General Education Core Competencies
The Office of Institutional Assessment and QEP has established a periodic assessment reporting process to ensure that all general education or core curriculum areas engage in the continuous improvement process thereby meeting SACSCOC expectations of Institutional Effectiveness (IE).
ABOUT TEXAS CORE CURRICULUM ASSESSMENT
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board requires Weatherford College to regularly assess the Core Curriculum and submit reports on schedule with the SACSCOC reaffirmation timeframe. Assessment of the Core must address key objectives in the various foundational component areas (e.g., Communication, Mathematics, Life and Physical Science, etc.). In particular, students must be assessed for their attainment of six Core Objectives (or skills) in critical thinking, communication, teamwork, social responsibility, personal responsibility, and empirical and quantitative skills.
OVERVIEW OF CORE CURRICULUM ASSESSMENT AT WEATHERFORD COLLEGE
Assessment of learning outcomes will occur in two-year cycles as outlined below in order to give improvement plans the opportunity to be implemented prior to reassessment. Implementation of the assessment plan will be directed by the Institutional Assessment Committee, facilitated by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and carried out by the academic programs. Assessment of core curriculum courses will typically take place in the fall semester, with analysis and feedback to the faculty occurring in spring, unless course scheduling and student enrollments suggest that assessment in spring would result in a more representative student sample for a particular course in rare situations.
ROLE OF THE OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AT WEATHERFORD COLLEGE
In partnership with the Executive Vice President of Academic Services, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness supports assessment of Core objectives by:
- Developing systems for the annual collection of course level core assessment plans.
- Identifying and training faculty on the use technologies to collect student level data.
- Aggregating student level data on core objectives at the institutional, program and course level.
- Providing consultation and workshops on the development of course level assessment plans.
EXPECTATIONS
Programs at Weatherford College are expected to plan, measure, analyze, report results, and propose improvements on assessment of at least one Core Objectives each year. The specific reporting timeline will be determined by the Institutional Assessment Committee.
Two Year General Education Cycle
GUIDELINES
PLANNING
Programs should identify all approved core courses that are offered during the upcoming fall semester and submit an assessment plan for each of the Core Objectives assessed that year. These assessment plans should detail the type of assignment that will be used to assess learning of the targeted Core Objectives. Although programs can take varying approaches to assessing Core Objectives, they must use the institutionally approved value rubrics. Programs should specify standards that students are expected to achieve in the value rubric. Equally important to note, is that programs should clearly explain when and how assessment activities will take place. The best way to ensure consistency within a program (or beyond) is to have a common assignment or to create a series of common requirements or criteria for an assignment which all faculty agrees to follow. Each fall, core coordinators will submit their assessment plan details to the Office of the Institutional Effectiveness. For information on submitting your assessment plans, please contact the Faculty Assessment Liaison, Emily Yager or the Program’s assigned Assessment Committee Member.
MEASURING
Programs are encouraged to measure student performance on the core objectives in both the fall and spring semesters; however, one semester of data collection is considered sufficient. Although programs have discretion over the timing and frequency of the data collection process, they should measure each Core Objective at least once, but more if appropriate. For example, programs are free to measure students’ attainment of skills at the beginning and end of a semester to implement their pre- and post-test designs and observe any changes in students’ behavior. Prior to fall 2022, select programs have used Campus Labs and Anthology learn to create assessments to be evaluated using a juried evaluation system in these environments. Although the Office of Institutional Effectiveness will continue to provide a repository of the assessments, programs will be required to transition Watermark Planning and Self Study in the Fall of 2024.
REPORTING RESULTS AND PROPOSING IMPROVEMENTS
Data collection will be initiated by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, facilitated by the Institutional Assessment Committee, and carried out by the academic programs. Academic programs will take the lead on data analysis and timely feedback to program faculty regarding student learning outcomes on a course-by-course level. All data and samples will also be provided to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness for compilation and analysis at the College level. Factors to be considered in the analysis may include, but are not limited to, the number of courses that a student took that align to the particular outcome being measured, the student’s prior academic performance (high school ranking, SAT/ACT/TSI score, etc.), the student’s major, and the number of related core curriculum courses that the student completed at Weatherford College. Following analysis of the assessment results, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness will review all assessment results relevant to each outcome and provide feedback to programs participating in core assessment that year in collaboration with the Institutional Assessment Committee. In areas in which student performance is below expectations, they will work with faculty from participating programs and College to develop an improvement plan for that outcome area. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness will also provide an annual report on the activities of the committee, including the assessment results and plans developed during the year, to the College Deans, Executive Vice President of Academic Services and Executive Leadership Team.
IMPLEMENTING CHANGES AND REPORTING IMPACT
Programs should act on their prescribed improvement plan and report on improvements as specified by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
RESOURCES FOR PLANNING AND SELF STUDY (PSS)
How to log into Watermark Planning and Self Study (PSS)
How to Add and Edit an Organization’s Mission in PSS
How to Create and Edit Outcomes in PSS
REPORTING
Guiding Questions for Measures