Best Practices in Assessment

For questions about the College's outcomes assessment practices, contact the Academic Affairs Office at (570) 326-3761, ext. 7310.

Penn College’s academic deans have identified faculty who have crafted successful student learning outcomes activities that warrant replication. The “best practices” detailed below are presented as abstracts intended to whet interest. Faculty are encouraged to consult with the identified practitioners for more information.

Multi-level Critique of Landscape Design – Carl Bower

This assessment activity works toward making the “subjective” more concrete while providing students a three-tiered response to their projects. The project requires students to create a landscape design that satisfies the client’s expectation while also satisfying the principles related to a thorough and successful proposal.

The instructor creates a rubric that encompasses both needs. The rubric is applied, first, by the student-designer as a self-assessment, attaching his/her grade; it is then applied by a group of three or four peers who collectively study the proposal, arriving at a group grade. Finally, it comes to the professor, who determines the “official” grade, which most likely mirrors the first two grades.

This approach develops the students’ ability to appraise their own work critically and to honor client preferences/expectations (rather than their own), introducing the students to a level of professionalism necessary in their field.

Outcome: Identified the need to provide additional instruction regarding design elements and overall functionality to move students beyond superficial evaluations. Also added a lesson to assist students in articulating their concepts.

Teamwork Survey for Industrial Project Management (Plastics) – John Bartolomucci

The faculty and the advisory committee recognized a weakness in the major, specifically, students’ performance in a team/work group environment. To address this weakness, the faculty undertook a research project that, first, required students to respond to a survey instrument following their completion of the first team project. The survey results revealed the key roadblocks to effective teamwork. In response, the plastics faculty recommended that instructional strategies be embedded in the course, which required an adjustment to the lab-lecture hours. When the revised course is taught, the teamwork survey will function as a pre/post assessment.

Outcome: This project yielded a formal report that connects the study to the College goals, to the academic school’s mission and goals, and to the program and course goals. The survey and resulting action demonstrate the inverted pyramid approach to assessment and stand as an example of “closing the loop.” The continued use of the survey instrument will ensure ongoing attention to the development of teamwork skills.

Business Management Capstone Assessment – Gerald (Chip) Baumgardner

A four-pronged assessment is built into the capstone and combines a commercially-prepared test with other measures:

Application of the Major Field Test in Business (ETS instrument) offers norming as well as individual student performance information. The data enables the department to identify the strengths/weakness of its curricular approach and provides students with information about their cumulative mastery of the material.
A rubric, mirroring program objectives, allows for individual assessment of each capstone presentation.
Student Satisfaction Survey (initiated in 2002, thus providing longitudinal data) serves the faculty’s assessment review as well as the two agencies accrediting the major.
The Business Strategy Game, an online simulation with 3,000 teams participating, provides Penn College students with another norming opportunity; moreover, the simulation promotes further development of technology and communication skills.

Outcome: An analysis of student performance identified a need for a curriculum revision, adding a course in quantitative methods. In addition, faculty placed a stronger emphasis on oral communication skills within courses and adjusted the rubric for MGT 497, Business Policy and Strategy.

Four-Semester Research Project Culminating in Automotive Management Capstone – Ron Garner

Students are introduced to the methodology required to complete a major research project, one that spans four semesters of work and that integrates the program goals with the goals of the baccalaureate core curriculum. From research proposal, précis, data collection, to the completed report that culminates in recommendations, the students’ theses incorporate statistics, research and writing skills, and technical/management skills related to the automotive industry. Students maintain a notebook of all related correspondence, drafts, and reference materials, which hones their organizational skills.

Outcome: Additional content on research/credibility of sources in the field has been integrated within the courses; the program also underwent a minor curriculum change to alter the curriculum sequence.

Pre- and post-testing in Plastics Course – Kirk Cantor

Pre- and post testing of students allow faculty to measure student progress as well as the effectiveness of teaching methodology. The data indicates student achievement from the start through the completion of the course, while also identifying topics/concepts that require additional focus. Four years of data has been collected and analyzed via this pre/post-test approach in an extrusion course; the data revealed a lower-than-anticipated improvement in one topic area.

Outcome: In response to the data indicators, the course was modified on two levels: specific objectives are identified for each class meeting to help students focus on the major points and the course content was increased to respond to the topic area of concern. The pre/post assessment tool will be used in subsequent years to determine the success of these modifications.