should be able to present
and defend a research plan.
Link to UNCW Learning
Goal: Thoughtful expression
and Information literacy
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.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
began in Spring 2009. By
the nature of data
collection, assessment for
this SLO is pooled with the
Marine Biology M.Sc.
program.collected 123 responses.
Faculty deemed student
performance on this SLO to
be excellent with 99% of
students to be satisfactory
(63%) or above
(commendable, 36%).
These numbers are similar
to previous years. In 2011,
faculty determined that 98%
of the students were
performing well in this SLO,
with 40% of projects rated
as “commendable”, 58% as
“satisfactory” and only 2%
as “unsatisfactory” (n=261).
In 2009-2010, the faculty
determined that 98% of the
students were performing
well in this SLO, with 36% of
projects rated as
“commendable”, 62% as
“satisfactory” and only 2%
as “unsatisfactory”.results of assessment to
date at the 2012 retreat and
decided that our students
are meeting our
expectations in this SLO and
that no action will be taken.SLO2: A graduate student
should be able to
independently answer
questions regarding their
research field. Link to
UNCW Learning Goal:
Information literacy, critical
thinking, thoughtful
expression.
Oral preliminary exam is
successfully completed. The
student’s committee
evaluates performance in
the exam with a form.Each student in the program
is assessed by each of
his/her committee
members. Data on the
student’s ability to
articulate information, on
the depth and breadth of
their knowledge, and
professional poise are
collected.In 2011-2012 we had 5
responses to this SLO.
Faculty assessed students as
performing at a lower level
than last year. This year,
students were performing
adequately on breadth of
knowledge and poise (80%
at level 4 or 5), but only 60%
on articulation of answers
and depth of knowledge. In
2010 - 2011 we had 3
respondents for this
assessment tool. Students
were assessed asGiven the small sample size
for this SLO, the Graduate
Assessment Coordinator
recommended that we
carefully monitor
performance for another
year before evaluating
whether any programmatic
changes are warranted. The
faculty discussed the results
of assessment to date at the
2012 retreat and decided to
adopt that suggestion.