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Posted 11-22-99

Faculty assess outcome of educational efforts

Schools across Case Western Reserve University are working on how to assess the outcome for students of their educational efforts.

Joyce Jentoft, vice provost and dean of graduate studies, presented her first report to the Faculty Senate on these outcome assessment efforts. The report came at the Faculty Senate's November 9 meeting.

"Reflective of the various 'cultures' of education across the University, of the creativity of our faculty and of the [schools'] differing educational goals, these efforts are non-uniform except in their goal of improving the educational offerings provided to students," Jentoft states in the written report accompanying her presentation.

"Those engaged in our outcome assessment efforts have taken seriously the challenge of improving the learning environment on the CWRU campus," she adds.

Each of the University's constituent faculties has an outcome assessment committee. The chairs of these committees meet periodically with Jentoft, who is charged with reporting twice a year to the Faculty Senate on these efforts.

These are the outcome assessment committee chairs:

• Applied Social Sciences: Kathleen Farkas
• Arts and Sciences: Angela Woollacott
• Dentistry: Tim Whittingham
• Engineering: Donald Feke
• Law: William Leatherberry
• Management: Richard Boyatzis
• Medicine: Marcia Wile
• Nursing: Barbara Daly
• Physical education: David Hutter

"The whole campus is activated in learning how to fulfill our educational mission in a better way," Jentoft said.

Accrediting agencies have expressed increasing interest in outcome assessment activities. CWRU faculty have explored interests in outcome assessment since the 1980s.

Jentoft noted that these forces have been joined with efforts by the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) to lead faculty in exploring how students learn, not just what faculty should be teaching them.

"Schools have embraced [outcome assessment] enthusiastically as a tool for improving their educational programs," Jentoft said. "A lot of schools have really taken a global approach to what their educational mission is, what they're trying to accomplish when they're trying to educate their students, and how they can measure whether they've succeeded."

Measuring whether students have mastered critical concepts in a field is simpler than assessing other goals for student learning, she noted. Issues such as creativity, professionalism, and ethics are "intangibles critical to a well-rounded education, and critical to their success as a professional."

As important as these qualities may be, schools are breaking new ground by finding ways to assess the success of students developing in these areas.

"I think there's a really great value in the process," Jentoft said. "As faculty, we weren't having a conversation about the intangibles."

Here are some examples of outcome assessment activities which the University's constituent faculties are pursuing:

• Case School of Engineering: Faculty are in the second year of revising the undergraduate engineering curriculum. "At the same time, the faculty have been challenged with identifying distinctive features of a CSE education and determining whether those features are being successfully transmitted. The features are: mastery of the fundamentals of engineering, creativity, leadership skills, professionalism, and societal awareness," Jentoft's summary report states.
• College of Arts and Sciences: Departments are developing policies on outcome assessment and must report annually on their progress to the dean. "A pilot program is underway to assess the development of student's writing skills as they progress through their undergraduate years," the report states.
• Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing: The school is developing an outcome assessment plan for faculty review and approval. The plan will include assessing outcomes in critical thinking, therapeutic interventions, communication, and employment rates.
• Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences: Some 42 first-year students in the master's degree program have volunteered to participate in a pilot group that will follow a learning approach based on outcome assessment. "These students will use faculty-led learning groups to develop ability statements, academic portfolios and self-assessment tools to integrate information and experiences of their graduate education," Jentoft's summary report states.
• School of Dentistry: The dental school is revising its 1995 assessment program in response to changing guidelines and expectations from the Joint Commission on Dental Education. Among the school's goals are to develop "a more central data collection system and select fewer areas for measurement, ones that are proving to be more useful in their evaluation of performance," Jentoft states in her summary report.
• School of Graduate Studies: The school is distributing a survey to new graduates, as well as five- and 10-year alumni, addressing "the quality of the educational experience," Jentoft writes. "The survey results are shared with every program director and dean as a way to encourage improvement of the graduate educational experience."
• School of Law: "Recent attention has been focused on early identification of students who need extra help in being successful in classes and in passing the Bar exam," Jentoft states. "The School of Law has had a mandate of instilling skills and values into its students, and has integrated values into all courses, including, for example, ethical dilemmas into case discussions."
• School of Medicine: "Two major measurements of successful medical education are results on the United States Medical Licensing Exam and the match between student's choices for residency placement and their placement assignments," Jentoft states. More than 80 percent of the school's 1999 graduates received one of their top three choices for residencies. The school is developing a curriculum for "medicine for the new millennium." This effort is "moving toward a integrated approach across all four years of medical school," Jentoft states. "Simultaneously, the focus of evaluation is directed toward mastery of (stated) learning objectives."
• Weatherhead School of Management: The school is focusing its outcome assessment efforts on students in the M.B.A. program, but longitudinal studies are also in progress for the executive M.B.A. and Executive Doctorate in Management programs. "Richard Boyatzis is a recognized expert on assessment and as such, is wonderful resource for the University on these issues," Jentoft states.
• Physical Education: Students in physical education classes, intramural sports, and varsity athletic teams will receive a survey via e-mail next semester to assess the outcome of these experiences. The department's desired outcomes listed on the survey include developing "an awareness of the importance of personal physical fitness within the context of wellness" and possessing "leadership qualities and responsible and responsive citizenship."

Read Jentoft's full summary of the schools' outcome assessment committee reports.

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