Japanese Studies B.A Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan: Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Outcomes Assessment Plan: Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures
Date: December 1998
Certificate or Degree Program: Bachelor of Arts: Japanese Studies

Mission: To provide quality undergraduate education to our students, support the university's mission of recognizing and fostering diversity.

Goal: To provide an in-depth study of Japanese language and culture that will enable students to apply linguistic skills and cultural insights to specific career opportunities or graduate study programs.

Background: The Japanese Studies Major includes three components:

1. Japanese Language and Area Studies at UAF

2. One to two semester at an approved university in Japan.

3. A discipline-based, career-oriented minor and concentration area.

Capstone Course: When the Japanese Studies major was designed we included a capstone course, Japanese 475, Seminar on Modern Japan. This course is designed to tie together all aspects of the major and to demonstrate the student's competency in each area. Students study and discuss issues in contemporary Japanese society, basing their analyses on previous studies, their experience in Japan, and course readings in both Japanese and English. The students write a seminar paper based in part on research which they began during their time in Japan. The paper should reflect their knowledge of Japanese society and focus on their career concentration area. (Example: one of our Russian students with a business concentration area wrote a paper on cultural problems in Russian-Japanese business transactions.) The papers and presentations are evaluated by peers as well as by two professors in the Japanese Studies major.

INTENDED OUTCOMES/ OBJECTIVES	ASSESSMENT CRITERIA	IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURES (what, when, who)
1) Students will demonstrate an intermediate to advanced command of spoken and written Japanese.	Students will be evaluated at the beginning and end of their study abroad experience.	Students will attend a language program in Japan after 2-3 years of language study at UAF.
2) Students will demonstrate a broad knowledge of Japanese society and culture, which they will be able to apply to a specific research/career focus.	Japanese Studies majors will take a capstone course, Jpn 475, described above.	Faculty will evaluate seminar papers as described above.
3) Students will demonstrate knowledge in a specific discipline, which will help them augment career/graduate study opportunities.	The Japanese Studies adviser will communicate with the concentration area adviser to follow the student's progress.	The student will take 12 upper division courses in a discipline-based concentration area. The student will apply this knowledge to the seminar paper in the capstone course, described above.