Academic Assessment Activities at URG: Annual Report

Jian R. Sun

May, 2007

Executive Summary:

As part of the efforts to develop and nurture a culture of assessment to enhance quality in student learning, designing and implementing appropriate assessment activities has been coordinated by the Assessment Director with the help from the Assessment Committee, and various academic Schools. Both pre- and post-assessment activities are implemented to entering freshmen class and graduating seniors.  Reports of the assessment analyses have been furnished and sent to appropriate individuals (such as School Chairs). The following provides a snapshot of assessment activities for the past ten years (1998-2007), which is also used for part of the Systems Portfolio, AQIP.

The graduating senior assessment implemented this year was on writing, administered to 279 graduating seniors.

Plans for assessment activities for 2007-2008 academic year will be developed during the summer of 2007, and are available at the beginning of the Fall semester in August, 2007.

TABLE OF CONTENT

            I.      Overview: Pre- and Post-assessment

         II.      Results:

     III.      Dissemination:

I. Overview: Pre- and Post-assessment

Pre-assessment to freshmen students

q       COMPASS from ACT (taken on the computer; about 60 to 80 minutes; everyone takes it and it is used for placement purpose; writing, reading, and math); it is used every year.

q       Academic Profile from ETS (paper/pencil; 30-50 minutes; administered to a randomly selected number of freshmen enrolled LA classes, to collect pre-assessment information as measured in the AP of reading, writing, critical thinking and social science knowledge); it was used during 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2002 academic years.

Post-assessment for (graduating) seniors

q       COMPASS from ACT (taken on the computer; about 60 to 80 minutes; administered to a randomly selected number of seniors, it is used to collect comparable information in writing, reading, and math areas); it was used during 2002 academic year.

q       Academic Profile from ETS (paper/pencil; 30-50 minutes; administered to a randomly selected number of seniors, to collect post-assessment information as measured in the AP of reading, writing, critical thinking and social science knowledge); it was used during 1998 through 2000, and 2003 through 2005 academic years (the Academic Profile was discontinued by ETS in 2004)

q       Technology Competence Skills from a locally developed assessment effort (taken over the internet; 20-30 minutes; administered to a randomly selected number of seniors to measure basis technology competence skills as identified as one of the nine goals in the newly revised General Education program.); it was used during 2001 academic year.

q       Writing Competence Skills from ETS (taken on the computer; about 60 minutes, administered to graduating seniors; it is used to collect information about students’ writing skills [the Academic Profile collects information about students’ ability to recognize certain writing elements; in comparison, the students’ writing ability is measured through the completion of a writing task in one of the three areas: humanities, social science, and natural science]); it is used during 2007 academic year.

q       Major Field Tests from ACT (paper/pencil; 60-80 minutes; administered by major programs); it has been used since 1998 by various academic Schools (among them, the School of Business has been using each year as part of its program assessment; other programs use it periodically depending on the availability of the number of graduates during that particular academic year as a sufficient number of test takers would be required for the test to yield meaningful group information.)

II.  Results

A.  Placement Snapshot:

With an open admission policy at Rio, the number of admitted students yields a high percentage of students who need to take one or two developmental courses, as determined by the placement results, in reading (27%), introduction to writing (51%), or a math course (8% for MTH 104; 46% for MTH 109; 29% for MTH 114), as indicated by the placement results over the past six years. Below are three charts showing

1. the total number of accepted students who completed the placement test (COMPASS)
2. the total number of those students who completed the placement test whose results determined their placement into one or more than one developmental courses (if they were to eventually come to Rio)
3. a trend in the placement results as revealed from the accepted students who completed the placement test over the past six years

1. Total Number of (Accepted) Students Who Took the Placement Tests

Notes: The numbers (furnished from MIS) indicated the number of students who completed the placement test (either during the new student orientations, or during the first week of each term). Some of those students might not come to attend Rio as their college choice. So, the number here will not match that of those who actually enrolled as entering freshmen class of each academic year.

2. Number of Students who should enroll in Developmental Courses (as determined by placement results)

Notes: The numbers (furnished from MIS) indicated the number of students who completed the placement test (either during the new student orientations, or during the first week of each term), and the placement results would place students into one or more than one of the three developmental courses in English writing (Eng 101 Intro to Writing), English study strategies (Eng 102 Read & Learn), and math (from one of the three developmental math courses of Math 104 Math review, Math 109 Algebra, and Math 114 Accelerated Algebra). In other words, the number in the chart shows the number of developmental courses taken by students. Again, some of those students might not come to attend Rio as their college choice. So, the number of enrollment here will not match that of the actually enrollment as entering freshmen class of each academic year.

Placement Trends (2001-2007)

Notes:

Observations:

B. Graduating Senior Assessment Results:

Graduating seniors were asked to complete an exit assessment (Academic Profile during 1999 through 2000, Computer Technology Productivity Minimum Competence in 2001, and a writing in 2007).  All graduating seniors are notified of this assessment requirement through both the information posted on the university website (www.rio.edu/assessment) and through the Records Office during the student audit with the Director of Records. Below are three charts showing

1.      the total number of graduating seniors who completed the senior assessment (Academic Profile, Technology Competence Skills, or the Writing Assessment)

2.      snapshots of the summary information from each of the three assessment activities

3.      a trend in the placement results as revealed from the accepted students who completed the placement test over the past six years 

Participation in Assessment

The following is a table showing the number of participation of Rio students in assessment (for both graduating seniors and freshmen entering classes):

Notes:

The different number of students for each year reflects assessment design for each year; for some years, a (quasi) sampling was taken, and some years, the whole graduating class was asked to complete the assessment; a rotation of assessment areas started in 2001, where the implementation of senior assessment tried to cover each of the nine General Education Program goals, resulting in seniors completing a technology assessment during 2001 academic year, and a writing assessment during 2006 academic year.

Academic Profile: This is a test of critical thinking and college-level reading, writing, and mathematics skills.

Observations:

Performance in those skill areas varies each year. Among the results are two main trends: as a whole group, Rio graduating seniors performed below the national level of liberal arts colleges; however, there is evidence for value-added growth in those skill areas of reading, writing, math, and critical thinking from sophomore to senior. This growth from sophomore to senior reflects the efforts that Rio has invested in providing developmental education to remedy the deficiencies of those who come to Rio through the open admission policy, and need such help to be successful in their college levels courses.

Computer Technology Productivity Minimum Competence:

As part of the Rio General Education Program goals, technology competency is assessed through a home-developed assessment activity which is performed based with some self-reporting of select technology skills. Graduating seniors rated themselves in the following five areas:

I am able to (check those that apply)

q       E-mail: use e-mail to perform tasks of sending and receiving messages;  [92%, 137/149]

q       Attachment: send a text-file as attachment through e-mail;  [69%, 103/149]

q       Maintain: perform basic maintenance of organizing received e-mail messages, deleting e-mail messages;  [90%, 134/149]

q       Text Edit: use a word program for tasks of tying, saving, retrieving, using common functions for editing, transferring a text-file from one folder to another folder, organizing text-files in folder format;  [84%, 125/149]

q       Internet Search: use internet to do basic research, downloading internet materials and transferring such materials either through e-mail or by saving them in a folder (in C: Drive) and/or disks.  [91%, 136/149]

Observations:

The assessment results show that Rio students demonstrated satisfactory knowledge and skills in the use of e-mail and internet search.

Student Satisfaction

Student Satisfaction information is obtained during the graduating senior exit assessment where students provide their responses to three questions embedded in the exit senior assessment:

1. What attracted you to Rio?
2. What is one important benefit you got from Rio?
3. What would be one area you would like to see improved at Rio?

The following provides summary information of the results from students’ responses.
 

What is one important benefit you got from Rio?

What attracted you to Rio?