Direct Measures
For each student in the minor program, the following steps will be taken, as time and opportunity allows, to assess the effectiveness of the program through their written work:
- In order to establish a baseline, a writing sample-such as an essay exam, a position paper, or a formalized portion of a student's journal-will be collected from each minor in one of the required introductory courses (Introduction to Philosophy or Introduction to Ethics). The Assessment Committee (which will consist of all the members of the philosophy program) will read and evaluate these writing samples each semester, using the Writing Sample Assessment Rubric (see attachment A). These samples will remain anonymous, using only a number for identification, until after a consensus has been reached by the committee on the rating each sample ought to receive. These samples, along with their ratings, will be filed for comparison with writing samples from later courses.
- Upon completion of the minor, another writing sample-such as an essay exam, a position paper, or a formalized portion of a student's journal-will be collected from each minor in one of the program's capstone courses. (For those students minoring in Philosophy, all 400 level Philosophy courses will serve as capstone courses.) The Assessment Committee will read and evaluate these samples, using the same rubric as was used for the introductory level samples, and again maintaining anonymity until an evaluative consensus has been reached.
- The introductory level samples and the capstone level samples will then be compared to assess the effectiveness of the program as a whole as evidenced by the improvement (or the lack of it) in the writing of these students, viewed as a group.
- The Philosophy faculty will keep a portfolio for our minors containing samples of their written work as they progress through the Philosophy curriculum. Before graduation, each portfolio will be assessed in terms of the objectives to determine the effectiveness of the program. A steady improvement in meeting the objectives by a majority of these students (both those who minor in philosophy, and those who simply take more philosophy courses) will be considered a positive assessment of the effectiveness of the program; a failure to see such improvement will be considered a negative assessment of the program. In the case of a negative assessment, all the member of the faculty will meet to discuss and implement whatever changes are needed to improve program effectiveness.
A consensus is defined as an average rating by at least two members of the committee that is the same or within one rating level of each other. Samples are read and rated independently, but if a consensus does not emerge after the independent reading, members of the committee will re-read the sample and discuss its merits (or demerits) until a consensus is reached.
Indirect Measures
For those students who minor in Philosophy, all 400 level Philosophy courses will serve as capstone courses. Students in these courses will be asked to complete an assessment survey (see attachment B) near the end of each semester. The Assessment Committee will utilize these surveys to assess the effectiveness of the teaching and the curriculum of the Philosophy program.
Some of our minors submit papers for the O.K. Bouwsma and Donovan Welch Family scholarships, both of which are judged (on the basis of superior reasoning and writing) and awarded by the Philosophy faculty, and for presentation at conferences. The awarding of these scholarships to some of our minors will be an indication of the quality of student writing. Since most of these papers will originate in writing they are required to do for our courses, they will indirectly indicate the writing ability of some of our students.
Objective
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Participants
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Evaluators
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1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10
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some minors
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faculty
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The relatively small number of students in the philosophy minor allows the faculty to track them and elicit responses to their philosophical preparation for graduate school and their professions. The faculty will regularly collect these alumni responses and include them in the annual assessment report. If the number of graduates increases, the faculty will develop a more formal survey for interviewing alumni.
Objective
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Participants
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Evaluators
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4, 5, 10
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alumni
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faculty
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Assessment of Assessment Process
The philosophy faculty will annually review the assessment plan, using the following questions as a rubric:
- What do we want our students or graduates to know, do, or value?
- Are the methods of assessing our students and graduates effective and consistent with what we want them to know, do, or value?
- Are we learning what we want to know about what our students and graduates know, do, or value?
The Philosophy faculty will combine the answers to these questions with the analyzed yearly results of the student assessment and decide on the assessment activities that will be continued; those that will be modified; those that will be discontinued; and those that should be added. These decisions will be included in the Assessment report.