Assessment Report

GENERAL STUDIES WRITING PROGRAM
BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY
2009-2010

OVERVIEW

General Studies Writing (GSW) is BGSU’s first-year composition program which offers three core courses: GSW 1100, Intensive Introduction to Academic Writing; GSW 1110, Introduction to Academic Writing; and GSW 1120, Academic Writing, as well as variant sections such as those offered in several various residential learning communities, special sections offered for the Honors Program, and service learning sections. The majority of GSW’s sections are offered in computer labs or are designated as “laptop required” sections, although a minimal number of sections are still being taught in traditional classroom environments.  

General Studies Writing has a decades-long history of using various assessment practices and tools to enhance student and faculty performance in these courses. Among the program’s current practices/tools are an online placement test which determines the composition course which is appropriate for each entering student; an S/No Credit grading system in GSW 1100 and GSW 1110 and an ABC/No Credit grading system in GSW 1120; a standardized rubric tool which provides the 80-90 teachers in the program a basis for consistently determining students’ proficiency on major writing assignments; a Student Process Analysis tool which students are required to complete for each major paper, thereby engaging them in the self-evaluation process; a large scale portfolio assessment procedure which is administered in all three GSW courses at the end of each term; a Narrative Self-Reflection Essay assignment which requires students to assess their own progress with GSW’s learning outcomes at the end of each term; an online midterm feedback collection which allows GSW students to provide anonymous feedback regarding their course/instructor at midterm; extensive manuals for GSW instructors, which are completely revised/updated each year, including those designed to provide assistance with GSW’s assessment practices and tools (e.g., GSW Instructors’ Guide to Portfolio Assessment; Sample Evaluated Essays for GSW 1100/1110; Sample Evaluated Essays for GSW 1120; Sample Assignments for GSW 1100/1110; Sample Assignments for GSW 1120). GSW’s practices and tools are so carefully integrated that a change in one of them typically necessitates changes to others.

Although GSW’s various practices and tools have been primarily created to assess and enhance the performance of students, the program also has made use of the tools and practices in various ways to assess the program and subsequently improve GSW’s curricula. Each year since 2004, GSW has appointed a Learning Outcomes and Assessment Committee, responsible for reviewing GSW’s assessment practices and for creating and helping implement GSW Program assessment projects.

The links below this overview will connect you to the following pages of this report:

• General Studies Writing's Learning Outcomes
• Multiple Measures
• Brief History
• General Studies Writing's Reputation Involving Assessment Practices
• General Studies Writing's Assessment Projects / Learning Outcomes Assessed in 2009-2010
• From General Studies Writing's Learning Outcomes Document
• Audience Sheet Rubric