Program: Natural Resources & Environmental Mgt (PhD)
Degree: Doctorate
Date: Fri Oct 04, 2013 - 9:46:27 am
1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.
1. Students demonstrate knowledge of social and ecological principles, and interdisciplinary aspects of natural resource and environmental management issues
2. Students can analyze and address natural resource and environmental management problems by using appropriate methods from social and/or natural science disciplines
3. Students communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, to diverse audiences including professionals, resource managers, local communities and policy makers
4. Students can
a. Conduct original, independent scientific research of professional quality in their specialization area (Ph.D.)
5. Students can function as professionals in their specialization area by demonstrating responsible and ethical conduct, effective collaboration, informed decision making, and life-long learning
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/nrem/students/grad-assess.html
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: 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, 2012 and September 30, 2013? (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, 2012 to September 30, 2013: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.
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.
8) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
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.
12) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.
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.
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 Spring 2012, faculty from the NREM department began assessment of the various NREM graduate degree programs (M.S. Plans A, B and C; and Ph.D.). This included a survey of graduate students, collection of course syllabi, and comparison of the NREM degree program requirements with similar academic programs nationally. This first step in assessment of our graduate degree programs resulted in: (i) student input on course content, rigor and relevance for all NREM graduate courses, and sense of professional preparation upon graduation; (ii) material to update degree program SLOs and curriculum map; and (iii) benchmarks for aligning our departmental graduate degree programs with similar academic programs nationally.
The second step in our degree program assessment was the creation of modified SLOs. New graduate degree program SLOs for NREM were finalized September 20, 2013. As a third step, the NREM Curriculum Committee is in the process of creating a new curriculum map based on the new SLOs. We expect the new curriculum map to be completed by the end of the Fall 2013 semester. Given this, we provide in this assessment the curriculum map based on last year’s assessment report and the old SLOs.
The fourth step in our graduate degree program assessment will occur during the Spring 2014 semester. This will primarily include analysis of credit requirements and core, required courses for all NREM graduate students. In particular, we will utilize the comparison with peer academic programs to assess credit requirements for NREM students. Further, we plan to provide recommendations to NREM faculty for changes in core, required courses based on the newly created SLOs, specifically the interdisciplinary aspects of our graduate degree programs that are currently underdeveloped based on both student and faculty feedback.