SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2012 - 2013 : Educational Programs :
Mathematics MA
Mathematics MA
2 Goals 2 Objectives 2 Indicators 2 Criteria 2 Findings 2 Actions
| GOAL: Deliver A Curriculum With Appropriate Discipline Specific Knowledge |
| Objective |
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Students will prove theorems or solve problems or explain concepts in the following core areas
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| Indicator |
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| Students in the MA program will take an oral examination over the four areas covered in the objective. The oral examination will be scored by a committee of faculty using a rubric developed and approved by department faculty. |
| Criterion |
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100% of the MA students will receive a grade of "Pass" or "High Pass" on each of the four areas according to the attached rubric. |
| Finding |
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Four MA students were administered an oral exam in 2012-13. Of those 4, all received either "Pass" or "High pass" in their four areas. One of the four students received a "High Pass" in all four areas. MA Instructors did implement more student presentations in thier coursework. In all but one case, this had a positive effect. One of the MA students, however, had some difficulty. However, we attribute this to the fact that Eglish was not her first langage. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Graduate faculty will continue to administer oral comprehensive examinations and strive for a 100% pass or high-pass rate. |
| GOAL: Develop Research Skills |
| Objective |
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| Students completing the MA in Mathematics will demonstrate research skills. |
| Indicator |
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| MA students complete an independent research project. A rubric is used to score the project. |
| Criterion |
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| Students will be rated at least 80% on the project rubric. |
| Finding |
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Three of the four students received a rating of better than 90%. One student received a rating between 80% and 90%. In this latter case, the student omitted some proofs and explanations that did not make her project as strong as it could have been. While all four MA projects were successful, one student did struggle. We believe it was the combination of taking 2 classes during the summer, making time management an issue. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| The graduate faculty that mentor research projects in Mathematics Education will continue to strive for a rubric score of at least 80% for each MA student. |
| Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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In the past, we've created MA cohorts and offered a set program of courses over a two year period. We have not had as much success with this in recent years. This may be due to the increasing popularity of on-line MA programs. A couple of faculty members will be experimenting with a hybrid option for our MA offerings. We hope to have more information about that next year.
Before our students attempt the oral comprehensive oral exam, they need additional presentation time during classes to polish the presentations of their proofs. One area for us to work on related to the research projects is writing skills. We can incorporate the Writing Center for this endeavor. |
| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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One hybrid MA course was offered and was successful. No other such course was offered. As noted already, MA instructors did require more student presentations, which appear to be beneficial.
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| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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We plan to add two new courses to the MA core and continue to experiment with additional hybrid online courses.
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