Student Achievement Assessment Committee

Mission Statement

The Chapman Community is a residential program where academically motivated and ambitious students from all majors live and learn together through close interaction with BGSU faculty passionately committed to student success. Chapman students enroll in a minimum of one core, general education course each semester, and most students take two or three of these classes, including composition. Chapman Community courses, held in Chapman Hall and enrolling an average of twenty-four students, involve members in engaging debates, discussions, and projects, as well as adventures beyond the boundaries of the common classroom. Chapman also provides special programming opportunities that address the academic and personal lives of its students: visiting speakers, films, interest groups, travel to major cities to explore art and theatrical performances, leadership training programs, dinners, outdoor adventures, and community and university service events. Through such opportunities, Chapman fosters the acquisition of lifelong learning skills.

In addition to promoting academic and social interaction, Chapman encourages its students to become civically and morally engaged. They have constructed houses with Habitat for Humanity, probed social issues in films such as American History X and Rosewood, worked with migrant farm-worker youth in Wood County and homeless children in Toledo, traveled to Mexico for firsthand exploration of another culture, and participated in the daily governance of the community.

Goals

The goals of the Chapman Community are focused around our mission to promote and explore innovative learning and teaching. In general, we seek to develop means to help students become active, lifelong learners and provide opportunities for faculty to experiment with pedagogic strategies to achieve these goals. Specifically, we seek to integrate living and learning by engaging students in challenging social, intellectual and cultural activities in and outside the classroom.

Creating a Learning Community within Chapman:
Chapman students enroll each semester in at least one Chapman course. One of our goals is for students to feel academically challenged within the program. We also aim to enrich students' academic experience through meetings with Chapman faculty outside of class and participation with faculty and staff in a number of events, including welcome days, a common reading experience, and a wide variety of extra- and co-curricular activities.

Promoting Engagement Outside the Chapman Community:
One of our goals is for Chapman students to become actively involved in other campus and community organizations. Chapman students are exposed to cultural groups other than their own and are offered opportunities for community involvement. Another goal is for students to attend a variety of campus-wide activities - including arts and theatre events, as well as other activities, films, and speakers.

Fostering Positive Academic Attitudes:
Chapman students are encouraged to challenge their previously held assumptions, values and beliefs. Our goals include encouraging students to think critically about course material and their own experiences, and to learn to utilize faculty, staff, and other students as resources for learning. Students will engage in self-assessment, acquiring the desire and skills necessary to assess and monitor their own learning and personal growth.

Increasing Academic Abilities:
Our goal is for Chapman student GPA's to increase relative to their non-Chapman peers during the course of their first year at Bowling Green State University. Chapman students will demonstrate mastery of course content and continue as students at BGSU during their second, third, and fourth years of post-secondary education.

Objectives ** OUTCOMES FOR STUDENT PARTICIPANTS IN CHAPMAN **

1. Improve retention for first-year freshmen.

2. Foster positive and productive relationships between faculty and students through participation in a variety of extra- and co-curricular activities.

3. Promote, through a strong emphasis on student mastery of course content and course objectives, an environment which focuses on student academic achievement and progress.

4. Expose students to a wide range of ideas and foster intellectual, social and cultural development through extra- and CO-curricular activities.

5. Support students in their personal and academic development by providing opportunities for active engagement with themselves, other students, faculty members, and the community.

6. Provide opportunities for students to consider and confront social issues and increase student awareness of social problems.

7. Integrate the students' first year academic experience by exposing students to a variety of opportunities for interdisciplinary learning and a variety of teaching styles and philosophies.

8. Provide opportunities for leadership and mentoring experience for returning upper class Chapman students.

APPENDIX:
SURVEY/INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS AT THE END OF FALL/SPRING SEMESTER

(Within Chapman)

1. Did they participate in Welcome Days activities? Can they recall any of these activities? Were they helpful?

2. Did they participate in the common reading experience? Did they discuss the text in any of their classes? Did they discuss the text with other students and faculty, beyond formal program discussions?

3. How many Chapman courses did they enroll in? Did they drop any? If so, why?

4. Did they meet with each of their Chapman instructors at least once during the semester? If not, why not?

5. Did they work on class projects and assignments outside of class with Chapman faculty and/or staff?

6. Did they work with other Chapman students on assignments and projects for Chapman classes, outside of class time? Did they work with other Chapman students on assignments for other classes?

7. How challenged were they by their Chapman classes? Compared to classes outside of Chapman?

8. Did they participate in any of the extra- or CO-curricular activities offered by the Chapman Community during semester? How many? Can they recall what these were?

9. Did they take advantage of any of the trips offered through the Chapman Community? If so, which? If not, why not?

10. Overall, how do they feel about their relationships with students in their Chapman classes, living on their floor, and in the Chapman Residence Hall?

(Outside of Chapman)

1. Did they attend any arts or cultural events with Chapman students and faculty during the semester? Can they recall what these were?

2. Did they attend any other arts or cultural events during the semester? Can they recall what these were?

3. Were they assigned to attend any outside events by their Chapman instructors? Can they recall what these were?

4. Have they been exposed to at least one culture group other than their own during the semester? If so, how?

5. Did they engage in any community service activity sponsored by the Chapman Learning Community during the semester?

6. Are they involved in any campus and/or community organizations outside of Chapman?

(Academic Attitudes)

1. During the semester have they been motivated to question any of their previously held beliefs, values, and assumptions? If so, in what way?

2. Have they been encouraged to engage in formal self-reflection, in terms of their personal and academic growth this semester?

(Academic Abilities)

1. (measured by Institutional Research) Chapman student GPA's will have risen relative to their non-Chapman peers.

2. (measured by Institutional Research) Former Chapman students will continue as students at BGSU during their second, third, and fourth years.

ASSESSMENT PLAN

(Annually: 1-2 courses/semester)
1. Each year two or three Chapman classes, in different disciplines, will be evaluated in terms of the learning objectives of the individual instructor as well as the goals and objectives of the Chapman Community. This is not intended as an instructor evaluation and may be quantitative and/or qualitative in nature. Each instructor will help determine how the outcomes will be evaluated.

(Annually)
2. Pre and post surveys asking about student exposure to other cultures, the arts, educational engagement, social life, faculty relationships, and other information specific to our program objectives will be administered to about forty randomly selected Chapman students during the first week and the last weeks of fall semester. These may include both quantitative and qualitative information.

(Annually)
3. Focus groups would be conducted each spring semester with a small group of randomly selected Chapman students. These groups would contribute to the overall assessment, as well as help us to identify additional program goals and objectives. Focus groups provide a means for student self-expression and a more qualitative analysis. There are creative ways to engage students and conduct focus groups and these will be incorporated.

(Annually)
4. Information on student retention and overall student satisfaction will be taken from the data collected and summarized by Institutional Studies. This would provide comparative information between Chapman and other university programs. This is an extremely quantitative measure.

(Semi or Annually)
5. Follow-up surveys and interviews would be conducted with randomly selected former Chapman students at varying times during their academic careers in order to collect information about the longer term, perceived impact of the Chapman program.