ENGL/FL 200X-World Literature, Student Assessment Process
Departments of English & Foreign Language

The English and Foreign Language Departments have decided to adopt a two-part assessment process for 200X.

The first part is a pre- and post-semester questionnaire designed to match the core guidelines for 200X. Faculty will read both sets of student responses from selected sections of the course, and write a brief report describing the results.

The second part is an entry questionnaire designed to gather information that can help us determine reasons for student success and failure in the class. This questionnaire is preceded by three pages of explanation and justification for using this method of assessment for 200X.

Draft of a Questionnaire Designed to Assess the World Literature Component of the Core Curriculum (English 200X):

1. What is Literature? How does it differ from other forms of writing, such as instruction manuals, political and scientific treatises, minutes of meetings & etc.?
2. Name some benefits of reading literature.
3. Who determines whether a particular work of literature is important?
4. Define the term "oral tradition." Give an example of a work of literature which was either produced by or influenced by such a tradition.
5. Name an important woman writer and the title of something she wrote. Why is this work important? What are its particular merits? How does the writer's gender contribute to the significance of the work?
6. Name a work of literature written by a third world writer or by an African American, Asian American, or Native American writer. What is the particular merit of this work and what kind of a social or cultural contribution does it make?
7. Give an example of each of the following literary genres: a) epic, b) novel, c) drama, d) lyric or narrative poem, e) short story.
8. Name a literary work that you consider "ancient." Explain its relevance.
9. Name a "modern" work of literature that you think will be considered important a century from now. Why do you think people will still be interested in reading it?
10. Give an example of a work of literature which you consider beautiful. What is beautiful about it?

DRAFT

Proposed Outcomes Assessment Plan for English 200X

Given that the key purposes of assessment are to ask important questions about student learning, to get some meaningful information on these questions, and to use the information for academic improvement, this portion of the English 200X outcomes assessment plan provides a means to collect, organize, and analyze quantifiable data concerning student performance. The purpose of such information collection is to provide a number of perspectives from which assessors can produce and discuss relevant questions concerning English 200X. This approach is not initially content specific; instead, it seeks first to consider specific structural issues (enrollment, rentention, grades, class distribution, etc.) in order to discuss the position of English 200X within the architecture of both the English and the Core curricula. In turn, such discussion will lead to strategies for maintaining or improving the educational quality of English 200X.

The entry and exit criteria for this plan consist of two parts:

1). Entry. All English 200X students will complete the attached Student Information Sheet during the first class or as soon as possible thereafter.

2). Exit. At the end of the semester, relevant information (names, grades, class standing, Major, etc.) for all English 200X students will be downloaded from the Banner system DSD Query Menu.

The instrument designed by the English Department to collect entry information is a modified form of the Student Information Sheet. The categories listed and the questions asked identify the educational experience of the student with a particular focus on the English curriculum. While the categories may appear simplistic, they provide valuable information which does not appear on Banner Preliminary Class Rosters issued to faculty by the registrar.

* For example, while the 1997-98 UAF catalog states that prerequisites for English 200X include "ENGL 111X and sophomore standing or permission of the instructor," the Preliminary Class Rosters do not include standing. Hopefully, these students have demonstrated that they have fulfilled the prerequisites for the course prior to registration, but the instructor has no way of knowing unless these questions are asked. Moreover, since freshmen require "permission of the instructor," it would be helpful for the instructors to know if (or perhaps why) freshmen appear on the Preliminary Class Rosters without their permission.

Part of the justification for this enry data, then, is simply to construct personal and academic profiles in order to identify whether or not students qualify to be in the course. Further, since a typical English 200X course may include first semester freshmen as well as graduating seniors, this data collectively may form a rough outline of the range of academic ability and performance.

At the end of the semester, results from English 200X will be sorted and downloaded from the DSD Query Menu. Sorting will take place according to the categories identified on the Student Information Sheet, and will be cross-referenced with the Student Information Sheets collected at the beginning of the semester. Such sorting provides valuable insight into student outcomes.

* For example, when the DSD Query Menu was asked to sort English 200X for Fall 1996 according to grades and class standing, it revealed that thirty-four (34) freshmen had enrolled in the course. Of these, grade results were as follows:

7   A's
6   B's
3   C's
0   D's
6   F's
2   NB's
10  W's

Two of the many ways of looking at this information are these:

1). 16 of the 34 freshmen completed the course with a grade of C or higher.

2). 18 of the 34 freshmen either failed the course or failed to complete it.

Interpreting this data, of course, leads to a number of possible assessment questions:

1). Why were 34 freshmen enrolled in the course to begin with?
2). Did they meet the prerequisites?
3). Is a failure and/or withdrawal rate of more than 50% of freshmen acceptable for this course?
4). Does this failure/withdrawal rate produce the perception of a retention problem?
5). How many of these freshmen subsequently retake the course and pass it?
6). How many of these students have taken English 211X or 213X prior to taking 200X?

Such questions about a select population, in turn, produce larger abstract and structural questions about assessing the course, such as:

1). Do specific profiles emerge about students who fail or withdraw from the course?
2). How can the retention issue be defined or perhaps redefined in English 200X?
3). Should the prerequisites be reconsidered?
4). Should the course be relocated within the English curriculum?

The strategies for implementing such a plan are simple:

1). Collect Student Information Sheets and store them in one location until the end of the semester.
2). Provide English 200X instructors with access to, and instruction about, the DSD Query Menu.
3). Provide funding for English 200X instructors to meet, discuss, and revise assessment questions and issues at the end of each semester.

as of 12/3/97