be able to do upon
completion of the program?
What UNCW Learning Goal
Does it link to?
be used? implementation; who will
be assessed; what is the
schedule?collection and analysis of
data for student learning
outcomes?because of what you
learned?SLO 1a: A graduate student
should be able to develop a
research plan.
Link to UNCW Learning
Goal: 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.
Implementation of the
assessment of this SLO was
planned to begin in the
2009 - 2010 year.
Department moved to
online forms in 2010- 2011
to improve faculty
participation.Despite the change to
online forms, no data are
available for 2010-2011.Faculty were reminded at
the annual Retreat in
August 2011 that
compliance with
Assessment materials is
mandatory and crucial for
our ability to evaluate the
performance of our
students and whether or
not they are meeting their
SLOs. The Graduate
Assessment Coordinator
prepared a “Milestones for
Assessment” document to
remind faculty at which
points in a student’s
program Assessment is
required. We will therefore
start evaluating student
performance on this SLO in
the 2011-2012 year.
SLO 1b: A graduate student
should be able to present
and defend a research plan.
Link to UNCW Learning
Goal: Thoughtful expression
and Information literacy
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” inEach 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
began in Spring 2009. By
the nature of data
collection, assessment forAt the fall and spring 2011
Prospectus Symposia, we
collected 261 data points.
The 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”.
Performance was similar to,
but a bit better than, 2009-
2010, in which the facultyThe faculty discussed the
results of assessment to
date at the 2011 retreat and
decided that our students
are meeting our
expectations in this SLO and
that no action will be taken.