Academic Foundations Committee
Minutes
April 22, 2008
Present: Oliver Chen Mark Hardt
Dan
Lennon Lea
Zoltowski
Jane
Howell Shelley
Tanksanen (student)
Absent: Abbas Heiat excused Tasneem Khaleel ex-officio (excused)
Jay
Shaw Kathy
Kelker
David Garloff ex-officio Tasneem
Khaleel ex-officio
Gary
Young ex-officio Mary Susan Fishbaugh ex-officio
Karen Heikel ex-officio John
Cech ex-officio
George White ex-officio Stacy
Klippenstein ex-officio
Presiding: Mark
Hardt, Chairperson
Mark
Hardt called the meeting to order at 3:43 p.m. in the Bridger room of the SUB.
The
minutes of April 8 were accepted as presented.
A. VSA Endorsed Assessment Instruments
It
was noted that this issue was bounced back and forth from Senate for further
review and discussion. There is no
longer any debate because we are now VSA members. According to an email from Valerie Martinez,
Associate Dean:
Here are a
few updates:
1. MSU Billings has now joined the VSA as a
participant. We will be submitting our
template as described on the VSA website.
2. As a member, it is required that we
administer a student learning outcomes assessment at least once every three
years.
3. Our participation can be considered a pilot
and after four years, we have the option of opting out of VSA.
4. Instruments approved by VSA for assessment of
the student learning outcomes are:
CAAP (2
and 4-year programs) Recommended because we administer COMPASS which is
published by the same vendor
CLA (only
4-year programs)
MAPP (2 and
4-year programs)
B.
Second/Upper Level Academic Foundations Program Assessment
It
was cited that the Committee had discussed a capstone as part of major
requirements, but we had not agreed on it.
Most programs are now being pushed to use a capstone anyway, so Academic
Foundations could be a part of that course.
The original members of the AFC were enthusiastic about a capstone
course.
It
was stated that the instructors of the LS 125 course want to know if the
students finding what they learn in the course helpful and useful. It was noted that students could show what
they found useful by completing a thesis-like project which could even be
submitted to the Library. That may not
work for all programs, but some may like that approach.
It
was suggested that perhaps the AFC should meet with Department Chairs as part
of the pre-fall activities to give some information on the capstone idea and
receive feedback. It was agreed that the
Committee will initiate a Chairs meeting for Fall 2008.
C. Status of IT Assessment Tool
It
was noted that the IT assessment tool can only receive data for one semester at
a time, so we must work out a schedule to get both Fall 2007 and Spring 2008
data entered before grades are due (May 7).
It was suggested that Fall 2007 data be entered April 23 to 29 and
Spring 2008 data from April 30 to May 7.
These dates will be sent to IT.
It was also noted that, if possible, the tool could be reopened during
the summer for faculty who did not get their data in during this semester. An email then needs to go out to the faculty,
preferably with Academic Senate signing off on it, explaining that assessment
needs to be done for accreditation purposes.
Also, some instructions on entering the data should be included.
It
was cited that the AFC is responsible for the assessment data. We dont want to put it on some external
storage device like a flash drive or CD because those could be lost. We also need to store it for up to 10
years. It will be requested that IT
store the information on a share drive so it is accessible.
The
meeting adjourned at 4:01 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted, Rita J. Rabe Meduna.