Program: Urban & Regional Plan (MURP)
Degree: Master's
Date: Wed Oct 09, 2013 - 2:30:57 pm
1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.
In August 2013, the department streamlined new SLO’s for the MURP program.
Upon completion of the Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, students will be able to:
1) Explain major planning paradigms and their applications;
2) Articulate processes leading to urbanization and rationales for planned interventions;
3) Apply planning methods to organize, analyze, interpret and present information;
4) Critically and creatively develop planning inquiries or processes to foster solutions-oriented decision-making;
5) Effectively collaborate as a planning team to work with a client and/or stakeholders to assess and address a relevant planning problem to create a plan or professional report;
6) Effectively present oral and written work (as a plan, professional report, or research paper) in a coherent, persuasive and professional manner; and
7) Reflect upon the ethical implications of the choices planners make as professionals.
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: http://www.durp.hawaii.edu/
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.
In August 2013, the department had a strategic planning retreat where we adopted more streamlined SLO’s for the MURP program. The SLO’s are designed to better reflect the content of core and required classes, rather than the program in its entirety. These are SLO’s we can ensure (and assess) for every student. These SLO’s are being put on our website and faculty have agreed to integrate their syllabi with the new SLO’s.
In this retreat we have also identified a number of “signature assignments” that will be used to assess whether students are meeting specific SLO’s. For example, two writing assignments are now in PLAN 603 (Economics for Planners) that will allow us to assess the meeting of SLO #2, articulate processes leading to urbanization and rationales for planned interventions. While we still need to work to implement each of the signature assignments within the curriculum, we will start with SLO #2 in terms of assessment activity in this coming year. In Spring/Summer 2014, we will create a committee that will review student work as a “base-lining” activity.
In addition, we developed a new rubric to help assess the quality of capstone work, SLO #6, effectively present oral and written work (as a plan, professional report, or research paper) in a coherent, persuasive and professional manner. We will similarly have a committee review this work, once we have a large enough sample (likely summer 2014).
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 discussed in depth each SLO and its’ purpose.
8) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
A majority of faculty were able to attend the strategic planning retreat (8 of 10).
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.
We are in the process of data gathering.
12) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.
The program will use the student essays (from PLAN 603) and the completed rubric for the capstone to systematically assess SLO’s 2 and 6. We will continue to refine the signature assignments and rubrics for the other 5 SLO’s.
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 yet.