SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2013 - 2014 : Educational Programs :
Family And Consumer Sciences BA/BS (Food Service Management)
Family And Consumer Sciences BA/BS (Food Service Management)
2 Goals 2 Objectives 2 Indicators 2 Criteria 2 Findings 2 Actions
| 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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| At least 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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| There were four students who received the undergraduate degree (BA/BS) in Food Service Management for the 2013-2014 cycle. A complete data set is available for these students. Three of them scored a Pass (75%) on the Exit Survey, and one scored a Low Pass (25%), for a total of 100% who passed the content portion of the exam. Therefore, this criterion is met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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In recent years, we have struggled with how to handle this Exit Survey. It is difficult to remember to update the survey every time a change in the curriculum occurs (programs and courses in the department must continually be updated because they are pre-professional programs that serve fields that are constantly in flux), so we get to the point of administering it and realize that it is needs updating. Dr. Laura Burleson is working on a rubric whereby we would access students' logs during the internship process to determine effectiveness of course content as students applied it to the internship activities and problems. We are going to try it for a cycle with the expectation that it will lead to curricular changes and improved program effectiveness. |
| 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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| At least 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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| The four students who graduated during the cycle received excellent evaluations from their employers or supervisors. Three (75%) received a rating of 5 (out of 5) and one (25%) received a rating of 4 (out of five). 100% of students received a rating of 3.5 or higher. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Although students tend to do well, we do believe that this evaluation instrument is an important assessment tool; we also believe it is important to continue to collect and report this evaluation. We do also ask for comments and perhaps the way to make this instrument more helpful is to look for trends among the comments with the goal of program improvement. |
| Previous Cycle's "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 are also being distributed. We are looking forward to the results of this aggressive marketing program.
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| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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We are seeing the results of the marketing initiative! The brochures are extremely attractive, and we have almost run out of some of them. This particular program especially seems to be benefitting from the marketing work as we notice an uptick in students enrolled in the lower-level food and nutrition courses. Like the BA/BS in Family and Consumer Sciences (the general degree), the BA/BS in Food Service Management would definitely benefit from a full-time, tenure-track faculty person charged with oversight for this program. The department will continue to request such a position. |
| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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Continual recruitment for this program is needed. This cohort was actually a very strong one in capability, and so we are looking for additional strong students for this major. We also will continue to request a full-time, tenure-track faculty position that would be directly tied to this position.
Another action that is needed for the coming year is another way of assessing program effectiveness that would replace the use of the Exit Survey. We are working on a rubric whereby we can receive input from students' logs that will lead to curriculum changes that will result in more effective programs. |