SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2012 - 2013 : Educational Programs :
Family and Consumer Sciences BS (Food Service Management)
Family and Consumer Sciences BS (Food Service Management)
3 Goals 3 Objectives 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 3 Actions
| GOAL: Internship |
| Objective |
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| Food service management interns will demonstrate applied skills worthy of recruitment for entry-level management positions by their internship supervisors. |
| Indicator |
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| The supervisor evaluation form for food service management 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-yes with reservations-no" indicator 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 food service management 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/food service management 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 courses (FACS 4369). The other programs that use this same form are interior design, general family and consumer sciences (without a teaching certificate), and fashion merchandising. |
| Criterion |
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| 80% of business supervisors of food service management 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 was a single graduate with the BS in Food Service Management for the 2012-2013 cycle. She received an overall rating of 5 (Exceptional) from her supervisor and the hiring recommendation was "Yes, with reservation" with the comment that she needed experience to learn what to do in a crisis situation. Therefore, this criterion was met, even with the small amount of data. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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This is exactly the sort of feedback we were seeking when we added the third option (in addition to Yes or No) to which supervisors could respond to the hiring question. This information (about the need to know what to do in a crisis situation) will be given to the faculty who teach the pertinent courses. |
| GOAL: Student Knowledge Of Content Area |
| Objective |
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| Students graduating from the food service management program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level management in food service/restaurant positions. |
| Indicator |
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| The Exit Survey for food service management majors includes multiple-choice and short-answer sections that test retention of course material and a case study that applies directly to food service management; 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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| 80% of students who complete the food service management 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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| The one student passed with a score of High Pass. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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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: Computer Literacy |
| Objective |
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| To assure competency in the area of computer literacy, students are required to complete specific assignments in FACS 2368 (a written assignment requiring use of a word-processing program and a budget assignment requiring the use of a spreadsheet) and FACS 4362 (a presentation using PowerPoint). Satisfactory completion of these three assignments will indicate achievement of basic computer literacy skills that students are projected to need as they graduate from FCS programs and enter the world of work. |
| Indicator |
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| Students who graduate from undergraduate programs in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will satisfactorily complete three assignments in courses required of all undergraduate majors in the department: a word-processed assignment and a budget prepared using a spreadsheet in FACS 2368 Consumer Education and a presentation involving use of PowerPoint in FACS 4362 Presentation Techniques. |
| 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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The one student (not the same student who was in the list of graduates for the 2012-2013 cycle - see above) who took one of the classes (FACS 4362) that has a computer literacy component for the 2012-2013 cycle scored a 5 on the PowerPoint assignment required to meet this computer literacy competency. Therefore, this criterion is met for this portion of the computer literacy objective. |
Actions for Objective:
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With only one student whose partial work was measured, there is little significance to this finding yet the university requires that we measure computer literacy through this means. There are additional students "in process" so there should be more students whose work is mesured in the coming cycles. Overall, it is obvious that students are entering the university with good computer skills and ar further developing these skills during their time as undergraduate students. |
| Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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This small program shares courses and resources (no additional courses, resources, or faculty are required) with two much larger programs, Food Science and Nutrition (BS only) and Family and Consumer Sciences (BA & BS options). There is great demand in the job market for program graduates, and business supervisors are pleased with the knowledge and preparation program graduates bring to the entry-level positions for which they are hired. This program, along with the other two, are in great need of a faculty position (preferably an RD) in the area of food preparation, and a faculty position will continue to be requested to fill that need. These students did very well with the entire computer literacy component as shown above. However, there were 2 out of 5 who did not take the content area Exit Survey, and for such a small program, that means a very incomplete data set. Therefore, a greater effort will be made to collect a more complete data set for the next cycle. All employers/business supervisors rated interns 4 or 5 (data was collected on all 5), so there obviously is great satisfaction with program graduates. This "free ride" program is doing well and needs to continue to be an option for those food science and nutrition majors who are not able to meet the rigor of that program and for those who truly intend to pursue careers in the food service industry, either working in restaurants or in food service facilites of health care or educational organizations.
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| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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While only one student graduated during this 2012-2013 cycle, several remain in process. The marketing initiative is exciting and we are expecting great success to be measured by an increase in program enrollment, but it may take several years for the numbers to increase substantially. A change in program emphasis from food service management to hospitality would also mean greater numbers. This change has been requested.
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| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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The marketing initiative is very much in process! Ads have been run through Facebook and Google. Very nice brochures have been printed and are being distributed at every opportunity. Videos have been made and uploaded so that when a student types in the program name they are directed in a user-friendly way to real students talking about the program. Ad specialties (small, giveaway items with the department's name and contact information) have been ordered and also are being distributed. We are looking forward to the results of this aggressive marketing program.
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