Intended Student Learning Outcome #1 |
|---|
Critical Thinking & Application: Students will demonstrate critical thinking, written and oral communication skills, and be able to read, understand, and synthesize—in writing and speech—published scholarship in allied subfields of sociomedical sciences, including medical anthropology, medical sociology, public health, epidemiology, biology, geography, psychology, and political science. |
| Alignment with institutional mission and goals | Please type text in boxes below. They will expand as needed. |
|---|---|
| College Mission Reference | The entire college community works together to develop socially responsible citizens with skills and values important to the pursuit of an enriched life and success in the world. |
| Relevant College Values Reference | Provide every student the highest quality education through a rigorous, challenging, and active learning experience in close working relationships with faculty and staff that encourages intellectual engagement and personal growth. |
| Relevant Strategic Plan Focus Area | Learning. |
| Relevant Program Goal or Learning Outcome | Students will demonstrate critical thinking, written and oral communication skills. |
| First Means of Assessment | |
|---|---|
Procedures & Criterion for Success | For the first means of assessment I used sociomedical sciences rubric #2 (see rubric below) to assess the last weekly essay from ANTH 302 Medical Anthropology (sections 1 and 2) for the three sub-learning outcomes of reading comprehension, critical thinking, and synthesize ideas. A total of 52 student essays were assessed using the rubric. The third column indicates the number of students who exceeded, met, approached, or didn’t meet the overall learning outcome of critical thinking and application. |
| Assessment Results | Seventy-five percent of the ANTH 302 students exceeded the learning outcome and demonstrated a thorough understanding of scholarship in allied fields, and the strong ability to analyze and synthesize material from several scholarly sources. Another 21 percent of the students met this learning outcome. Only 4 percent (n=2 students) were only approaching this learning outcome (see rubric and results below) |
| Reflection on Results | After assessing the weekly essays in the Sociomedical Sciences major required course ANTH 302 Medical Anthropology, I determine that major is satisfying the critical thinking and application outcome. Looking more closely at the sub-learning outcomes of reading comprehension, critical thinking, and synthesize ideas, it looks like the area that needs most improvement is critical thinking—"students demonstrate a strong ability to objectively analyze and evaluate an issue, and to provide a well-supported judgment." Only 38.5% of students exceeded this outcome, 44% met it, and 17.% were only approaching it. In particular, students seemed to have trouble providing a well-supported judgement. In order to improve this skill set, a necessity for everyone graduating from this program, the instructor (Melanie Medeiros) will devote class time during the first week of class to teaching students how to write well-supported statements of judgement. Since every student in the major takes ANTH 302, this will increase the likelihood that students graduating have this skill set. Notably, this outcome was assessed during a global pandemic, which has greatly impacted teaching and learning. ANTH 302 was taught synchronously online this year. Although students did well, I believe that the outcomes in this area would have been even stronger if it were not for the pandemic. |
| Rubric #2 Critical Thinking & Application and the Results of the Assessment | Number of Students | |
|---|---|---|
Exceeding (10-12pts) | The student demonstrates a thorough understanding of scholarship in allied fields, and the strong ability to analyze and synthesize material from several scholarly sources. | 39 |
Meeting (7-9 pts) | The student demonstrates basic understanding of scholarship in allied fields, and a good ability to analyze and synthesize material from several scholarly sources. | 11 |
Approaching (4-6pts) | The student demonstrates partial understanding of scholarship in allied fields, and a satisfactory ability analyze and synthesize material from several scholarly sources. | 2 |
Not meeting (3pts) | The student fails to demonstrate basic understanding of scholarship in allied fields, and is unable to analyze and synthesize material from several scholarly sources. | 0 |
Summarize departmental discussion of assessment results. (Discussion Guidelines) Have you made, or are you considering, any changes (to courses, programs, co-curriculum, use of other campus resources) in light of assessment results? If so, please describe the changes below.
Other than approving of the suggestion made by Medeiros to emphasize thesis writing in the ANTH 302 course, the department had no other suggestions.
Parts II and III of the CAC Assessment Report:
II: Identifying of the Learning Outcome Goals of Your Academic Unit for next year.
Goal 1: Students will be able to design, implement and present an independent research project, employing interdisciplinary research and data analysis methods to examine an issue or topic related to health and medicine, including but not limited to the use of qualitative interviews, while understanding and observing ethical guidelines for research with human subjects.
How you will measure your success: We will use Sociomedical Sciences Rubric #3 with ANTH 402 student research proposals, informed consent forms, and research papers as a first means of assessment. For a second means of assessment, we will count the number of sociomedical sciences students who make professional presentations, including GREAT Day (goal of 20% of all majors).
III: Linking Academic Unit Learning Outcome Goals to the College's Mission, Values, and Strategic Plan
Please tie your goals for the upcoming year to Geneseo's declared values (Learning, Creativity, Inclusivity, Civic Responsibility, and Sustainability) or to the more granular Focus Areas and Objectives outlined in the Geneseo 2021 Strategic Plan.