General Education Assessment Process
This page outlines the general education assessment process for department chairs and faculty teaching general education courses.
The purpose of general education assessment is not to assess particular students, courses or faculty, but to understand how students, in the aggregate, are developing the skills, habits and values represented in the Pillars across a variety of courses and disciplines in the gen ed curriculum. The Pillars articulate some of the transdisciplinary compentencies that students may gain by taking the required courses in communication, mathetmatics, history, humanities and/or fine arts, natural sciences, and social and behavioral sciences.
Department chairs work with faculty teaching general education courses to a select a general educaiton pillar for assessment. Courses may align with more than one pillar. However, each course is aligned with one pillar for assessment.
Department chairs work with faculty teaching general education courses to align a key course assignment with a general educaiton pillar for assessment. Assignments may align with more than one pillar. However, deparments select one course assignment aligned with the pillar selected for assessment.
Pillar alignments will be reviewed and revised, as needed, each academic year by department chairs, IEA, and the General Education Committee.
Department chairs (or faculty they assign) submit to IEA at the end of each semester (fall and spring) de-identified student work generated for the assignment selected for pillar assessment. The General Education Committee and the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment will work with departments and faculty to coordinate the submission of student work and the evaluation of student work for general education assessment. Student work and/or data submitted to IEA should not have identifiable student or instructor information.
IEA compiles and samples the student work submitted by departments for each pillar. Then, the General Education Committee and IEA coordinate a small group of faculty teaching courses aligned with the appropriate pillar to evaluate the samples of student work using the pillar rubric. Student work and/or data reviewed will not contain identifiable student or instructor information.
Each pillar rubric can be found here:
Written communication rubric
Quantitative reasoning rubric
Connection and reflection rubric
Global perspective rubric
Inquiry and analysis rubric
Critical reasoning rubric
The goal of using the pillar rubrics to assess a sample of student work across multiple courses and disciplines is to obtain aggregate, institution-level data on rubric criteria.
The General Education Commtitee and IEA will work closely with departments to analyze data collected each semester and to identify potential improvements or other actions to support student learning and success in general education courses.
Following implementation of improvements, pillars will then be re-assessed to evaluate the impact on student learning in a given pillar.
Resources for General Education Assessment Process
Rubrics for all pillars can be found here.
Connection and Reflection Scoring Template - Fall 2023
Critical Reasoning Scoring Template - Fall 2023
Global Perspective Scoring Template - Fall 2023
Inquiry and Analysis Scoring Template - Fall 2023