Unit: Social Work
Program: Social Work (MSW)
Degree: Master's
Date: Tue Oct 08, 2013 - 12:03:45 pm

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

Since our last report, the student learning outcomes (SLOs) for the MSW Program remain the same.  Currently, SLOs (based on core competences) are addressed in all MSW foundation and concentration year courses and are being incorporated into master syllabi, as well as syllabi for all courses. Each course within the MSW curriculum addresses core competencies within the context of its substantive content. This provides a strong internal cohesiveness to the curriculum and is consistent with guidelines from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) for Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS, 2008).

The Ten (10) Core Competencies as outlined in the CSWE EPAS are:

  1. Identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly.
  2. Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional practice.
  3. Apply critical thinking to inform & communicate professional judgments.
  4. Engage diversity and difference in practice.
  5. Advance human rights and social and economic justice.
  6. Engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research.
  7. Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment.
  8. Engage in policy practice to advance social and economic well-being and to deliver effective social work services.
  9. Respond to contexts that shape practice.
  10. Engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

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

Department Website URL: http://www.hawaii.edu/sswork/msw-assessment.html
Student Handbook. URL, if available online:
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: http://www.hawaii.edu/sswork/bulletin.html
UHM Catalog. Page Number:
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: NA
Other: New Student Orientation Materials
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.

The goal for assessment for this time period was to evaluate from the student’s perspective their knowledge and abilities in each of the 10 areas of the core competencies.   In addition, instructors also provided their respective evaluations of their classes in meeting the 10 core competencies.  The evaluation summaries from the two sources of data points with respect to the 10 core competencies are available on http://www.hawaii.edu/sswork/msw-assessment.html. 

Our assessment process also includes review of the School’s growing emphases on the indigenization component of the curriculum as the 11th competency.  Part of this process involves planning for systematically gathering from our community stakeholders’ (e.g., alumni, social service agency personnel, and social welfare leaders) input on training and educational needs of our masters level students, such that the latter are better equipped for entry into the field.

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.

a) Students Self-Assessment

b) Instructor Evaluation

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

Students self assessment: N= 132:  Foundation 46 (Manoa 35 + DE 11)

                                                         Concentration 86 (Manoa 72 + DE 14)

Instructors’ evaluation:  N= 13

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: MSW Program Chair & Assessment Committee Chair

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 benchmark for the MSW program states that 75% of students in the MSW Program will perform at 4 or higher (4 indicates  “ability of student to apply Social Work knowledge, values, & skills in practice – competency at MSW advanced level”).  Based on student and instructor evaluations, the MSW program met the benchmark for each of the ten competencies with the exception of the Child and Family concentration who did not meet the benchmark in the 6th competency (Engage research informed practice/ practice informed research).

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

First, we intend to use the results to examine the curriculum, particularly with the Child and Family concentration on the 6th competency.  Second, we intend to systematically gather input from other relevant sources which will be used to inform the operationalization and integration of the competencies into the MSW curriculum.

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.

None at this point

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.

N/A