General Education Assessment Update

Fall 2008

Report to Faculty

Coming up à In spring 2009, NMC will assess student performance on the Critical Thinking general education outcome using artifacts and the CAAP Critical Thinking test.  Please see the Assessment Schedule below for upcoming activities.

In the Resources for Faculty section you will find some links to pertinent sections of the Institutional Research assessment website that may help in preparing you to participate in assessment.

See the Quick Results section below for information regarding last year's assessment of the Communications artifacts.

Look for more specific information on assessment in the coming weeks from academic area chairs and Institutional Research.  Do not hesitate to contact Darby Hiller (995-1084) with your questions regarding the general education outcomes and assessment methods.  We are looking forward to working with you.

 

 

Assessment Schedule

2008-2009

 

CAAP Critical Thinking Test

 

Test Dates:  February 2 - February 13, 2009

Faculty to be notified by December 1, 2008, of course selection to participate in CAAP testing

 

 

Critical Thinking Artifacts

Faculty to be notified mid-January of selection to submit student work

Mark your calendar:  Artifact Scoring Day is Thursday, May 7, 2009

 

 

 

2009-2010

 

Communications Artifacts

Collecting fall 2009, scoring early January 2010 (slightly earlier schedule stay tuned)

 

Resources for Faculty

Rubric for Communications

Rubric for Critical Thinking

Artifact Guidelines

NMC's General Education Policy

Assignment examples:

Critical Thinking #1

Critical Thinking #2

Critical Thinking #3

Artifact Methodology

CAAP Critical Thinking Test Methodology

 

Quick Results - Artifacts

Percent of near-graduates sufficient or above

2005

2006

2007

2008

Goal

Communication

62.2%

76.2%

 

87.1%

100%

Strongest Skill

Demonstrating an awareness of audience

Weakest Skill

Supporting main idea with relevant material and documented sources

Critical Thinking

79.3%

 

72.4%

 

100%

Strongest Skill

Identifying issues or problems

Weakest Skill

Demonstrating an understanding of different perspectives in solving a problem

For more detailed Artifact Reports, click here

 

Quick Results - CAAP Test

CAAP Critical Thinking in 2007, administered in 21 courses to 388 students

What the CAAP Critical Thinking Test tells us.

1.  Benchmarking NMC students' performance at the national level

2.  Assess performance by content area in the aggregate

3.  Compare overall performance by education level (value-added)

For CAAP Results, click here.

 

Quick Results - Graduate Follow-Up Survey

Graduate Perceptions over Time

Percent reporting their skill level at sufficient or above

2006 (N=203)

2007 (N=243)

2008 (N=263)

Communications

93.2%

91.0%

93.2%

Critical Thinking

96.3%

95.0%

95.4%

For more survey results, click here.