Sent on behalf of the General Education Oversight Committee (GEOC)

Do you want to affect how General Education (GE) courses will be assessed by the General Education Oversight Committee (GEOC) in the future? Our students deserve the best learning experience we can provide, and assessment helps us to understand where we are helping students excel, where we need to do better, and what actions we can take to improve our students’ learning. Here’s your opportunity in the early stages of planning to ensure that Gen Ed assessment criteria and processes will provide useful information:

In August 2018, Wayne State will be hosting an assessment coach from the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment to work with faculty, staff, and students on adapting nationally validated rubrics to Quantitative Experience (QE), Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and Social Inquiry (SI) courses as possible tools for collecting direct evidence of student learning. (An indirect measure is also being planned separately.) This event will inform the design and pilot of an assessment process for the General Education program.

How can you have an impact now?

1. Help identify the range of disciplinary variations that each rubric must accommodate by submitting online:
   1. the description of one or more assignments from your QE, DEI, or SI course that elicit the learning outcomes for your course’s General Education focus area
   2. samples of that assignment from students that have completed it in the past.

Submissions of activity descriptions and samples of student work will be accepted through July 31, 2018.

2. Participate in piloting the national rubrics and editing them at a workshop on Monday, August 27, 2018, led by an expert from the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, Dr. Errin Heyman. 

Please RSVP online for the session(s) you want to attend:

1. 1. Designing Assessment for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Gen Ed Courses, Aug. 27, 9:30 m. - 11:30 a.m.
   2. Designing Assessment for Social Inquiry Gen Ed Courses, Aug. 27, 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
   3. Designing Assessment for Quantitative Experience Gen Ed Courses, Aug. 27, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Want more or different options? You can have an impact later in the process if you:

3. Pilot the adapted rubric with your Fall 2018 or Winter 2019 students
4. Provide feedback to the GEOC about your piloting experience.

Concerned about participating?

The pilot program is intended to inform the design of our general education program’s assessment process. It will not assess individual teaching performance and thus will not be used as evidence in promotion and tenure or hiring decisions. See the FAQs sheet if you have other concerns as well.

What will happen to your feedback?

The GEOC Assessment Subcommittee will compile and analyze all feedback and report to the GEOC, which will make a recommendation to the provost for a General Education program assessment process.

Who should I contact with questions?

Any member of the GEOC Assessment Subcommittee can answer your questions.

We look forward to your participation and input. Thank you.

The GEOC Assessment Subcommittee