SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2012 - 2013 : Educational Programs :
Family and Consumer Sciences BA (Interior Design)
Family and Consumer Sciences BA (Interior Design)
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 interior design program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level management in interior design positions. |
| Indicator |
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| The Exit Survey for interior design majors includes multiple-choice and short-answer sections that test retention of course material and a case study that applies directly to interior design; it is graded on a pass/fail basis. (Each program area has multiple-choice, short answer, and identification 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 identification items) is not attached. However, this document is available in the chair's office. |
| Criterion |
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| At least 90% of students who complete the interior design 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 completed the interior design program's Exit Survey scored a grade of Low Pass, Pass or High Pass on the content portion of the exam (33% scored a High Pass, 58.3% scored a Pass, and 8.3% scored a Low Pass). Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
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Because 100% of students passed the Exit Survey, we are working with the idea of abandoning this instrument and instead using the scoring on fourteen professional skills identified as critical to professional success on the Performance Appraisal of Student Intern as completed by the Internship Supervisor. |
| GOAL: Internship Supervisor Evaluation |
| Objective |
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| The student will demonstrate professional competence and the ability to apply what they have learned (egs., appropriate product knowledge, knowledge of business procedures, knowledge of industry systems) in various aspects of interior design. |
| Indicator |
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| The supervisor evaluation form for interior design interns evaluates three skill areas (personal skills, interpersonal skills, and professional skills including appropriate use of knowledge from the program content). Both questions from this form used as indicators are derived from supervisor ratings of the intern. One of the questions 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 design assistant position. |
| Criterion |
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| At least 80% of business supervisors of interior design 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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| Of the six interior design graduates for 2012-2013, 100% received a rating of 4 or 5 (i.e., greater than 3.5) by the internship employer/supervisor. All but one supervisor (83.3%) stated that he/she would hire the intern for a suitable, entry-level position with the company. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| We modified the evaluation form this past cycle to include three options rather than two (yes or no) as it had been in the past. This time we divided the "yes" option into "yes, hire without reservation" and "yes, hire with reservation" in the hope of getting additional feedback. However, although we received both responses ("yes" and "yes, hire with reservations"), there was little feedback, so we plan to modify the process. |
| GOAL: Computer Literacy |
| Objective |
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| Students will meet university requirements for computer literacy through assignments in FACS 2368 and FACS 4362 that are required of all undergraduate majors in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. |
| Indicator |
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Students who graduate from undergraduate programs in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will satisfactorily complete two assignments in FACS 2368 Consumer Education, a word-processed assignment and a budget prepared using an Excel spreadsheet. Satisfactory completion of a PowerPoint assignment is required in FACS 4362 Presentation Techniques. These three assignments comprise the department's computer literacy requirement. |
| Criterion |
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| At least 90% of program majors who take the courses FACS 2368 and FACS 4362 during the 2012-2013 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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| Only one student from the BA program in Interior Design completed the course in which the spreadsheet and word-processing assignments were assigned. This student scored the highest score (5/5) on these two assignments; therefore, this criterion was met for the word-processed and spreadsheet assignments. For the PowerPoint assignment, there were three students from the BA program in Interior Design who completed this assignment, and all of them scored 5/5. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
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| With only one student for the word-processing and Excel spreadsheet assignments, there is not really significance to this finding, yet the university requires that we measure students' computer literacy through this means. There SHOULD be a significant number of students for this measure for the coming year based on the enrollments we are seeing. There is more significance to the finding for the three students who completed the PowerPoint assignment. Overall, it is obvious that students are entering the university with good computer literacy skills and are further developing these skills during their time as undergraduate students. |
| Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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The curricular review and subsequent changes incorporated into the interior design program were very appropriate and effective. Although the Council of Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) site visit from the Spring of 2011 did not result in a positive outcome, it is anticipated that the one from this past Spring (2012) will be positive, and that the program will be accredited by Fall 2012. The department is pleased that it pursued this accreditation.
Business supervisors indicated that graduates are prepared to enter the industry as entry-level design professionals. Still, we believe we can glean more information with a revision of the supervisor/employer evaluation form. The problem with student computer literacy in connection with database management will be addressed through more practice. Although it is not part of the computer literacy measure cited within this document, students do develop a high degree of fluency with CAD programs such as AutoCAD and Revit. In fact, a business supervisor reported that one of the Spring 2012 interior design interns was "the best I've ever seen" on AutoCAD. Faculty will maintain high standards as they teach about the design process, product knowledge, and business practices, among other skills and knowledge required of entry-level design professionals. |
| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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The program received notice of CIDA accreditation during the Summer of 2012. This was a major accomplishment and positions this program for significant growth. Although we believe the number of majors declined during the two years when the accreditation preparation was the most intense, we are beginning to see an increase in the numbers in the lower-level courses.
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| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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We are planning to evaluate the options for the "yes" and "yes, hire with reservations" response given by employers of student interns as part of the evaluation process. We are planning to use the fourteen professionals skills noted on the evaluation instrument as a means of evaluating content area knowledge and skills.
The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences received some marketing funds from Enrollment Management and we worked with them to produce brochures, appropriate advertising specialties, videos and other marketing materials. We believe that some of the growth in this program is due to these marketing efforts, and we will be able to continue them with the materials that have been developed. The Interior Design Program is participating with the Department of Art (that department is taking the lead) in pursuing NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) accreditation. Dr. Laura Burleson, Program Director for Interior Design, has been involved in the writing of the interior design portion of the self-study document in anticipation of a site visit in October of 2013. This is a university-wide accreditation and must include every program within the university that offers art or design. |