SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2011 - 2012 : Educational Programs :
Family and Consumer Sciences BA (Fashion Merchandising)
Family and Consumer Sciences BA (Fashion Merchandising)
3 Goals 3 Objectives 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 3 Actions
| GOAL: Student Knowledge Of Content Area |
| Objective |
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| Students graduating from the fashion merchandising program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level management in fashion retailing/merchandising positions. |
| Indicator |
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| The Exit Survey for fashion merchandising majors includes multiple-choice and short-answer sections that test retention of course material and a case study that applies directly to retail apparel merchandising; it is graded on a pass/fail basis. (Each program area has multiple-choice, short answer and other questions that are specific to that program content.) To develop this instrument, faculty in the content area reviewed course and program objectives and chose questions from exams that reflected important concepts that students should retain. The test is used repetitively and the scoring is consistent. For security reasons, the "test" portion (multiple-choice questions, short essay questions, and case study) is not attached. However, this document is available in the chair's office. |
| Criterion |
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| 90% of students who complete the fashion merchandising program's Exit Survey will score a grade of Low Pass, Pass or High Pass on the content portions of the exam. |
| Finding |
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| 100% of students who graduated from the Fashion Merchandising program completed the Exit Survey. 100% of the students who completed the survey passed the content portion of the exam. One attained a grade of low pass, 4 attained a grade of pass, and three attained a grade of high pass. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Program graduates met this criterion at 100%. Based on data collected during last year's cycle, we raised the percentage criterion from 80% to 90%. However, because the number of graduates in this program is often below 10, raising the percentage higher than 90% would be meaningless since a single person with a low score would make the difference as to whether this criterion was met. Students appear to be retaining program content well. We will keep this criterion for next year before retiring it if our percentage is as high. |
| GOAL: Computer Literacy |
| Objective |
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| Students will demonstrate knowledge and skills for computer literacy through assignments in two courses that are required of all undergraduate majors in the department. |
| Indicator |
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There is a specific common rubric for each assignment. |
| Criterion |
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| 90% of program majors who take the courses FACS 2368 and FACS 4362 during the 2011-2012 academic year will score 3 or better on a 5-point scale with 5 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest score on the three assignments that are required to meet this computer literacy competency. Examples of assignment sheets for these three assignments and rubrics for grading them are attached. |
| Finding |
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| 93.3% of fashion merchandising majors pursuing the BA degree who took one or both of the courses FACS 2368 and FACS 4362 during the 2011-2012 academic year scored 3 or better on the assignments used to measure computer literacy. Therefore, this criterion was met. For the last cycle, it was decided that instructors who teach the courses believed that additional work in the area of database management was needed. Database management still appears to be weak as compared to written assignments using word-processing programs and development of PowerPoint presentations. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| At the conclusion of this reporting period, the department will convene a meeting of those faculty who make the budget assignment to see how student performance on this assignment could be improved. |
| GOAL: Employer/Supervisor Evaluation |
| Objective |
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The student will demonstrate professional competence and the ability to apply what they have learned (e.g., appropriate product knowledge, knowledge of business procedures, knowledge of industry systems) in various aspects of fashion merchandising. |
| Indicator |
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| The supervisor evaluation form for fashion merchandising interns evaluates three skill areas (personal skills, interpersonal skills, and professional characteristics including appropriate use of knowledge from the program content). Both questions from this form used as indicators are essentially overall supervisor ratings of the intern. One of them rates the interns on a Likert-type scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest rating and 5 being the highest rating. The other is a "yes-no" indicator of whether the employer would hire the intern in the company for an entry-level management position. Internship is a requirement for degree completion in this program, so all fashion merchandising students are evaluated in this way. The instrument, which includes the supervisor rating of the intern that will be extracted and reported, was developed by the department faculty as a whole. Instruments used by other family and consumer sciences/fashion merchandising colleges and departments were reviewed in the development of the instrument. The attached instrument was designed to be generic for all programs in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences that require this type of internship and is published in the Internship Handbook which serves as the textbook for the internship course (FCS 469). The other programs that use this same form are interior design, general family and consumer sciences (without a teaching certificate), and food service management. |
| Criterion |
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| 80% of business supervisors of fashion merchandising interns will give the intern a rating of 3.5 or higher on a 5.0 scale and 80% of business supervisors will indicate that they would hire the intern given the availability of a suitable entry-level management position in the company. |
| Finding |
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| There were 8 students who graduated with the BA in Fashion Merchandising for the 2011-2012 cycle. Data was collected on all of them. 87.5% of business supervisors of these student interns assigned them ratings of 3.5 or higher -- in fact, there was one student who was assigned a rating of 2, and the others were assigned ratings of 4 and higher. In addition, all but one business supervisor (the same one who assigned the rating of 2) stated that they would hire the student intern if a suitable, entry-level opening existed in their business. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Although this goal is met at 87.5%, additional feedback would be helpful. During last year's cycle, it was suggested that we attempt to gather additional information by dividing the "Yes" option into "Yes, would hire without reservation" and "Yes, would hire with reservation." For those who checked "Yes, would hire with reservation," we could then ask an open-ended question designed to give us feedback needed for program improvement. We will make a stronger attempt to implement that process for the coming cycle. In order to do this, an immediate update of our Internship Handbook is required. |
| Closing the Loop |
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Overall, this program continues to be successful as business supervisors and graduating seniors report high levels of satisfaction with this program. Students leave the program with knowledge of the products with which they will be working and retail processes, including visual merchandising and an understanding of the mathematics of merchandising. They also gain real world, hands-on experiences through the internship process. The greater effort that was promised in last year's cycle to collect a more complete data set was successful. A greater effort was made to bring in program graduates, especially more recent ones, to address the idea of the strong work ethic that is needed in the retail and wholesale apparel industry. Students were successful with the computer literacy component of the program. Faculty put greater emphasis on case studies and applying course material, and this appears to have had a positive impact on student success. The program emphasizes preparing its graduates for the workplace and in recruiting and retaining students throughout the 2-4 years they are enrolled in the program.
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