Event Title

Experiences and Difficulties in Assessing Diversity Learning Outcomes in Sociology

Location

Dolan School of Business

Start Date

29-5-2014 2:30 PM

End Date

29-5-2014 3:30 PM

Session Type

Roundtable Discussion

Description

As many colleges and universities across the country are moving toward assessment-based models of teaching, instructors are now being asked to provide greater amounts and types of data to demonstrate the achievement of student learning outcomes in various courses. As Quinnipiac University is no exception, its Sociology Department has been working through a two-year program review in which departmental learning outcomes were created by its members to reflect a number of university-wide learning outcomes. These learning outcomes were established in a number of competency areas such as Communication, Critical Thinking, and Diversity, and they were designed to be differently addressed and built upon across courses at the 100-, 200-, and 300-level. As an instructor of an Introduction to Sociology course during the Fall 2013 semester, I attempted to assess a 100-level course diversity learning outcome using a pre-test/post-test quasi study (N = 32) in which I assigned a WAC-based writing-to-learn (WTL) low-stakes writing assignment that was issued during the first week and last week of class. Students responded in class to the same prompt, and I was able to gather responses for a preliminary round of data collection. Changes from the pre- to post-tests were coded along a four-point scale to reflect excellent, fair, marginal, and poor responses. Results demonstrate that approximately half of the students (n = 18) acquired “excellent” or “fair” responses based on overall development and/or elaboration of response from pre-test. While simple analysis of results demonstrate a surface-level gain in disciplinary knowledge of diversity within a sociological context, difficulties in evaluating such assessment revolve around a number of issues, the most obvious one being how to assess knowledge gained when pre-test responses are already initially strong.

Topic Designation

Assessment, Diversity issues in teaching and learning, Teaching & Learning

Presenter Bio(s)

Lauren M. Sardi
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Quinnipiac University

Stacy A. Missari
Internship Coordinator
Department of Sociology
Quinnipiac University

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May 29th, 2:30 PM May 29th, 3:30 PM

Experiences and Difficulties in Assessing Diversity Learning Outcomes in Sociology

Dolan School of Business

As many colleges and universities across the country are moving toward assessment-based models of teaching, instructors are now being asked to provide greater amounts and types of data to demonstrate the achievement of student learning outcomes in various courses. As Quinnipiac University is no exception, its Sociology Department has been working through a two-year program review in which departmental learning outcomes were created by its members to reflect a number of university-wide learning outcomes. These learning outcomes were established in a number of competency areas such as Communication, Critical Thinking, and Diversity, and they were designed to be differently addressed and built upon across courses at the 100-, 200-, and 300-level. As an instructor of an Introduction to Sociology course during the Fall 2013 semester, I attempted to assess a 100-level course diversity learning outcome using a pre-test/post-test quasi study (N = 32) in which I assigned a WAC-based writing-to-learn (WTL) low-stakes writing assignment that was issued during the first week and last week of class. Students responded in class to the same prompt, and I was able to gather responses for a preliminary round of data collection. Changes from the pre- to post-tests were coded along a four-point scale to reflect excellent, fair, marginal, and poor responses. Results demonstrate that approximately half of the students (n = 18) acquired “excellent” or “fair” responses based on overall development and/or elaboration of response from pre-test. While simple analysis of results demonstrate a surface-level gain in disciplinary knowledge of diversity within a sociological context, difficulties in evaluating such assessment revolve around a number of issues, the most obvious one being how to assess knowledge gained when pre-test responses are already initially strong.