Assessment of Student Learning:
Liberal Arts Essentials (LAE) Program
- Links Open in New Windows
Muskingum University's "Liberal Arts Essentials" (LAE) program is the general education component of the baccalaureate curriculum, and consists of foundational - core - courses, supplemented by "area requirements" in three categories.
The four primary learning goals of the LAE - each of which contains three further learning objectives - are:
- Develop Skills in Perception, Analysis and Expression
- Explore Connections among Formal Learning, Citizenship and Service to our Communities
- Acquire Multiple and Integrative Approaches to Lifelong Learning
- Demonstrate Knowledge of Physical Wellness and of Ethical and Spiritual Concepts.
Each department overseeing an LAE course is responsible for identifying which learning outcomes are appropriate to each course, and for developing assessment plans.
The LAE assessment process begins by specifying the course goals for student learning and then developing a plan that evaluates how well students have met those goals. At Muskingum University, "Streams of Evidence" are used as a method for determining the meeting of goals. To be considered valid by the Assessment Committee an assessment plan must have at least two streams of evidence, with a different evaluation tool used in each stream.
For each LAE course, an Undergraduate Assessment Committee-approved assessment plan contains information regarding the Goals for Student Learning in the LAE for the course, the streams of evidence used, the evaluation criteria for each stream, and other information relating to the assessment process for that course. The current version of the Plan for Assessing the LAE most recently approved by the faculty in January of 2012 specifies the process through which LAE Assessment is carried out.
When a course has been selected for evaluation, the instructor is required to submit an Assessment Report for that course/semester. The university's Assessment Committee has developed an Assessment Report Creation Presentation (see link below) that details the process of completing an Assessment Report.
LAE Assessment Results
Program-based assessment of the four LAE goals follows a three-year cycle, during which at least one course-level assessment report is generated. LAE courses in the Core are assessed at least twice during the cycle.
In 2010-11, an LAE Assessment Task Force examined the data collected during the first of the university's three-year assessment cycles in order to determine the effectiveness of the LAE curriculum in achieving the LAE's goals and outcomes, and to make recommendations for improvements.
LAE Course Assessment Reports by Goal
The Undergraduate Assessment Committee is charged with collecting data from the course-level asessements each semester.
- Goal 1: Develop Skills in Perception, Analysis and Expression
- Goal 2: Explore Connections among Formal Learning, Citizenship and Service to our Communities
- Goal 3: Acquire Multiple and Integrative Approaches to Lifelong Learning
- Goal 4: Demonstrate Knowledge of Physical Wellness and of Ethical and Spiritual Concepts.
LAE Assessment Documents
|
