Unit: American Studies
Program: American Studies (PhD)
Degree: Doctorate
Date: Thu Oct 03, 2013 - 10:18:06 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 advanced writing skills.
  4. ·        Mastery of two fields of the student’s specialization, plus broad knowledge of the history of American Studies as a field.
  5. ·        Pedagogical skills and experience for college-level teaching.
  6. ·        Advanced research skills necessary to complete a book-length project of original scholarship.

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: 91-93
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: NA
Other: Annual assessment reports, departmental reviews.
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.

During coursework, each student is assigned to a faculty advisor who, after meeting with the student at least once during the semester, submits end-of-year progress report on the student's performance during the academic year and overall progress toward degree. 

Once student completes coursework, faculty committee for the Qualifying Exam and dissertation committee all serve as his/her mentors, with the committee chair serving as primary advisor. The results of the Qualifying Exam, Comprehensive Exam, and the dissertation serve as assessment tools for SLOs.

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

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

Faculty serving on students' Qualifying Exam committees and dissertation committees all assess whether the student is meeting the SLOs based on their performance in the exam and the dissertation. The chair of the committee serves as the student's primary advisor responsible for monitoring progress toward degree.

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 varies, depending on external circumstances such as finances and family situation. For students who are not progressing as expected, faculty advisors are providing additional mentoring and/or advising them to take a leave of absence until the circumstances hindering their progress are cleared.

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

The faculty met at the end of the spring 2013 semester to dsicuss the progress of all registered graduate students. 

The graduate program is also compiling a database of students to better keep track of students as a whole and address those who might be potentially having difficulty with progress toward or completion of degree at an earlier stage.

Graduate chair has contacted students who are encountering difficulty and are in probationary period.

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.