Biology and Marine Biology

relative efforts put into

service, scholarly and

training activities.

departmental support for

faculty travel

• the department has
  implemented a peer
  monitoring system for
  untenured, tenure-track
  faculty

Student Learning Outcome

UNCW-wide Learning Goal

Tools Implementation Summary of Findings Actions Taken

SLO 1a: A graduate student
should be able to develop a
research plan.
Link to UNCW Learning
Goal: creative inquiry
(inquiry).

Prospectus is successfully

completed and defended to

student’s committee. The

student’s committee

evaluates prospectus with a

form.

Each student in the program

is assessed by each of

his/her committee

members. Data on

prospectus quality, depth

and breadth are collected.

We will begin

implementation of the

assessment of this SLO in

the 2009-2010 year.

None yet. N/A

SLO 1b: A graduate student
should be able to present
and defend a research plan.
Link to UNCW Learning
Goal: thoughtful expression
(thoughtful expression).

Prospectus is successfully

presented to the

department. Form used for

this assessment is our

Graduate Student

Prospectus Symposium

Evaluation form. Our

assessment tool will be

question #5. This SLO was

created, in part, to help

understand the poor

performance of students on

“breadth of knowledge” in

SLO2 in the 2007-08 year.

Each student in the program

is assessed by all faculty

members in the department

attending the Graduate

Student Prospectus

symposium. Data on each

student’s project in terms of

quality, design and

significance are collected.

Assessment of this SLO was

implemented in Spring

2009.

At the spring 2009

Prospectus Symposium, 17

students presented their

work and were evaluated by

20 faculty members. The

faculty determined that

99% of the students were

performing well in this SLO,

with 45% of projects rated

as “commendable”, 54% as

“satisfactory” and only 1%

as “unsatisfactory”.

The faculty discussed the

results of assessment to

date at the 2009 retreat.

Faculty were heartened by

these results and decided to

continue with this

assessment tool. The

introduction of this SLO

represents a “closing of the

loop” for problems

identified by assessment of

SLO2 (see below); however

we have not yet identified

the changes we need to

make to enhance

performance on SLO 2 and

continue to seek ways to do