Student Learning Issues on Campus

February 1997 Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 4
Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Bowling Green State University

During the last Graduate Student Senate (GSS) Executive meeting, members engaged in an enthusiastic debate about the merits of our current organizational agenda. Of particular concern was the human and financial investments GSS has made in support of initiatives related to undergraduate teaching and learning on campus. Questions focused on the relevance of such issues to our primary mission: serving the needs of BGSU graduate students. In my opinion, the interests of one population cannot be considered in isolation from the other. In fact, the success of our "premier" learning community depends on the capacity of divergent constituency groups to collaborate and focus on the shared prioritization of learning as a desired outcome. As a graduate student leader from the department of Higher Education, I am particularly adamant about the pivotal role my colleagues and I must play in ensuring that the quality of education at BGSU remains high (you can, as a result, imagine which side of the debate I supported). Graduate Teaching Assistants are highly invested in undergraduate education on this campus; they teach many of the introductory-level courses and expend considerable energy in mentorship activities. In an effort to be successful, they work hard to establish content competency, develop effective teaching methods, employ innovative assessment techniques and render themselves available for student consultations. Combined with the rigor of a full course load and the challenge of living on a 20 hour/week student-stipend...this is serious business, particularly given the relatively minimal instruction most receive in the art of effective teaching. To maximize the quality of their service, BGSU graduate students (and perhaps faculty) need additional, ongoing training on learning styles, cognition and student development. Perhaps most importantly, they need to better understand the construct of learning and the means by which it can be fostered and, ultimately, assessed. These issues are of critical importance to our success as in-classroom graduate assistants and future faculty members. Our competency is critically important to institutional integrity and has the potential to reflect positively or negatively on BGSU as both an undergraduate- and graduate-level institution. Issues related to undergraduate teaching and learning should be prioritized on the GSS agenda because, in many ways, undergraduate students facilitate the graduate student experience. Most obviously, tuition-supported stipends provide many graduate students with financial assistance. Most importantly, graduate teaching positions provide a medium for us to develop as educators. And so, I obviously argued in favor of the current GSS agenda. Maximized teaching and learning on our campus have never been more important or relevant and must be universally prioritized.

The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), has developed nine fundamental principles of good practice in assessing student learning. Principle three states, "Assessment works best when the program it seeks to improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes." What outwardly appears to be simple can be very complex. In assessing assessment, educators must constantly ask themselves what changes in skill requirements are taking place in the work force, what do employers expect of graduates that have not been expected before, and are yesterday's methods of assessment still effective in meeting today's and tomorrow's demands for highly qualified graduates? Other issues in assessment and learning are sometimes obscure at best. Issues pertaining to what an educated person truly is and what course changes need to be implemented in academic programs provide ongoing challenges for educators. One form of assessment that may have been effective yesterday is not a sure guarantee for tomorrow.

In the fall of 1996 the Bowling Green State University Theatre Department established learning goals and outcomes for departmental majors. The "Major Event," conducted in January, was designed to assess one of the five goals established by the theatre department.

Goal V. To present skills and knowledge in a professional format

STUDENT OUTCOMES:

• demonstrate an ability to develop an appropriate package of interview materials (resume/portfolio/etc.)
• demonstrate an ability to present an effective "job interview" (audition, portfolio presentation, etc.)

A series of other activities will be implemented to assess goals focusing on analytical, writing and collaborative skills in a dramatic context.

With a grant from the SAAC, two alumni who are actively working in the profession came to Bowling Green to observe presentations of junior and senior majors (the program was optional for freshman and sophomores). Students selected one of four areas (acting, design, directing, or playwriting) and made a four minute oral presentation and submitted a professional resume. They were later able to review written feedback on both their resumes and their oral presentations and to observe a video of their presentation. (These videos will be permanently on file for future reference and measurement of skill development.) The assessors also made recommendations to the department on how to revise the event to more effectively match the real life situation that students will face and on the overall strengths and weaknesses of the student¹s presentation. At future faculty meetings, these results will be reviewed and will influence future curricular and programmatic revisions.

In addition to meeting mandated assessment objectives, the Major Event serendipitously benefited the students and the department in a variety of other ways. While students and faculty work closely together in the production of plays during the year, these productions involve numerous non- majors, and oftentimes, segregate student talents between on-stage and backstage contributions. By making this event exclusively for majors, and by allowing them to observe and celebrate all contributions, the students were given a clear message as to departmental concerns with their well being and the holistic nature of the discipline. Feedback, presented in a non-graded environment, from professionals was given serious attention and often reinforced what faculty had been advising for particular students. Faculty attendance at the Event allowed students to show off their skills to faculty members who may not have had these majors in a class yet and may be casting a production in the near future. This "community" aspect was enhanced by a brief pizza lunch at the conclusion of the presentations where students, faculty and alumni were able to interact informally. Many of the participants will be contesting for jobs at statewide auditions and interviews in February and by having a practice run in January, and getting suggestions on improvement, they should be better prepared and more confident in competing for summer and year round jobs. Finally, the alumna who participated were excited about contributing in a real way to the improvement of the department and have already discussed ways to be more involved in building alumni networks for the department.

Articles published in The Student Learner in Focus are occasionally reproduced from The Teaching Professor by permission from Magna Publications. A copy of The Teaching Professor is available in each academic unit for use by all faculty, graduate students, staff, and administrators. The Teaching Professor is published monthly, except July and August by Magna Publications, Inc., 2718 Dryden Dr., Madison, WI 53704-3086.

The Jerome Library has a comprehensive list of materials related to assessment on reserve. The following resources represent just a sample of recommended readings:

• Academic and Out-of-Class Influences on Students' Intellectual Orientation by the Association for the Study of Higher Education
  
• Assessing Student Academic Achievement in the Context of the Criteria for Accreditation by David Payne, et al.

The Student Learner in Focus is a newsletter published by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The newsletter serves to inform the academic community at Bowling Green State University of new and innovative learning strategies at the programmatic and classroom levels. The Student Learner in Focus also summarizes ongoing assessment programs on campus. Comments, suggestions, and questions are welcome and may be directed to Dr. Steven Russell, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Education and Allied Professions at 372-7401

Editor : Steven C. Russell
Associate Editor : Jeffrey A. Johnson

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