Unit: American Studies
Program: American Studies (MA)
Degree: Master's
Date: Thu Oct 03, 2013 - 10:02:09 am

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

  1. ·        Broad knowledge of U.S. history, society, and culture.
  2. ·        Understanding of several key disciplinary methods to U.S. history, society, and culture.
  3. ·        Critical analysis and writing skills.
  4. ·        Independent research skills involving primary sources.

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

Department Website URL: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/amst/
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:
Other:

3) Select one option:

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2013:

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.

Assess the degree to which students are meeting the program's overall SLOs and whether students are making adequate progress toward degree. 

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.

Faculty advisors are assigned to all incoming students until they form a committee with a chair, at which point the chair of the committee takes over advising duties. Faculty advisors meet with advisees at least once a semester and generate a report on student progress. These reports are submitted at least once year to the graduate chair, and gauge the student's progress toward degree. 

In addition, the results of Plan A thesis and Plan B exams serve as assessment tools for all SLOs.

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

All (12) faculty serve as advisors for students and they all submit the standardized end-of-year report for each student.

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.

Overall, students are achieving the department's general SLOs. 

Progress toward the degree is satisfactory: for students who are not progressing as expected, faculty advisors have been asked to follow up and provide additional mentoring and/or advising them to take a leave of absence to focus on outside factors hindering their progress.

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

We have created a database of all students in the program to have a more systematized way to track overall progress. The department meets at least once a year as a whole to focus on graduate student progress and resolve any issues that might be hindering progress for our graduate students. 

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.