1999-00 Assessment Report

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Prepared by Assistant Dean Robert O. Ray

Based on Reports from Departments

October 1, 2000

In June of 1998 all Departments in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences submitted plans for the assessment of student learning outcomes.  I am pleased to say that all Departments have implemented plans but with a fair degree of variability in both approach and result.  As in the creation of the plans, the degree of success and progress is greatly influenced by previous experience in assessment, financial and staffing resources, and other context driven crises.  The departments are continuing to refine plans and to learn about assessment activities as they move forward.  Each department has developed plans consistent with their abilities, interests and resources and all understand that assessment is an important part of continuous improvement in their academic activities.

            The Assessment Plan for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences was developed by a special faculty committee composed of the chairs of all the faculty committees dealing with undergraduate or graduate education in the College.  Both the faculty Curriculum Committee and the faculty Academic Planning Council approved the Plan. 

The CALS Assessment Plan calls for each department to: (1) identify the knowledge and skills its students should acquire; (2) develop a mechanism to measure the extent to which this knowledge and skill has been acquired; and (3) use the information to make appropriate changes to improve student learning.  This assessment process is identical for both undergraduate and graduate education. 

The College Strategy

            The College faculty deliberately adopted a Ïbottom-upÓ strategy for the planning and implementing of assessment. First, department plans are developed exclusively by department faculty.  The great advantages of this strategy are: (1) the plans are very well adapted to the goals of the departmentÌs academic program; (2) the plans tend to be highly thoughtful and reflective of the departmentÌs philosophy; (3) once a plan is developed there is a very high probability that the plan will be implemented.  The disadvantages of this Ïbottom-upÓ approach are largely due to the individualistic nature of departmental responses: (1) variations in the speed of adoption of assessment activity; (2) variations in the specificity of statements of knowledge and skill outcomes; (3) variations in the level of analytical power of the measurement system; (4) uneven amounts of faculty time and departmental attention devoted to assessment in general.

             The second principle of the CollegeÌs strategy is that  assessment activity should be supported by the resources available in the department.  The assessment plan is a ÏlocalÓ plan, produced and implemented by department faculty, even though the use of external resources might produce more elegant analyses.  In general, this Ïlocal controlÓ of assessment implementation means that the activity is not as extensive, and the approach is not as scientifically or statistically rigorous, as an approach that uses external resources to design and implement detailed assessment studies. On the other hand, the activities are thoughtful and are targeted on issues the faculty believe are important.  Most important, the assessment activity is sustainable over time by resources that are under the control of the faculty in the department.  Assessment is not dependent on external resources that cannot be sustained in the future.  Again, one consequence of the reliance on ÏlocalÓ resources is variation in the level of assessment activity by department.

Implicitly, the College implementation strategy accepts the variation in the plans and implementation activity as a reasonable price to pay for a set of plans that are well-suited to the departmentÌs program, implemented by departmental faculty, likely to produce results that the faculty in the department will use, and likely to be sustainable over the long run.

Summary of 1999-00 Activities

            In the last year, Department have been pursuing their plans in varied ways and with varied outcomes.  Because many departments had included an alumni survey as part of their assessment plan, the CALS Office of Academic Student Affairs received a special grant from the Office of the Provost to assist interested departments design, conduct and analyze assessment information from recent (2-3 years out) graduates. Most, but not all departments, were interested in participating.  Five departments completed the entire survey process last year.  Six others completed part but not all of the process and four were interested but had not begun to act.  To facilitate those who were interested but needed assistance, the project will continue through the next year with funds from the Office of the Provost.  Those who were successful in completing their efforts on this project find the results useful and are using them to focus their academic energies.  Department interest and activity in this project is summarized in the attached table.

            In the following section, the assessment activities of College Departments are presented.  While all Departments report continued progress and attention, some have been able to dedicate more energy to the process than others.  There are a number of reasons for this.  A number of Departments are preparing for external reviews by professional agencies or peer review mandated by external bodies. Others have been involved with curriculum revision and new program development.

Departmental Activities

Agricultural and Applied Economics

            An alumni survey was developed with assistance from the Office of the Dean for Academic Student Affairs Assessment Project coordinator.  After a few technical delays, the surveys were mailed in the summer of 2000 and analysis of the results is underway.  In addition, a survey of graduating seniors was conducted.  The survey was sent by email at the end of the semester and results were compiled over the summer and analysis is currently under way. The results from both surveys will be used in this year's Undergraduate Committee Meetings.

            In addition to the formal surveys, anecdotal information is being collected from incoming new majors.  We are interested in knowing what brings these students into the department.  A focus group of AAE undergraduates was organized to solicit student suggestions for ways to improve undergraduate advising.  While students were uniformly positive some useful suggestions were made.  The summary will be distributed to all undergraduate advisors in the department and will be discussed at an upcoming meeting. Finally, after two meetings of the Undergraduate Committee, curriculum improvement will be the topic of a planned fall faculty retreat.

Agronomy

The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Animal Sciences

All of the graduating Animal Science and Poultry Science majors were interviewed during the past year. No general concerns with the curriculum surfaced. Professors who teach the capstone course (AS 435), recognized a need for a stronger statistics background in students. Two years ago AS 435 was increased from 1 to 2 cr. so that the Professor could teach an additional approx. 1 cr. of statistics within this course (and so that more students seminar presenters could be accommodated in the course). This adjustment to AS 435 will continue and the benefits of a relatively new course, Statistics 371 can be assessed.

In the graduate program, faculty within their discipline group take responsibility for curriculum and student assessment. The graduate curriculum within the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences is changed dramatically, beginning with fall, 2000.

There is no formal process for using information gathered to make changes in the curriculum/program. Change depends primarily upon faculty experience, subsequent discussion, and initiative taken by concerned faculty.

The department is particularly concerned by the tendency of basic science departments to eliminate service courses. The growth in biological knowledge is stretching faculty resources and their ability to span the breadth of knowledge from whole animal to molecular perspectives.

In the next year the department plans to open the dialogue between Animal Sciences graduate students and the chair. An Animal Science Graduate Student Forum was held in September where students were encouraged to raise issues of concern to them.

Bacteriology

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Biochemistry

The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Biological Systems Engineering

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Biology Major

This year faculty began preparing for assessment by instituting a database to track all students including those who graduate and those who transfer out of the major. This data base is now in place. To determine how and what to ask of students in the major the program directors have contacted Assistant Dean Jeffrey Hamm in the School of Education who has been working on assessment plans for the Council on Academic Advising for over four years. This year the faculty will develop a strategy and mechanism for assessment and for implementation by the end of the year.  The faculty have also undertaken assessment by holding meetings of both advisors and students which identified weak areas in the description of required courses. No need for changes in the requirements for the major were identified.

Dairy Science

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Entomology

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Food Science

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Forest Ecology and Management

The undergraduate assessment plan has been implemented for several years. In the last year there was a survey of alumni from past 5 years, a review of capstone project reports, undergraduate-exit interviews, surveys of graduating seniors. The department is reviewing the curriculum as part of a larger process, but the alumni survey results noted a need to do this as well. There is an effort to get more field practice into courses, and are even greater emphasis is placed on getting students to work in applied field jobs in summer.  A major challenge to the assessment this year was getting seniors to agree to attend the exit interviews.

For Graduate programs the department adopted an assessment plan in 1998.  It is yet to be implemented it but intending to do so as a goal in this next year. Markers proposed for graduate students include time to graduation, employment success, publications from theses/dissertations, exit interviews/surveys.

In the coming year, the use of exit interviews and surveys will continue with undergraduates. The Department will also begin discussions with advisory committee members on curriculum content. For Graduate students the plan will be implemented.

Genetics

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Horticulture

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Landscape Architecture

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Life Sciences Communication

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Nutritional Sciences-Dietetics

Procedures to assess student outcomes for the professional B.S. degree programs in Dietetics are continuous.  The program recently implemented new procedures to assess/monitor the progress of graduate students enrolled in the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Nutritional Sciences (IGPNS) towards completion of the Ph.D.  Two procedures were adopted after faculty review and approval: 1) forms to assess student performance and provide written feedback to students on the oral Ph.D. qualifying exams; 2) required annual meetings of a student's research advisory committee once dissertator status is achieved.  The purpose of these new measures is to provide graduate students with regular feedback regarding their progress towards completion of the Ph.D. in an effort to avoid problems and ensure a reasonable time frame.

Plant Pathology

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Rural Sociology

The central mechanism by which the Department of Rural Sociology assesses educational outcomes is a systematic program of exit interviews of graduating seniors. For the past four years, the Chair of the department has taken responsibility for implementing these interviews, and we believe that they provide an intimate and personalized approach to gauging both student achievement and program efficacy. The interviews have explored studentsÌ views on the quality of their overall educational experience in the Department of Rural Sociology and solicited feedback on specific dimensions of that experience. A written summary of each interview and an evaluation of each studentÌs achievements relative to the departmentÌs educational goals has been maintained. The Instruction Committee analyzes the interview reports and is responsible for recommending any policy or program changes it deems necessary or appropriate.

The May 2000 graduates were a particularly thoughtful group of students. Not only did they exhibit excellence in their own work, they also made a variety of comments to which the department has actively responded. Foremost among the concerns of this cohort of students was a desire that the student outreach initiative they had established (the Rural Sociology Outreach Undergraduate Project, ÏRSOUPÓ) be institutionalized. Accordingly, the chair has appointed an RSOUP committee in the department, and steps are being taken to facilitate the continuance of this valuable activity. Nearly all of the graduating seniors interviewed also had extensive comments regarding the curricular structure and written documentation of the departmentÌs three degree concentrations.

The Instruction Committee is now engaged in a process of review of the departmentÌs offerings and is developing a simplified and rationalized set of Ïrequirement sheetsÓ in response to studentsÌ expressed needs. Student assessments reflected the facultyÌs own sense of the need for a social science degree program in CALS. The Instruction committee will further explore development of such an option. Finally, the department is expanding its support for internships as a result of expanded student interest in such experiences.

The Department of Rural Sociology has found its assessment mechanism to be a valuable and effective means of gauging student achievement and of soliciting information that can be used to improve the educational programs of the department. The department has been responsive to the signals it has received from the assessment process, and will continue to be alert to opportunities to improve the educational experience it provides.

Soil Science

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Wildlife Ecology

At the undergraduate level the assessment plan created in 1996, identified 15 areas of knowledge and skills undergraduates should posses to function in the field of wildlife ecology and conservation.  Initially the department planned to have assessments of each area embedded in the curriculum and to use selected exams and class projects to quantify competency.  In practice this proved cumbersome and, subsequently, the department determined that the same information on competency could be obtained simply from student's grades in the courses that addressed each of the educational goals.  Theses data have been collected but not yet entered into a spreadsheet to track year-to-year changes in student competency, or changes that may reflect improvement in our curriculum.  The impression is that there are no glaring weaknesses in the curriculum and that each of the 15 goals are being met.  However, the curriculum has changed in several ways to reflect minor deficiencies identified by the assessment process.

Assessment at the graduate level is based on qualitative evaluation of student performance on oral examinations (final exams for M.S. students, qualifying exams, preliminary exams, and final exams for Ph.D. students).  For the most part, graduate student competency is excellent.  However, several deficiencies have been identified in history and development of the field of wildlife ecology and conservation.  This will be strengthened by seminars on related topics. 

Urban and Regional Planning

            The Department reports it is executing assessment as proposed in its initial plan.

Summary

            Assessment continues as a high priority for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.  Several committees in the College address the topic either directly or indirectly as part of their mandate.  The Curriculum Committee of the college and most departments continually discuss refinements and improvements of curricula to enhance the preparation of College graduates.  The Instructional Improvement Committee has a particular interest in instructional improvement throughout the college and the Office of Academic Student Affairs is persistent in seeking meaningful and useful learning experiences for students.  There is considerable evidence that faculty are increasingly concerned with making the learning environment and outcomes as relevant and rich as possible for all students.

Alumni Assessment Survey Status By Department¹

¹Simple status of assessment in connection with funds from the Office of the Provost.  Many of those listed as non-interested were in the middle of external review preparation and assessment will become a part of their reports.