Assessment of General Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

1
Assessment of General Education at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison

• Report to the University Academic Planning
  Council
• April 20, 2006

2
UW-Madisons General Education Requirements

• Communication, 3 to 5/6 credits Part A and Part
  B
• Quantitative Reasoning, 3 to 6 credits Part A
  and Part B
• Breadth, 13-15 credits, distributed over three
  areas
• Students are required to complete the
  following breadth requirements
• Natural Science, 4 to 6 credits, consisting of
  one 4- or 5-credit course with a laboratory
  component or two courses providing a total of 6
  credits.
• Humanities/Literature/Arts, 6 credits
• Social Studies, 3 credits
• Ethnic Studies, 3 credits

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Why do we do assess General Education?

• Goals Are we achieving the goals for gen ed set
  out by faculty?
• Quality Are we doing the best we can for our
  students?
• Resources Are we making the best use of scarce
  resources?
• Baseline data, articulation, awareness.
• Accreditation An increasingly important element
  in institutional accreditation.

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General Education Assessment Plan, 2003

• NOTE We are not assessing individual instructors
  or students, sometimes not even individual
  courses. This is program level assessment
• Long-range planning.
• Main goal is articulation and assessment of
  student learning and related outcomes.
• Areas Communication, Quantitative Reasoning,
  Breadth, ESR.
• Developmental Future work with ONSP, LEAP.

5
Work to Date

• Work of the Quantitative Assessment Program.
• Comprehensive study of Comm B requirement
  Professor Denise Solomon, finished 2001 with
  policy changes completed Spring, 2003.
• QR-A A First Look. A curricular analysis,
  2001.
• Information Literacy workbook project Denise
  Solomon and Abbie Loomis, 2002.

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Work to Date, Continued

• Student mini focus groups, 2004.
• ESR completed assessment loop as of fall
  2005-06.
• Comm B database, redundancy.
• Chuck Halaby QR A Studies, 2005.
• Chuck Halaby QR B Studies, in progress.
• Faculty, Instructional Staff, and TA articulation
  of gen ed goals survey currently in the field.

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Studies in Planning Stages

• Structured interviews of Comm B TAs to learn more
  about their training and training needs (Brad
  Hughes).
• Assessment study or studies of Comm A and
  Information Literacy (Comm A Course Directors and
  Abbie Loomis).
• Course-taking patterns transfer students,
  breadth in programs for which breadth is limited.
• Study of students who took Core Plus math in
  high school.
• Visit the website
• http//www.ls.wisc.edu/gened/Assessment/default.ht
  m