April Undergraduate Committee Meeting

Due to recent changes in the university’s policy on department’s student learning outcome assessments, the committee discussed our current methods for assessment and if changes need to be made for upcoming semesters. Our current assessment tool is a multiple choice exam administered in INLS 201 classes that is then retaken by the same students in INLS 697. The initial test serves as baseline to get an understanding of what knowledge and skill sets students possess coming into the BSIS major. This baseline of each student is then compared to their results on the second taking of the test to see where they have effectively grown while in the major, and to see if there are any major concepts that may need to be more heavily emphasized in the future. Another method used in the past has been to randomly sample student work from different classes throughout the BSIS program in order to evaluate how well students are understanding core concepts of the major. Moving forward the committee plans to research assessment methods used by other academic departments and then decide if a new assessment plan is necessary for the future. The committee also briefly addressed the reteaching of the same material in multiple BSIS courses, a common concern brought up at the town hall meeting. We agreed to conduct more research on this issue by trying to get more specific feedback from students on which courses may be teaching the same material, and if this reteaching is excessive or necessary review.