SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2011 - 2012 : Educational Programs :
Geography BA
Geography BA
2 Goals 3 Objectives 4 Indicators 4 Criteria 4 Findings 3 Actions
| GOAL: Training Geographically Informed Students |
| Objective |
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Students completing core curriculum education in geography will be able to demonstrate foundational knowledge of geographic concepts and principles, including critical thinking. |
| Indicator |
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Common embedded questions on the comprehensive final exam will determine student knowledge regarding general geographic concepts. |
| Criterion |
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| The average scores will be 70% correct on the general geographic concept questions embedded in the comprehensive exam. |
| Finding |
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Students enrolled in GEOG 1301 averaged 66% on a series of specific concept questions embedded in a comprehensive final exam. Students enrolled in GEOG 1321 averaged 73% on a separate, yet similar, series of concept questions. These scores were generally consistent with overall averages on the final exams as a whole. |
| Indicator |
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The final faculty-developed comprehensive exam will indicate students' grasp of major geographic principles, including critical thinking. |
| Criterion |
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| The average score will be 70% correct of the major geographic principles and critical thinking items embedded on the comprehensive exam. |
| Finding |
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Students enrolled in GEOG 1301 averaged 68% on a series of questions focused on competency with major principles and critical thinking skills that were embedded in a comprehensive exam. Students enrolled in GEOG 1321 averaged 62% on similar series of questions. Students enrolled in both courses scored lower than expected on questions requiring the interpretation of graphs. Students enrolled GEOG 1301 averaged 51% on such questions, while students enrolled in GEOG 1321 averaged 55%. |
Actions for Objective:
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Students enrolled in GEOG 1321 exhibited a satisfactory level of competency in regards to basic geographical concepts, while students enrolled in GEOG 1301 exhibited a degree of competency slightly below that level. In both cases, students generally scored as high on questions pertaining to these concepts as they did on the exams as a whole. Students enrolled in those two courses scored below a satisfactory level on questions focused upon major geographical concepts and critical thinking. However, average scores suggest that this year’s students were more competent with these major concepts than were students from the previous academic year. Despite modest improvement, there remains a need to significantly enhance student knowledge of such concepts. This is especially true in regards to critical thinking. The higher scores exhibited in this area (major geographic concepts and critical thinking) among students enrolled in GEOG 1321 probably represent the smaller class sizes associated with this particular class. In comparison to GEOG 1321, sections of GEOG 1301 (Weather & Climate) enroll larger numbers of students and are offered in large lecture halls. With this in mind, we plan to more strongly incorporate the demonstration of major concepts and critical thinking skills in smaller laboratory sections (GEOG 1101; Weather & Climate Lab). We will also attempt to identify methodologies found to be effective in GEOG 1321 and consider replicating them in other geography courses. |
| GOAL: Training Geographically Informed Students |
| Objective |
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Students completing the core education in geography will demonstrate knowledge of physical geography including the world in spatial terms, places and regions, and physical systems. |
| Indicator |
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| Students will correctly answer the embedded questions on exams throughout the semester that address physical geography. The areas of emphasis include the world in spatial terms, places and regions, and physical systems. |
| Criterion |
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| Students will score 70% correct on those questions pertaining to each of the three areas of emphasis concerning physical geographical concepts. |
| Finding |
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| Students enrolled in GEOG 1321 scored an average of 77% on those questions pertaining to the world in spatial terms. Students enrolled in GEOG 1301 scored an average of 68% on questions assessing this concept. Students enrolled in GEOG 1321 scored an average of 67% on those questions pertaining to the concepts of places and regions, while students enrolled in GEOG 1301 scored an average of 65% on questions pertaining to these two concepts. In these two areas (world in spatial terms; places and regions), students generally performed as well as they did on the overall exams as a whole. Students enrolled in both courses scored an average of 60% on questions pertaining to physical systems, which is below the average scores on exams as a whole. |
Actions for Objective:
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While there is certainly room for improvement, results of this assessment suggest that students completing geography courses generally possess a satisfactory ability to utilize maps and other graphical tools. Students performed slightly below a satisfactory level on questions focused on “places and regions.” Scores from this year’s assessment suggest that students performed less well in this area than was the case in previous years. This very well could reflect the fact that such questions were posed to students enrolled in different classes with varied foci than in earlier years. The area of physical geography students performed least well on pertained to the familiarity with physical systems. We fully expect to enhance student knowledge in this area by offering a new course on Environmental Geography, a course that pending approval should be ready sometime in 2012-2013. |
| GOAL: Demonstrate Knowledge Of Cultural Concepts In Geography |
| Objective |
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| Students completing the core courses required for a Geography degree will demonstrate knowledge of cultural geography including both human systems and the interaction between the environment and society. |
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| Students will correctly answer the embedded questions on exams during the semester that address cultural geography. The areas of emphasis include human systems and the environment and society. |
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| Students will score 70% correct on those questions pertaining to each of the two areas of emphasis associated with cultural geography concepts. |
| Finding |
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| Students enrolled in GEOG 3350 and GEOG 1321 scored an average of 76% on a set of questions focused upon human systems. Those same students scored an average of 64% on questions concerning the interaction of the environment and society |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Results of this assessment suggest that geography students possess adequate knowledge of various aspects of cultural geography, including the knowledge of characteristics, distributions, organizations and movement of human, economic and cultural related phenomena. Student scores on relevant questions assessing these concepts were slightly lower than was the case in the previous academic year, a finding that probably reflects the fact that the questions were incorporated into different classes in the respective years. Students exhibited less than satisfactory knowledge of interactions between the environment and society. Student learning in this area of cultural geography will be significantly enhanced once the new Environmental Geography is offered. |
| Closing the Loop |
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Some of the program weaknesses identified by this assessment will be mitigated by the offering of a new course; Environmental Geography. This new course will directly focus upon material pertaining to the awareness of physical systems and the relationships between the environment and human society. Certain other learning gaps identified by the assessment may simply reflect weaknesses with the assessment itself. For example, we offer a few courses that focus on regional geography (World Regional Geography, Regional Geography of U.S. and Canada), that would naturally focus more directly on “places and regions” than would the courses incorporated in this assessment. In the future we will embed assessment questions within the comprehensive finals associated with these regional courses. The most critical weaknesses identified from this assessment remain in the areas of learning major geographic principles and critical thinking, although student performance in these areas improved considerably from the previous year. We plan to continue to experiment with ways to enhance critical thinking in both lab and lecture formats, and will make concerted efforts to incorporate assignments and methods found to be successful in GEOG 1321 at generating positive learning outcomes.
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