG302, Introduction to Inquiry; COMG364, Persuasion; COMG370/470 (students choose between Verbal or Nonverbal Communication); and COMG381, Interpersonal Communication. Specifically, a multiple choice instrument is used to assess students' knowledge of the content areas covered by our core courses. At the end of each semester, all graduating majors are required to complete the assessment instrument online, and the results are compared to data from a control group (students who have taken no, or very few, Communicology classes).

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

The most recent data set included 15 recent (2011-2012) graduating seniors. Graduating seniors are contacted directly via email during their final semester at UHM. They are directed toward the URL that holds the assessment instrument and asked to complete the assessment during their final semester.

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.

Results are consistent with analyses dating back to 2000 and are thus not particularly informative. A series of oneway ANOVAs were conducted, comparing Communicology-naive students' mean scores to graduating seniors' mean scores on items reflecting content from each of the core classes (i.e., COMG251, COMG301, COMG302, COMG364, COMG381). Graduating seniors' mean scores were significantly higher than Communicology-naive students on all courses except COMG251 (due to extremely small number of respondents), with effect sizes ranging from a low of 5% to a high of 40%.

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

Results confirm assessment from the last decade and reinforce that some content is probably being covered redundantly (which is a good thing) across classes (such as interpersonal, persuasive, and nonverbal communication material).

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.

The current assessment program has outlived its usefulness. We are anxious to begin the new program based on entry/exit scores that will give us a better understanding of what our students learn in their time with us.

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.