Previous Summer Assessment Grant Recipients
Previous Summer Assessment Grant Recipients
Congratulations to all of our past Summer Assessment Grant Recipients on their hard work and dedication to improving assessment efforts in their programs. Below you will find summaries of the work completed by the grant recipients in 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009.
Summer Assessment Grant 2012 Recipients
Jennifer Ramos – Political Science, Bellarmine College of Arts and Sciences
The goal of Jennifer’s project was to develop a plan for assessing the Political Science program learning outcomes, which were recently modified in light of significant curricular and personnel changes. Over the course of the summer, she created measures for the seven learning outcomes, including rubrics and knowledge survey questions. She presented the assessment plan at the first fall department meeting, and the department has decided to move forward with piloting the proposed measures over the course of the 2012-2013 academic year.
Dean Scheibel – Communication Studies, College of Communication and Fine Arts
Dean has begun building the foundation for what he hopes will become an interdisciplinary minor in Public Relations and Strategic Communications. He drafted and sought faculty feedback on a mission statement, program goals, and student learning outcomes, and continues to work on developing faculty goals and objectives. In the coming year, he intends to meet with Public Relations faculty to discuss the mapping of course content onto student learning outcomes and the sequencing of public relations courses that might eventually comprise a minor.
Karol Hoeffner – Screenwriting, School of Film and Television
Karol and her colleagues are in the process of creating and testing assessment tools to measure students’ achievement of the learning outcomes for the Bachelor of Arts in Screenwriting. In the spring of 2012, members of the Department agreed that a faculty-developed rubric would effectively serve as its primary direct assessment tool. Karol felt that it would be useful to supplement the rubric findings with an indirect assessment, so she worked over the summer to develop a survey. The survey, which serves to capture seniors’ perceptions of their learning and the educational environment, will be piloted this fall.
Sarah Strand – Health and Human Sciences, Seaver College of Science and Engineering
The Athletic Training Program’s accrediting body, CAATE, recently devised new standards and guidelines for accreditation, so Sarah and other members of the Athletic Training faculty took on the project of re-evaluating where each competency is being taught and assessed within the program. By August, 2012, they had ensured that each competency was covered in at least one didactic or clinical course. In order to improve student learning and ensure the success of their upcoming accreditation visit in the 2013-2014 academic year, they also determined better ways to assess their students for each of the CAATE-designated outcomes.
Dermot Ryan and Kelly Younger – English, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Dermot and Kelly revised the mission statement and learning outcomes and developed a new curricular model for the Undergraduate Program in English. Their project was informed by research on larger trends in English studies and curricular revision, the English Department’s views on transformative education, and a synthesis of models previously proposed by English faculty. They presented their work to the English Department at its first meeting of fall 2012. Should the Department vote to accept the changes, Dermot and Kelly’s efforts will guide the Program’s assessment of student work.
Summer Assessment Grant 2011 Recipients
Jill Bickett – Department of Educational Leadership, School of Education
In 2010, the Doctoral Program (EdD) in Educational Leadership for Social Justice decided that, in alignment with best practices, doctoral dissertations should be subject to external review by experts in the field. In summer 2011, Jill worked with faculty members Antonia Darder, Franca Dell’Olio, Karen Huchting, Magaly Lavadenz, Brian Leung, Emilio Pack, and Tony Sabatino to draft an assessment rubric for this purpose. Future steps in Jill’s plan include working with her colleagues to survey doctoral faculty about dissertation elements, refining the draft rubric based on the results, pilot testing the rubric internally, identifying external reviewers, and distributing dissertations for review.
Adriana Jaroszewicz – Animation Department, School of Film and Television
Adriana’s project focused on revising the Animation Department’s outcomes to better define the knowledge, skills, and values it deems essential, and on developing measures to assess them. In summer 2011, she presented revised outcomes and rubric drafts to fellow faculty and incorporated their suggestions for improvement. In the 2011-2012 academic year, she plans to coordinate development of two surveys to supplement evidence of learning captured by rubrics – a senior exit survey, and a survey to gauge students’ perceptions of group collaboration.
Holli Levitsky – Jewish Studies Program, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Holli set out to gather evidence of student learning in the Jewish Studies Program because, even though she had a sense of which aspects were most effective and which were in need of improvement, she knew that it was crucial to validate her assumptions before proposing changes. Holli worked with colleagues Jeffrey Siker and David Greenfield to create an exit survey and conduct interviews with graduating seniors, as well initiate the development of a measure to solicit information from alumni. These activities have empowered the Jewish Studies program to make evidence-informed decisions. Holli’s future plans include developing direct measures of student learning to complement the program’s survey and interview evidence.
Chan Lu – Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Chan’s goal was to review and refine assessment materials already in use in the Chinese minor program, consolidate them in an assessment package that could be shared among faculty, and develop assessment rubrics for areas in which adequate materials did not exist. She collected existing materials and developed several new rubrics in summer 2011, and will continue to work with her colleagues to review, pilot, and refine assessment materials throughout the coming year. Additionally, she has designed an exit interview and questionnaire, which she plans to pilot in spring 2012 and administer to the first cohort of students graduating with a Chinese minor.
Elizabeth C. Reilly – Department of Educational Leadership, School of Education
Elizabeth, a professor in the Institute for School Leadership and Administration (ISLA), proposed that a signature assignment in the Business of Education course was needed to close a gap in course and program assessment. She developed the assignment in summer 2011, as well as an assessment rubric to measure achievement of student learning outcomes. Throughout the 2011-2012 academic year, she will work with fellow ISLA faculty to revise and pilot test the assignment and rubric, and will post program-approved versions on LiveText for faculty and student use.
Summer Assessment Grant 2010 Recipients
Marilyn Beker - Screenwriting, School of Film and Television
The goal of Marilyn’s project was to create a rubric to assess knowledge of feature film screenwriting elements that could be applied to projects produced in the graduate feature film screenwriting course. Through working with Department Chair Jeffrey Davis, talking with professionals in the field, and consulting faculty at other universities, Marilyn was able to break the learning outcome down into seven elements for the rubric. This rubric was created not only to help assess the learning outcome, but also to act as a learning tool for students. Students will be provided with the rubric along with the assignment it will be applied to, and students will get a chance to apply the rubric to their peers’ screenplays in a workshop. Marilyn hopes that this rubric will also act as a template for creating other rubrics in the Screenwriting department.
Stuart Ching - English Department, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
In support of their ongoing program assessment and for their APRC program review, Stuart, and English Department Faculty members, Aimee Kilroy-Ross and Juan Mah Y Busch, set out to collect assessment data. In order to assess one of their student learning outcomes: “English majors are able to write creatively and effectively,” two rubrics were created. One rubric focused on effective communication, assessing components such as focus and use of sources; while a creative thinking rubric assessed components such as innovative thinking and making connections. Writing samples were collected in the spring from 300-level literature and theory courses and the rubric was applied to 61 writing samples. The results from the application of the rubric will be shared with the English Department and used in completing their program self-study.
Mikael Kreuzriegler - Production, School of Film and Television
The Department of Film Production collected rubric data from their graduate capstone course for the second time in December 2009. At the end of this course students screen their films and all SFTV faculty are invited to apply the rubric to the screened films for the purpose of assessment. The goal or Mikael’s project was to compile the data from the second collection and compare the results to the previous collection. Mikael then created a presentation for the Production faculty to discuss and a report that can be utilized in their upcoming program review. In addition, Mikael developed suggestions for improving the assessment process in the future.
Jeremy McCallum - Chemistry and Biochemistry, Seaver College of Science and Engineering
The goal of Jeremy’s project was to revise the department’s goals and outcomes and to create an assessment plan that aligns with these revisions. Further, he focused on using new technologies to simplify the department’s data analysis strategies. After completing the revision of the department’s goals and outcomes a document was created, which suggests methods on assessing these goals both directly and indirectly. To improve current assessment methods, Jeremy suggested revisions to the senior survey and developed new test and survey forms that are compatible with Remark Office optical mark recognition software, a program the department uses to score student work. The work completed thus far has established a strong foundation for continued assessment.
Anna Muraco - Sociology, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Anna chose to focus on one component of the Sociology Department’s assessment plan- the senior exit interview. Each graduating senior is given the exit interview to measure the quality of their learning experience. The goal of Anna’s project was to conduct qualitative analysis on the past five years worth of interview data. By completing this analysis Anna was able to learn about what graduates of the program think about advising, availability of faculty, coursework, and more. One of the ways Anna utilized her findings was to develop suggestions for improving the senior exit interview, such as by possibly using an exit survey, and including more questions to assess student learning outcomes.
Nora Murphy - Psychology, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
As part of the department’s ongoing assessment plan, all graduating Psychology majors complete a senior survey. This online survey includes a variety of questions related to student learning outcomes, academic performance, future plans, department services, Psychology courses and faculty, and LMU’s mission as it relates to Psychology majors. Nora’s project was to analyze the data collected from seniors in 2009 and 2010. The results will be helpful to the program as they conduct their self-study for program review. Beyond the results of the survey, Nora was able to identify specific recommendations for easier analysis in the future, such as reordering questions and changing the format of certain questions. This project will enable the department to analyze and use the information from the senior survey more effectively in the future.
Vanessa Newell - Production, School of Film and Television
In preparation for the Production Department’s Academic Program Review, Vanessa, along with Mikael Kreuzriegler, worked to create a curriculum map for the program. Their goal was to determine where and at what level the department’s student learning outcomes were being addressed in the curriculum. By using syllabi, assignments, and talking with faculty members the team created a new curriculum map. This new curriculum map will be used as a starting point for reviewing the undergraduate curriculum and student learning outcomes.
Judy Pollick - School Psychology Program, School of Education
The School Psychology Program is approved by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), with its next review process beginning in Fall 2013. In order to prepare for this Judy began the process of collecting 3 years of student data focusing on students’ growth in knowledge, skills and disposition. Judy reviewed the NASP assessment requirements and determined what the School Psychology Program is already doing to meet their requirements. Creating a map to show what evidence of the standards are being collected also revealed what additional assessment data is needed. In particular, School Psychology now knows what evidence of learning the faculty will need to develop in order to be ready for the next NASP approval. Judy also attended the American School Counselor Association conference to learn more about assessment and data analysis to help sustain assessment in the School Psychology Program.
David Ramirez - Natural Science, Seaver College of Science and Engineering
David Ramirez, along with Hawley Almstedt, Todd Shoepe, and Sarah Strand, set out to create the mission statement, vision, goals, and learning outcomes for proposing a new ‘Health Sciences’ department in the Seaver College of Science and Engineering. The team also created a proposed curriculum and curriculum map so that they could be sure that the learning outcomes would be sufficiently addressed. Faculty are working to complete the remaining elements of a new program proposal, including an assessment plan, so that the proposal can be submitted in the Fall 2010 semester.
Aimee Ross-Kilroy - English, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
The goal of Aimee’s project was to continue the ongoing assessment of the Freshman English Program. Assessment of the beginning of the sequence, English 110, was completed last year, leaving the second half of the program to be assessed this year. Final papers were collected from the three courses in the second half of the sequence and a rubric was applied to a random sample of the papers. Aimee gave a presentation of the data at the Freshman English Program orientation for new and returning faculty. Faculty discussed the findings, and made suggestions for improvement that were used to inform changes to the Freshman English Program courses.
Jeffrey Siker - Theological Studies, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
The Theological Studies program is in the process of carrying out their 2010-2011 self-study for re-accreditation review with the Association of Theological Schools. The primary goals of Jeff’s project was to begin gathering and analyzing student work portfolios and assessing the work based on the department’s student learning outcomes for the Masters of Arts programs in Theology and Pastoral Theology. After compiling the student work portfolios, DropBox, an online file sharing tool, was utilized to make the various materials accessible to other members of the department. Working with other members of the department, Jeff reviewed the current assessment rubrics and curriculum maps and revised them as needed. The department will now work together to assess the assembled portfolios and write the self-study report.
Summer Assessment Grant 2009 Recipients
Holli Levitsky – Jewish Studies, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
The Jewish Studies Program completed its first year of the academic minor in 2009, so Holli’s goal for this project was to develop an assessment plan for the program and develop rubrics to assess student work. As a first step, Holli created an assessment committee for the program. The committee developed a plan to involve faculty teaching Jewish Studies courses in aligning course and program outcomes, and identifying student work that reflects achievement of program-level outcomes. The committee also examined capstone projects from graduating seniors and developed rubrics to assess program outcomes. These initial steps have helped to establish a manageable course of action for meaningful, ongoing assessment of the Jewish Studies Program.
Edmundo Litton – Specialized Programs in Urban Education, School of Education
The LMU/LA CAST Program in the Department of Specialized Programs in Urban Education developed a laptop initiative in 2007 aimed at integrating teaching and learning strategies with technology both inside and outside of the classroom and promoting digital equity. Edmundo’s project examined this initiative by assessing a student learning outcome of the LMU/LA CAST program. He conducted phone interviews with alumni and current students and used a rubric to examine examples of work students developed for use with their own K-12 students. Using the findings from both sets of evidence, he was able to identify ways to enhance students’ ability to integrate teaching and technology in the program. Edmundo plans to present his findings to program faculty to discuss how the program can close the assessment loop for this outcome by making changes for improvement.
Vanessa Newell – Production, School of Film and Television
The goal of Vanessa’s project was to analyze collected evidence of student learning in the Production Department and facilitate a dialogue between faculty on strategies for improvement. Vanessa analyzed data from a rubric applied to over 50 undergraduate and graduate capstone films and data from a pilot curriculum-wide knowledge survey administered in several sections of an introductory course. She plans to present her findings from both sets of data to program faculty in order to build a shared understanding of student learning in the program and develop strategies for improvement. As a final step in her project, she developed a central storage place for program assessment data, helping to make assessment of student learning in the program a much more manageable and sustainable process.
Jennifer Ramos – Political Science, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Jennifer examined the alignment between the Political Science curriculum and the program learning outcomes. She worked with John Parrish and Richard Fox to create a curriculum map for the program by collecting and reviewing the learning outcomes on course syllabi, assignments, and other course related work. With these materials, they were able to determine where and at what level program learning outcomes are being addressed in the curriculum. After conducting a detailed analysis of the curriculum map, they were able to provide the program with baseline data from which faculty can now begin a conversation on how to ensure that students have ample opportunity to achieve program outcomes.
Aimee Ross – Freshman English, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
The Freshman English Program’s ongoing assessment plan uses multiple assessment tools. Aimee’s project focused on one component of this plan – the analysis of portfolios to assess several of the program outcomes. She collected scored rubrics from a sample of student portfolios and analyzed the data. Aimee then worked with K.J. Peters to interpret the findings and develop small, immediate steps to improve student learning. She presented her findings at the orientation for Freshman English Instructors and stressed the areas of the curriculum that should be addressed to improve student learning, helping the Freshman English Program to close an assessment loop.
Seth Thompson – Political Science, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
The goal of Seth’s project was to create a system for organizing and analyzing assessment data collected as part of the Political Science assessment plan. Each year the program administers a multiple choice exam in two introductory courses and one senior seminar to assess two of the program’s student learning outcomes. This pre-post testing allows the measurement of improvement over the course of the program. Seth developed procedures for preparing test data for analysis, documented procedures for conducting the analysis, and designed an archive system for the data. His project has ensured that collecting and analyzing data for this component of the assessment plan will not be dependent on any one individual.