| The Mathematics Department also assessed the effectiveness of mathematics courses in meeting the guidelines that the department set forth as appropriate for the Quantitative Literacy Requirement. A stratified sample of 10 sections of quantitative literacy courses was randomly selected. The sample is stratified to ensure that courses at all levels and from all programs, specifically the School of Professional Studies, are included in the assessment regime. In each of the selected sections, 5 questions were imbedded in the final exams. These questions address quantitative literacy skills that are part of every quantitative literacy course, including logical inferences, graphical analysis, and careful reading. Most instructors use these questions as “bonus” questions on the final to encourage students to take them seriously. The Chair of the Mathematics Department tabulated and analyzed the data. The results were incorporated into the assessment report of the Mathematics Department. Results were also be shared and discussed at the Mathematics Department Fall Retreat in August. This retreat is attended by all full-time and adjunct mathematics faculty. At that time, results will be analyzed discussed, and incorporated into all quantitative literacy courses. |
| The Mathematics Department began the practice of posting Department Meeting Minutes so all department members can view agendas and minutes at all times. |
| The results of the quantitative literacy survey are available at this link. Items of particular concern are highlighted in red. The actual questions are not included in this report so they can be used in future years to gauge improvement. Students clearly struggled with the question involving logical implication, as well as the question that involved noticing the the problem involved two different units of measure. We were disappointed that no improvement was observed over the previous year's results. |
The results above will be shared with the entire mathematics department, including adjunct faculty, and the fall mathematics department retreat. Results of the senior seminar survey will be shared with this year's senior seminar class.
At the fall retreat, faculty will discuss ways to address the general education deficiencies discovered through this year's assessment activities. We will compose a list of activities and strategies that can be implemented in all general education courses, and implement them in the 2005-2006 school year. We anticipate that the syllabi of all general education courses will be affected by these results, and in turn, general education courses will be changed to reflect the mutually acceptable recommendations.
This year's assessment activities brought to light a number of important improvements that needed to be made, and we expect to continue to assess our effectiveness in these areas. For the 2005-2006 school year, we will repeat the general education assessment activity to determine whether the strategies we devise at the fall retreat lead to improvement. We will also compose detailed course descriptions and assessment guidelines for each course in the curriculum. A draft of one course description will be discussed at the August retreat, and all descriptions will be examined at department meetings throughout the year.
Report Prepared By: Mark Snavely
Date: 8/31/05
Academic Year: 2004-2005