Assessment in General Education
Since 2017, Cleveland State has been working towards the goal of being able to do assessments of student learning in each of the areas included in our General Education program. This follows from one of the recommendations in the 2017 report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on General Education. To facilitate this work, the university has participated in the Higher Learning Commission's Assessment Academy with a project focused on assessment in General Education. Our goal for this project is to create an effective ongoing assessment plan for the program. To accomplish that goal, our project focuses on engaging the faculty in the process of Gen Ed assessment.
CSU's General Education Assessment project focuses on engaging faculty in the assessment process in two ways:
- The development of goals and objectives for students learning, and rubrics for assessing them, for each area in our General Education program.
- The appointment of Assessment Champions to lead efforts in individual General Education areas.
Goals, Objectives, and Rubrics:
Faculty have been engaged in the development of goals, objectives, and rubrics:
- In summer 2017, department chairs met to develop these materials for courses in the Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences
- In summer 2018, faculty members who teach Arts and Humanities and Social Science courses that meet the AALAME requirement, and faculty members who teach courses in the African-American Experience and US Diversity areas, met to develop materials for these areas.
- In summer 2019, faculty members who teach General Education courses with the Writing Skills designation, and faculty member who teach Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) courses, met with the Director of the Writing Center and representatives from the First-Year Writing program to develop materials for these areas.
- In spring 2020, faculty members who teach courses with the Information Literacy Skill designation collaborated online with librarians to develop material for this area.
- In fall 2021, faculty members participated in a semester-long Faculty Learning Community on Critical Thinking that culminated in developing materials for courses with this skill area designation.
This work is in-progess with additional workshops planned to develop goals, objectives, and rubrics for the remaining General Education areas.
Once goals, objectives, and rubrics have been developed, they are shared with additional faculty members who teach in the area for feedback and revision. The current drafts of available rubrics are available below.
Draft Rubrics: Please note that these are drafts only and are still open for revision. The format for all rubrics was revised in January 2022.
Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)
Assessment Reports
Once goals, objectives, and rubrics has been developed, shared, and revised, they are tested through preliminary assessments. The first such assessment of the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and AALAME courses was done in Summer 2019. A second trial assessment of higher-enrolling courses in the Natural Sciences, African-American Experience, US Diversity, and AALAME areas using test data was done in Fall 2020. A pilot assessment of the Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences was done in 2021. Reports on these assessments are available below.
Assessment Champions:
Assessment Champions are faculty members who receive release time to provide leadership for assessment in individual General Education areas. They work with the Director of General Education on assessment plans and reports and do outreach with the faculty who teach courses in their areas. The current Champions are:
- Arts & Humanities: Michael Baumgartner, Associate Professor of Music, m.baumgartner29@csuohio.edu
- Social Sciences: Colleen McMahon, Associate Professor of Psychology, c.m.mcmahon@csuohio.edu