Department of Health Physical Education, Recreation and Leisure Studies
Plan for Assessment of Courses offered for General Studies
The Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Leisure Studies General Studies Assessment Plan is designed to evaluate student learning outcomes based upon the objectives of the General Studies curriculum. There are three courses offered through the HPERLS department for General Studies credit. They are PE 110 Basic Sports (activities classes), PE 160 Healthful Living, & PE 260 Responding to Emergencies.
The purpose for assessment of these courses is to directly measure student outcomes as they relate to the objectives set forth for courses under the Personal Development segment of General Studies. The two objectives for personal development courses stated in the UNK Catalog are:
Students will demonstrate the ability to confront the complexities – physical, emotional, economic, and /or technological – of the contemporary world.
Students will demonstrate the development of skills, behaviors and problem solving strategies necessary to prevail in the contemporary world.
Terms identified by bold font tie directly to components of each GS course offered by the HPERLS Department.
Direct Measure of Student Learning
A specific plan has been put in place to measure student outcomes in each course. The courses are listed followed by the method of direct assessment of student learning and behavioral outcomes identified within the syllabi for each course. Each instrument used for assessment of student outcomes for the following courses will be developed and implemented during the spring 2008 semester. Each course will be assessed every time it is offered. Not all of the PE 110 courses are offered each semester but will be assessed each time they are offered.
PE 110 Basic Sports activities classesThere are a number of different activities classes offered by the HPERLS department. The instructors will conduct an end-of-the-semester test of knowledge that may also include skills and abilities related to the content of each course and that tie back to the objectives of the Professional Development section of the General Studies program. All students will be evaluated for acquisition of course objectives. Each faculty member will develop a tool that will measure course objectives specific to each course. The evaluation tool will be specific to the course content. Each instructor has been informed of the objectives for GS (identified above) with the intent that course objectives tie back to GS objectives. It is the desire of the department to evaluate how activities courses meet GS objectives by measuring student acquisition of knowledge and skills as they pertain to each course.
PE 160 Healthful Living
The PE 160 classes are taught by a number of different instructors over 10 sections of offerings. The content of this course has been standardized across the department. In order to ensure consistency of content, faculty are provided with a standardized syllabus, the same text, instructional ancillaries, and test bank. Faculty are expected to teach to the same basic content area but may expand upon that content as they see fit. At the conclusion of each semester, the department will issue a standardized test to all students that will be administered to each section of the course. The test will contribute to the grade for the course and will be used to assess student learning across all sections of the PE 160 course. All students will take the same test administered for each semester.
PE 260 Responding to Emergencies
This course uses standardized materials provided by the American Red Cross. All instructors are provided, via the American Red Cross, instructional materials that include two separate tests for each section as well as for the entire course. At the beginning of the semester, one version of the standardized tests will be given to the course to assess initial knowledge. At the conclusion of the course, the alternate test will be administered. Pre-test/post-test comparisons will be made in order to determine student learning. These scores will indicate whether the instruction is meeting the course content objectives as well as those GS objectives assigned to the course of Critical Thinking, reasoning and analysis.
2007
Previous Plan, Replaced Spring 2008