General Education Assessment at West Virginia State University is accomplished using both methods of direct and indirect measures of student learning. The following summarizes measures and instruments used in the process.
Direct Measures of Learning
PART I: Standardized Measures:
College BASE (Basic Academic Subjects Examination) published by University of Missouri. The BASE measures proficiency in English, Writing, Math, Science, and Social Studies. In addition, it measures competencies in critical thinking via interpretive reasoning, strategic reasoning, and adaptive reasoning.
The BASE was selected by the WVSU General Education Committee after having considered several options provided by the HEPC's Assessment Council. The implementation of this measure began during the Fall 2003 –Spring 2004 as a replacement for CAAP tests. The GE Assessment Committee has developed a three-year testing rotation for all baccalaureate programs (click here for rotation schedule).
The completed tests from 12 academic programs are scheduled to be shipped to the publisher for scoring by July 15th. Upon receiving the individual and institutional scores, proper analyses will be conducted and the aggregate results will be made available to the campus community.
? CAAP (Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency) published by ACT. As part of a statewide initiative to assess general education, three modules from CAAP tests were used to assess English, Math, and Critical Thinking.
As a result of the GE faculty's concern regarding the inability of the CAAP testing to provide sufficiently useful information for the purposes of any learning-teaching-curriculum enhancements, administration of the CAAP was discontinued in late 2002 and new measures (i.e., College BASE tests) were selected as described above. ATTACHMENTS 2 and 3 provide a copy of the CAAP results for 2002 and excerpts from the NCHEMS report containing the results of CAAP testing for 2000 and 2001 testing cycles.
PART II: Institutional Measures:
Student Writing Samples from the Core GE courses (GE 100 and 200) along with a faculty-designed rubric measuring both writing competencies and critical thinking have been used to assess attainment of GE core outcomes. During the past two years, several efforts were made to streamline the already-existing portfolio process from core GE courses, to develop a new set of writing prompts, and to revise and validate the scoring rubric.
Also, the GE Committee has begun implementing a new measure, interpretive writing prompts, in the Literature (ENG-150) classes using pretest-posttest method of evaluation. As a result of this effort, a new multiple-option test also has been developed to help faculty in timely scoring and analyzing the results of these measures. [SEE ATTACHMENT 4]
Indirect Measures of Learning
The indirect measures used in assessing GE outcomes are in the form of self-report surveys and questionnaires.
PART I: Institutional Surveys:
Graduate Exit Survey (GES). "Section IV: College Goals and Educational Achievement" of the survey provides some self-report evidence of General Education competency attainment (Click Here to View GES). The GES is administered to all graduating seniors. The results of the survey are published annually and are available on the website.
PART II: General Education Core Questionnaires:
This group of measures consists of four surveys (one for each component of the GE curriculum) which are administered in corresponding GE courses:
American Traditions
? History of Civilization
? Social Structures/Behavior
? Health and Fitness