SACS Accreditation

3.5.1 College-level Competencies

Comprehensive Standard: The institution identifies college-level competencies within the general education core and provides evidence that graduates have attained those competencies.

X Compliance
    Partial Compliance
    Non-compliance

Narrative:

The general education learning outcomes at Georgia State University are a product of a series of policy decisions [1] [1] and accompanying practices that have shifted the conversation about undergraduate student learning from a content focus within each department to an emphasis on shared responsibilities for teaching and assessing those skills which provide the framework for content and tools for life-long learning. Georgia State University's general education policy was approved in February of 2004 when the University Senate adopted the current general education learning outcomes [2]: written communication, oral communication, collaboration, critical thinking, contemporary issues, quantitative skills, and technology skills. These skills are seen as central to Georgia State University's Mission “to provide access to quality education for diverse groups of students, to educate leaders for the State of Georgia and the nation, and to prepare citizens for lifelong learning in a global society.”

Evidence that our students attain these competencies comes primarily from the course-embedded assessment of general education outcomes in the core curriculum (cf. Requirement 2.7.3). Supporting evidence is drawn from course-embedded assessment of general education learning outcomes in the majors, as well as the examination of the results for Georgia State University seniors on the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Georgia State University graduation surveys.

Assessment of General Education Learning Outcomes in the Core Curriculum

As part of its policy to assess the general education learning outcomes in the core curriculum, the Senate Committee on Academic Programs (CAP) approved the formation of a Sub-Committee on General Education Assessment.  The charge of this committee is to oversee the general education learning outcomes by reviewing reports from faculty groups drawn from departments which had identified an individual outcome as a substantive part of one or more of its core curriculum courses.  The Subcommittee defined and operationalized each general education learning outcome and developed a plan for assessment of those outcomes [3] . The Subcommittee's assessment plan proposals and annual reports [4] [5] [6] are submitted to CAP for review and approval. Once approved, a summary of the annual reports is forwarded to the Provost by the Chair of CAP. The assessment design that was followed during 2004-2005 is shown in the linked table [7].  The reports provide preliminary information about student performance in written communication, oral communication, contemporary issues, critical thinking, and quantitative skills. Because many of the lower-division courses are relatively large, the assessment of collaboration and technology skills has been challenging.   

After two years, the CAP Subcommittee on General Outcomes Assessment proposed that the assessment of the general education learning outcomes would be more effective if managed directly by the departments which teach the core curriculum courses. In this way, departments themselves would review the assessment results and consider what modifications might be needed to improve student learning, i.e., close the assessment loop.  Early in 2006, each of the 21 departments with courses in the core curriculum was asked to select at least one of the general education learning outcomes, assess it in its core curriculum course(s), and submit a report to the CAP Subcommittee on General Outcomes Assessment. The distribution of departments that assessed individual learning outcomes is shown in the linked table [8]. These reports were submitted in September, 2006 and June, 2007 and subsequently posted on the WEAVEonline [9] site for each year by department. The results for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 are shown in the tables below. 

The distribution of general education learning outcomes assessed in the core for 2005-2006 shows that Critical Thinking was the general education learning outcomes most frequently assessed by departments in the core. No department elected to assess collaboration. Technology and quantitative skills were selected  to be assessed by one department each.

Assessment of General Education Learning Outcomes in the Majors

Equally important is the assessment of relevant general education outcomes within the major, since these outcomes are frequently manifested differently in discipline-specific contexts.  For example, written communication expectations for majors in technical fields are quite different from the expectations for students in the humanities.  For 2005-2006, undergraduate programs reported assessing 195 learning outcomes in the major which required critical thinking (the general education learning outcome most frequently associated learning outcomes in the major) compared to 73 outcomes which required collaboration skills (the least-frequently associated general education learning outcome associated with major for 2005-2006  [10] and 2006-2007 [11].  Samples of departmental assessment reports on general education for 2006 and 2007 pulled from WEAVEonline are available from the linked table [12].

National Survey of Student Engagement

Although results from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) are not a direct assessment of student learning, they offer indirect evidence to confirm and support other measures. When mean scores for Georgia State University seniors in 2005 on NSSE items related to our general education learning outcomes are compared to the NSSE mean scores of seniors from other Doctoral Extensive Universities, several patterns are evident [13]. Most prevalent is the fact that responses by GSU seniors are similar to seniors at other doctoral extensive universities for most NSSE items related to our general education learning outcomes. Scores for our seniors were significantly below the national means for items related to collaboration, although this is not surprising for a university in which most students commute to campus. Our seniors typically rated their experiences with technology to be lower than did students from other doctoral extensive universities. GSU seniors rated items associated with contemporary issues and critical thinking to be higher than the ratings of students at other universities. For the most part, the average ratings by GSU seniors increased from the 2001 NSSE results to the 2005 results. GSU NSSE results are available to the University community and public on the Institutional Research website [14].

Graduation Survey Results

Additional indirect evidence of  students' competence with the general education learning outcomes can be found in our graduation survey results. We recognize that these results do not substitute for direct assessments, but they provide an additional source of information for the University to use when assessing whether students have the skills that are central to our mission. Undergraduate self-assessment of the general education learning outcomes for 2006 are linked for spring [15] and fall [16] of 2006. Data on earlier years are available to the University community on the Institutional Research website.

Supporting Documentation:

1. General Education policy decisions, General Education in the University System of Georgia 
2. Georgia State University's general education learning outcomes
3. General Education assessment plan 2004-2005
4. General Education Assessment Committee's Report 2005
5. General Education Assessment Committee's Report 2006
6. General Education Assessment Committee's Report 2007
7. General Education Assessment design for 2004-2005
8. General Education Assessment design for 2005-2007
9. WEAVEonline assessment site 
10. Departmental distribution of general education assessment in the major for 2005-2006
11. Departmental distribution of general education assessment in the major for 2006-2007
12. Examples of general education assessment in the major
13. GSU results on general education related items on NSSE
14. Institutional Research website
15. Undergraduate self-assessment of the general education learning outcomes for spring 2006
16. Undergraduate self-assessment of the general education learning outcomes for fall 2006