Biology and Marine Biology

(Axel Boer) #1

we have 27 responses for
assessment of this SLO. In
the areas of presentation
quality, mastery of research,
and ability to answer
questions, 66-69% of
students performed at level
4 or 5 on a scale of 1-5. For
demonstration of
professional poise, 86% of
students performed at
levels 4 or 5. In 2010- 2011
our Ph.D. students were
assessed as performing well
on presentation quality and
poise (85% for both), but at
lower levels for mastery of
research and ability to
answer questions (54% for
both).
SLO 4: A graduate student
should be able to write up
his or her research in the
form of multiple
manuscripts for publication
in scientific journals. Link to
UNCW Learning Goals:
thoughtful expression,
information literacy, critical
thinking) and inquiry.


Multi-chaptered
dissertation is successfully
completed. The student’s
committee evaluates the
quality of the dissertation
with a form.

Each student in the program
is assessed by each of
his/her committee
members. Data on the
quality of the writing,
mastery of the research,
and likelihood of being
published in a peer-review
journal are collected. In an
effort to better understand
how successful our students
are at publishing their work,
we recently added two
assessment questions to
this SLO that permit us to
monitor the progress each
student has made towards
publication by asking
whether chapters of their

During 2013-2014, we had 8
respondents for this SLO.
Student performance on the
dissertation was assessed as
excellent, with 100% of
students writing high-
quality dissertations with
chapters already published.
We had few responses for
assessment for the PhD
program in 2012-13, so data
from 2011-2013 were
combined. In 2011-2013 we
had 13 responses for this
SLO. Faculty assessed
student performance as
generally good, with 93-
100% of students at levels 4
or 5 on mastery of research

Results were discussed at
the Faculty retreat in August


  1. No actions will be
    taken at this point as
    student performance was
    strong on this SLO.

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