Program: English (MA)
Degree: Master's
Date: Mon Nov 04, 2013 - 10:08:54 am
1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.
1) Foundational knowledge of the theories and methods of two concentrations within English
2) Ability to account for continuing relevance of earlier cultural formations and literary and rhetorical practices
3) Awareness of the contributions of Oceanic and/or Asian cultures to the formation of the field of English Studies in the 21st Century
4) Understanding of advanced research methods and/or creative techniques
5) Written and oral ability to place one’s own creative and/or scholarly work within broader artistic and/or critical conversations
6) Independent research (using primary and secondary sources) and/or creative skills
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: http://www.english.hawaii.edu/grad/grad.html
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: NA 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.
1) Exit Surveys created by the LLL Associate Dean's office are designed to ask whether or not MA students feel that the preparation they receive is adequate to help them meet the SLOs (see answer to question 1 for the MA SLOs)
2) Curriculum Map Guided discussion with the graduate students and Graduate Director and Department Chair as well as a separate meeting with the Graduate Faculty, Graduate Director and Department Chair.
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.
1) Exit Surveys provide both quantitative and qualitative evidence in relation to the SLOs
2) Curriculum Map guided discussion reveals student and faculty perceptions of strengths and weakness within the MA program.
8) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
For AY 2012-2013 9 out of 20 invited MA graduates completed the Associate Dean's Exit Survey.
For AY 2012-2013 7 MA students attended the Curriculum Map Guided Discussion of the Graduate Program with the Department Chair and Graduate Director. 25 Graduate Faculty members attended the corrollary Curriculum Map Guided Discussion of the Graduate Program with the Department Chair and Graduate Director.
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: for 1) Associate Dean, Department Chair, Graduate Director, Graduate Program Committee; for 2) Department Chair, Graduate Director, and Graduate Program Committee also in both cases our Educational Specialist10) 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.
1) Exit Surveys are available from Associate Dean's office, and need to be updated to more specifically align with the SLOs on the Curriculum Map that was adopted for use beginning in AY 2010-2011. That said, the GPC noted some dissatisfaction throughout the survey with the number of creative writing faculty who were available in the past 2 AYs to help with theses and offer classes.
2) At the Curriculum Map Guided Discussions with Graduate Students two things emerged 1) that faculty need to be more attentive to the different levels of expertise within a given field and needs of MA and PhD students, since our graduate program is not big enough to sustain separate seminars for MA and PhD students and 2) that many MA students in Creative Writing were confused about the critical introduction requirement for their MA Theses. When these issues were brought to the Graduate Faculty Curriculum Map Guided Discussion, faculty generally agreed that the lack of faculty in Creative Writing (due to recent resignations) had made things difficult, particularly with unequal workloads among faculty. They also agreed that the issue of what is meant by a critical introduction needed to be resolved.
12) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.
1) The Graduate Director is working with the Associate Dean's office to align the section of the Exit Survey on "Degree Specific Questions" with the SLOs on the Curriculum Map. Also, the English Department was able to make two, tenure-line fiction hires last year, which should help with providing a range of faculty with whom MA (and PhDs) can take classes and enlist to direct or be a reader for their theses.
2) As a result of the Curriculum Map Guided Discussion with both the Graduate Students and Graduate Faculty, the Creative Writing faculty was tasked with coming up with a stable rotation of graduate-level courses that would work on a two-year cycle and cover the genres of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. They also created a written description of the expectations for the critical introduction for both MA theses in Creative Writing and PhD dissertations in Creative Writing. These descriptions were approved by the Creative Writing Faculty and the Graduate Program Committee, and have been distributed to all graduate students and faculty. They will also be added to the AY 2014-2015 Graduate Program Manual. In addition, the graduate faculty discussed ways that we might build into our seminars activities and different assignments that would articulate with the different needs and abilities of MA and PhD students.