Fiscal Year 1995-1996
Introduction
This summary report for the University of South Carolina Beaufort includes: General Education, Entry-level Placement and Developmental Education, Student Development, and Library Resources and Services.
The following remaining components will be submitted to the Commission of Higher Education by the date annotated: Academic Advising (1997); Transfer Student Success (1998); Undergraduate Retention and Attrition (1998); Administrative and Financial Processes (1997); Facilities (1998); and Public Service (1999).
The components which are reported this year assess the effectiveness of components that are at the core of USC Beaufort's very mission:
General Education: USC Beaufort's primary purpose is to provide the first two years of a liberal arts university education -- "general education" coursework. Indeed, data indicate that USC Beaufort does a good job at this: data previously reported of the success of USC Beaufort students after they transfer to other institutions gives essential evidence of this. But assessment of General Education is a complex matter. It goes beyond evaluating the role of lower-level coursework in preparation for further study in a major. General Education courses have an intrinsic and vital end in themselves. In a sophisticated, democratic society, citizens must be literate, self-disciplined, and inquisitive. They must respect and enjoy critical thought and the search for truths. Even if these "higher order" objectives are complex and difficult to evaluate, USC Beaufort must be ever vigilant in improving effectiveness at securing these vital educational objectives.
Student Development is inter-related with the General Education Goals and the total USC Beaufort program. If students are going to believe and act responsibly, learn to work with others, learn to tolerate perspectives other than their own, they must first have the requisite maturity level. Indeed, the whole-person education is at the core of a Liberal Arts tradition.
Library: Also at the core of the Liberal Arts tradition is the central place of the library in the learning process. The mission of the library at USC Beaufort is to function as the center for learning in the local academic community by providing students and faculty with the greatest possible access to a variety of resource material and by supporting the curriculum.
Developmental Coursework: USC Beaufort serves many students who may not have been able to gain admission to the University for academic as well as financial or geographical reasons. It is noteworthy that USC Beaufort students transferring to other institutions are, on average, able to maintain averages higher than their USC Beaufort GPA's. Their success in other higher education institutions is especially remarkable since many of these were ineligible to attend those institutions as freshmen! Keith DeLoach and Nora Millidge are also noteworthy examples of the developmental work at USC Beaufort: These USC Beaufort students were awarded consecutively the "Developmental Student of the Year" title for South Carolina. Keith is now doing advanced study in engineering and Nora is an accomplished educator.
1. GENERAL EDUCATION
USC Beaufort's primary purpose is to provide the first two years of a liberal arts university education -- "general education" coursework. The general education curriculum prepares students for study in advanced baccalaureate courses. However, the content of a general education curriculum also "stands alone" as it gives essential skills and knowledge to citizens involving themselves responsibly in a sophisticated, democratic society. Therefore, general education as defined here is the set of transferable skills related to effective communication and analytical and computational ability that, along with the basic philosophical, historical, aesthetic and scientific knowledge base, enable the educated person to understand and judge human experiences and to live as a responsible citizen.
Indicators:
Last year, USC Beaufort reported a moderately high rate of success for those students
transferring from this institution to
other institutions of higher learning. Indeed, this is a significant indicator of the success of general
education
coursework. However, this year's evaluation will focus on those more intrinsic objectives of
general education--those
objectives whose goal is developing citizens who will act conscientiously and ably as they assume
responsibility in a
wide range of roles. The indicators for this purpose come from the following devices:
As much as a barometer of student learning, this preliminary analysis of general education is a test of tests. The instruments (indicators) chosen were selected with several criteria in mind: they must involve faculty in their implementation process, they must be believable by those who will interpret and act on their results (faculty), the results must support the specifics of our program, and the results must be readily interpretable into improvement strategies that fit our curricular structure. Therefore, as much as anything, this preliminary analysis of general education is a test of tests.
Assessment Methodology: In many ways, this assessment is a meta-analysis of the general education assessment process. Thus, much of the report of results is devoted to findings related to the instruments as well as what the instruments tell us about our program and our students.
Critical Thinking:
Definition: Of 2700 faculty in various college environments surveyed by K. Patricia Cross at University of California Berkeley, faculty in the fields of Humanities, English and the Social Sciences claimed that their primary purpose was the teaching of higher-order thinking skills. If there is general agreement that critical thinking is important, there is some disagreement as to how to define and measure it. Because Bloom's taxonomy (Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation) is familiar to many of our faculty, it served a useful purpose as a way to start the conversation among faculty about the quality of thinking we engender in our students and how we address any deficiencies. However, faculty are drawing upon other indices (e.g., "discernment") as they evaluate student thinking. And as students are asked to voice meta-cognition, we are given opportunities to see how students themselves categorize thinking and this can further inform our choice and modification of rubrics and definitions.
Assessment Methodology: A provocative situation was presented to set up the critical thinking exercise. This exercise was part of a Pre-graduation workshop to which all Associate Degree candidates were invited. The 18 graduating associate-degree students participating in this exercise were asked to become policy analysts and choose beneficial initiatives from a list of 12 laws currently under consideration. 10 USC Beaufort faculty members (selected on the basis of both assessment experience and academic discipline) presented background information on each public policy proposed. First a faculty member gave a more general talk on federalism and offered a rule-of-thumb on determining a proposed law's constitutionally. Then, other faculty members shed light from their academic specialties on the 12 public policy issues. After this, students prepared their 1-page reports as groups, observed by faculty. The report included prompts asking for demonstration of all items of Bloom's Taxonomy.
A major objective behind the roundtable approach to assessment is the premise that bringing faculty in on the assessment procedure will help "close the loop"1 on assessment. And, indeed, faculty became involved. Some of the faculty statements show their interest: One faculty member commented that USC Beaufort may need to engage in these exercises more thoroughly -- to include possibly evaluation of ethical aspects of reasoning. Perhaps Kohlberg's moral reasoning guidelines might be added to the Bloom's taxonomy checklist.
Faculty findings: Since the student groups demonstrated varying skill levels, generalizing is difficult. However, faculty commented that while students appeared competent at handling activities requiring analysis, it appeared these students consistently seemed to have difficulty with Synthesis and Evaluation.
Use of Assessment Findings: Much replication and standardization are needed before making generalizations. And since the evaluation is based on narrative comments of faculty, reliability will have to be tested thoroughly (perhaps with video taping.) In addition, other instruments should be used simultaneously with this procedure to corroborate findings. Plans are underway to build this simulation/focus group assessment exercise into a bigger program next year, with a more thorough development of the problem and issues and actual application of student solutions.
Communication
Definition: The USC General Education Assessment Advisory Committee has addressed three components of communication: Written Communication, Oral Communication, and Computer Communication. In this report, "Computer Communication" will be covered under the "content" section.
Assessment Methodology: Written Communication was evaluated through the administration of a Writing Assessment Survey taken by students with approximately 60 semester hours. These essay samples were graded by internal and external evaluators using the "binary" grading form developed and adopted by the USC Assessment Advisory Committee.
Assessment Findings: This testing was administered more as a piloting of the instrument than as an assessment of the students. However, the Writing Sample exercise, evaluated by one local high school teacher, one English professor at a peer institution, and one resident English professor, resulted in useful data.
| #1 | #2 | #3 | Composite | ||
| 1 | Addresses topic/shows knowledge | 77% | 100% | 94% | 90% |
| 2 | Demonstrates awareness of reader | 54% | 65% | 100% | 73% |
| 3 | Reflects Appropriate Organization | 77% | 76% | 53% | 69% |
| 4 | Reflects Appropriate Format | 38% | 88% | 71% | 66% |
| 5 | Relates Ideas | 23% | 94% | 53% | 57% |
| 6 | Style, Personal Voice, Coherence | 92% | 94% | 82% | 89% |
| 7 | Comprehension, Analysis, Synthesis | 85% | 71% | 88% | 81% |
The overall impression of Dr. Tombe, USC Beaufort English professor who coordinated this evaluation, was that all of the essays were "worthy" of students with a liberal arts education.
Use of Assessment Findings: While it appears there may be some lack of inter-rater consistency, readers agreed generally. There will be an in-depth presentation to give USC Beaufort faculty an opportunity to discuss ramifications of results across the curriculum.
Survey:
Assessment Methodology: The USC Assessment Advisory Committee recently completed a survey system for assessing all of its general education competencies, including oral communication. Approximately 50 students in various lower-level classroom situations: biology, psychology, calculus, sociology were included in the USCB survey as well as a group of 18 students who were attended a pre-graduation workshop before receiving their Associate degrees. The survey results follow:
Assessment Findings: Ranging from 78% to 94% in their average responses, students overwhelmingly agreed they improved on the 7 vectors of oral communication as a result of USCB.
Use of Assessment Findings: The results of this will be published in the USC Beaufort IR Newsletter and followed up with a presentation to faculty.
Knowledge, traditional disciplines, and interdisciplinary perspectives:
Definition: This category includes computer literacy, math and science, social science, and humanities/cultural studies. With the possible exception of computer literacy, content knowledge associated with these disciplinary areas have wide-ranging application, which are different from those skills in the category of "transferable" skills (writing, critical thinking, speaking, etc.)
Assessment Findings: With the exception of the "Computers" and the "Humanities/Cultural Studies" components, USC Beaufort students are overwhelmingly in agreement that their coursework has built up their abilities along general education objectives. Overwhelmingly high marks for USC Beaufort's accomplishing Math, Sciences, and Social Science objectives were surprising even for those of us most positive about our program:
Math: While overall students agreed that they had mastered math learning objectives while at USC Beaufort, only 71% believe USC Beaufort has enabled them to (23) Draw appropriate inferences from numeric data in various forms and in various disciplines. Apart from this low item, USC Beaufort can give itself at least a "B" on math instruction.
Science: It appears USC Beaufort does an excellent job teaching components of the scientific process!
Social sciences: On the whole, USC Beaufort appears to cover social science objectives thoroughly. However, two items were not given as glowing support by students as other six items in this category. Again, these are "inference" items. It may well indicate that USC Beaufort may look at this reasoning skill more closely, in math, social sciences, and "across the board."
Computers: It appears that while a respectable number of USC Beaufort students are getting adequate word processing skills and learning to access data bases, students are not, in sufficient numbers, learning spreadsheets or statistical programs, learning to navigate networks, or learning advanced desktop publishing skills. The low ranking of one item -- network navigation -- relates to capacity. The ability to teach "Sending and Receiving Electronic Communication" will be greatly advanced when Internet connection will be available to all computers on campus. Currently, the University is in the process of applying for moneys to interconnect the campus and achieve Internet capacity. We believe this enhanced capacity will make a great deal of difference in student familiarity with these processes.
Use of Assessment Findings: While the data on Math, Sciences, and Social Science objectives and even interdisciplinary analysis is extremely encouraging, USC Beaufort will examine the data further to see if there is any consistent weakness in teaching "inference" skills.
On the matter of computer literacy deficiencies, we can hope that anticipated connectivity to the Internet will address these, especially the item related directly to electronic communication.
The "elective" nature of art explains why many students graduate without feeling a high degree of accomplishment at artistic analysis. However, these data, too, will be analyzed in terms of possibly "across the board" (interdisciplinary) opportunities for instruction.
As to reported deficiencies in foreign language objectives, the arrival of our new full-time foreign language professor may well bring about much change in students' perceived accomplishment of these objectives! In addition, the "elective" nature of this objective, as well as its educational priority, may be re-visited by faculty.
The results of this will be published in the USC Beaufort IR Newsletter and followed up with a presentation to faculty for discussion and the development and incorporation of improvement strategies.
Overall Result of this Assessment: As mentioned, faculty involvement in the process of assessing this component was a key criterion in the selection of instruments. Involvement has, it is believed, resulted in a higher awareness and even excitement about the possibility of evaluating at least some facets of general education, including critical thinking. This faculty "investment" into the process and the findings of assessment is essential if general education is going to be adequately operationalized, observed, analyzed, evaluated and its results synthesized into our improvement efforts. We believe this process has brought about the first faculty installments on that investment, as indicated by increased interest and excitement.
2. Majors and Concentrations
This component is not applicable to our institutional type.
3. Performance of Professional Program Graduates on Licensing and Certification Exams
This component is not applicable to our institution.
4. Reports on Program Changes That Have Occurred as a Result of External Program Evaluation
No report is necessary.
5. Academic Advising
This component was reported on last in 1995. Based on the Schedule of Reporting, this component will be reported on next in 1997.
6. Entry-Level Placement and Developmental Education
Entry Level Skills are those minimum skills required to undertake and succeed in college coursework. At USC Beaufort, these are determined by two means:
Developmental Courses include: English 100, Math 100, Reading (UCAM) 100 and University 101, a student orientation course. Branch (conditional) students are required to take all four developmental courses, although they are offered the opportunity to "place out" of developmental Math and English courses. Students with low math placement scores are required to take Math 100; English 100 is required of students with low writing sample evaluations.
Indicators and Assessment Methods: With the help of USC Columbia tracking data, USC Beaufort is able to analyze its placement and developmental processes quantitatively and comprehensively.
Assessment Results: In reviewing the effectiveness of placement methods as well as developmental courses at USC Beaufort, we drew upon data on student grade performance in the developmental courses and in courses subsequent to the developmental course:
| In Fall '94 English 100: | One year later: | ||
| 2 Failed | >> | 1 subsequently passed English 101 | |
| 1 had not attempted English 101 | |||
| 41 Passed | >> | 6 had not attempted English 101 | |
| 3 failed English 101 | |||
| 32 passed English 101 | |||
| In Fall '94 Math 100: | One year later: | ||
| 8 Failed | >> | 5 failed subsequent math course | |
| 2 failed subsequent computer science course | |||
| 1 passed computer science course | |||
| 36 Passed | >> | 5 had not attempted subsequent courses | |
| 1 failed subsequent math course | |||
| 30 passed subsequent math | |||
| 1 failed subsequent philosophy course | |||
| 2 passed subsequent computer science course | |||
| 1 failed subsequent computer science course | |||
The progression charts above were analyzed with these assumptions:
English: It appears that English 100 does a good job preparing developmental students for further study. 32 of the 35 students passing English 100 and attempting English 101 passed. Of course, we might hope to improve even this small failure rate in the future. The data, though, suggests an area of concern: of the two students failing the developmental course, one was allowed into English 101.
Math: Significantly, 8 of the 44 Math 100 students failed the course. This indicates that students may well have been properly placed in this developmental course. Also significantly, 30 of the students passing Math 100 went on to pass the subsequent math course. However, 1 failed the subsequent math course and there were also failures (1 each) in philosophy and computer science.
Use of Assessment Findings:
One area of concern related to Placement and Development that is corroborated by this data is presumptuous registration of students. Last year the "Courses and Curriculum" faculty committee conducted a study of developmental programs at USC Beaufort. One particular concern of the committee was the instances of developmental students taking college-level courses prior to satisfactory completion of developmental courses. The data showing that nine of the ten students who failed developmental math in the fall of 1993 went on to take (and fail) subsequent analytical courses supported these concerns of the committee. This year's data reveal that further measures are required. New strategies will be developed and disseminated through the Office of Advisement.
7. Success of Entering Students in Meeting College or University Admissions Prerequisites
| 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Freshmen | 94 | 88.9 | 88.8 |
| S. C. Residents | 97 | 91.3 | 90.4 |
| Non-Residents | 78 | 72.3 | 77.5 |
8. Acchievement of Students Transferring From Two-Year to Four-Year Institution
This component was reported on last in 1995. Based on the Schedule of Reporting, this component will be reported on next in 1998.
9. Analyses of Undergraduate Retention and Attrition
This component was reported on last in 1994. Based on the Schedule of Reporting, this component will be reported on next in 1998.
10. Minority Student and Faculty Access and Equity
| Minority Undergraduate Enrollment and Minority Undergraduate Degrees Earned | ||||||
| Category | 1992 | 1995 | ||||
| African- American # | Total # | African- American % | African- American # | Total # | African- American % | |
| A. Enrollment
1. Number and Percentage of African-American Undergraduate Students | 179 | 1,070 | 16.7% | 188 | 1,147 | 16.4% |
| B. Degrees Earned
1. Number and Percentage of African-American Associate Degree Recipients | 10 | 72 | 13.0% | 6 | 77 | 7.8% |
11. Academic Performance of Student Athletes
This component is not applicable to this campus.
12. Procedures for Student Development
Student Development is an integral part of USC Beaufort's liberal arts program. USC Beaufort is committed to the education of the whole student and believes true education goes far beyond development of the intellect. It is believed that the college environment should support students' coming to terms with the emotional, physical, social, ethical and spiritual facets of life. Thus, USC Beaufort seeks, through programs inside and outside of class, to promote the psychological, social, and ethical development of the college student.
The aim of student development goes beyond social and civic involvement, indeed, a key aim of any liberal arts program is to produce well-balanced individuals who can contribute meaningfully to society. Whether in advancing the body knowledge, or in citizenship, in the conscientious pursuit of responsible enterprise, and even in formal and informal interactions of all varieties of human interchange, our students are expected to advance social good in a variety of meaningful ways. In other words, Liberal Arts education should lead to lives lived well. And this depends as much upon such intangibles as emotional balance, interpersonal skills, and "well-roundedness" as it does on intellectual competence. USC Beaufort appreciates the urgent need to develop the whole student and assumes this responsibility earnestly and soberly.
Indicators: The work of Arthur Chickering has been consistently among the most widely applied theories in addressing the growth and development of students. He asserts that certain changes should take place while and if a student is involved in the college experience. These changes could take place in one, some or all of the seven vectors of development which Chickering talks about. They are
The purpose of this self-report survey was twofold: 1) To have the students assess any change(s) that they experienced relative to Chickering's seven vectors of development. There were at least three questions to assess the students' growth in each vector of development. 2) To measure which of the following three factors; courses taken, student activities, or natural development, influenced any change in students while attending USC Beaufort.
| 7 Vectors | Achieving Competence | Managing Emotions | Becoming Autonomous | Establishing Identity | Freeing In-terpersonal Relatnshps | Clarifying Purpose | Developing Integrity |
| Student Survey Items | Questions 1 through 8 | Questions 9 through 11 | Questions 12 through 16 | Questions 17 through 20 | Questions 21 through 23 | Questions 24 - 26 | Questions 27 through 29 |
Assessment Methods: A survey developed by the USC Beaufort Office of Student Affairs was administered to 70 USC Beaufort students at all stages of college life. Included in the 70 were 20 students receiving an associate degree in the Spring of 1996 and 10 students receiving 4-year degrees through the USC System. The results are seen below:
Assessment Results:
| Those reporting SOME or MUCH CHANGE attribute change to: | |||||||
| No | Some | Much | Course | Student | Natural | ||
| Change | Change | Change | Taken | Actvty | Dvlpmnt | ||
| 1. | Intellectual Competence | 3.03% | 51.52% | 45.45% | 78.13% | 3.13% | 23.44% |
| 2. | Social Competence | 28.79% | 48.48% | 22.73% | 21.28% | 25.53% | 51.06% |
| 3. | Knowledge of Your Field | 10.61% | 34.85% | 54.55% | 89.83% | 5.08% | 10.17% |
| 4. | Critical Thinking Skills | 7.58% | 51.52% | 40.91% | 70.49% | 6.56% | 21.31% |
| 5. | Participation in Community | 51.56% | 39.06% | 9.38% | 19.35% | 35.48% | 41.94% |
| 6. | Leadership Roles | 36.36% | 45.45% | 18.18% | 35.71% | 21.43% | 42.86% |
| 7. | Working in Groups | 26.15% | 53.85% | 20.00% | 56.25% | 25.00% | 18.75% |
| 8. | Facilitating Communication | 23.44% | 56.25% | 20.31% | 69.39% | 14.29% | 20.41% |
| 9. | Managing Emotions | 47.69% | 36.92% | 15.38% | 44.12% | 5.88% | 50.00% |
| 10. | In touch w/Feelings | 49.23% | 30.77% | 20.00% | 48.48% | 3.03% | 48.48% |
| 11. | Learning self-regulation | 35.38% | 47.69% | 16.92% | 47.62% | 7.14% | 42.86% |
| 12. | Autonomy | 49.18% | 37.70% | 13.11% | 41.94% | 3.23% | 48.39% |
| 13. | Raising a family | 65.63% | 23.44% | 10.94% | 36.36% | 9.09% | 72.73% |
| 14. | Independence | 32.31% | 36.92% | 30.77% | 29.55% | 15.91% | 61.36% |
| 15. | Problem solving w/o help | 21.88% | 54.69% | 23.44% | 48.00% | 8.00% | 54.00% |
| 16. | General Maturity Level | 26.15% | 43.08% | 30.77% | 31.25% | 16.67% | 68.75% |
| 17. | Establishing Identity | 23.44% | 51.56% | 25.00% | 40.82% | 12.24% | 59.18% |
| 18. | Understanding Abilities | 14.06% | 60.94% | 25.00% | 52.73% | 14.55% | 47.27% |
| 19. | Acceptance of Self | 28.13% | 50.00% | 21.88% | 32.61% | 19.57% | 39.13% |
| 20. | Positive Self-concept | 18.46% | 53.85% | 27.69% | 39.62% | 9.43% | 58.49% |
| 21. | Inter-prsnl Relationships | 29.23% | 52.31% | 18.46% | 28.26% | 19.57% | 65.22% |
| 22. | Getting along w/ Others | 35.94% | 45.31% | 18.75% | 46.34% | 24.39% | 41.46% |
| 23. | Tolerating Differences | 29.69% | 48.44% | 21.88% | 53.33% | 11.11% | 40.00% |
| 24. | Clarifying Purpose | 25.00% | 45.31% | 29.69% | 68.75% | 10.42% | 31.25% |
| 25. | Assessing Interests | 23.44% | 51.56% | 25.00% | 65.31% | 10.20% | 26.53% |
| 26. | Clarifying goals | 19.05% | 46.03% | 34.92% | 68.63% | 9.80% | 29.41% |
| 27. | Developing Integrity | 39.06% | 43.75% | 17.19% | 53.85% | 12.82% | 43.59% |
| 28. | Understanding Values | 33.33% | 46.03% | 20.63% | 54.76% | 14.29% | 40.48% |
| 29. | Meaningful Life Philosophy | 31.25% | 39.06% | 29.69% | 56.82% | 11.36% | 47.73% |
Use of Assessment Findings: The high percentage of those who attribute personal growth and development to their USC Beaufort experience is indeed gratifying. However, there are some sobering consequences of this data:
The overwhelming message of this analysis is confirmation of the literature on commuter colleges: student development objectives must be accommodated through "inter-curricular" activities! Addressing this reality, the faculty and staff will, themselves, work to "clarify purpose" and build consensus on student development goals and how best to incorporate specific strategies into the classroom. This does not mean that faculty will assume student affairs responsibilities. But while USC Beaufort will certainly continue its student activity programming, the faculty and staff will also address the reality that these activities are, in many cases, untenable for our commuter students. The outcomes of this study will be the subject of a workshop, which in turn will lead to documentable changes in the way courses are taught.
13. Library Resources and Services
Introduction/Mission: The USCB Libraries in Beaufort and on Hilton Head Island are full-service facilities that support the curriculum and provide students and faculty with access to a wide range of materials in print, CD-ROM, microform and electronic formats.
Library Effectiveness: Library effectiveness is measured by user satisfaction with services, collections, and bibliographic instructional programs, designed and organized to assist patrons in locating and retrieving needed information in a timely manner by using the most advanced tools and technology.
Indicators:
Assessment Methods:
Assessment Results: Recent user responses to service-related questions indicated a high level of satisfaction with the library services, the organization, the collection, the accessibility of materials and the bibliographic instruction. However, while the library budget has steadily increased over the years, it must be stretched to meet the continuing need for additional books and periodicals while also keeping current on electronic media. Facilities are also being stretched: A study conducted on the adequacy of space revealed that current space available is well short of ALA standards.
Use of Assessment Findings: A joint administrative-faculty review program has been launched to ascertain the current strengths and weaknesses of the collection. Information collected from this study will be used to support the library's request for a substantial increase in the materials budget, above the more modest increases it has experienced. In the meantime, because of the University's successful and innovative Info-Share program, the library has been able to redirect funds previously spent on electronic databases back to books and periodicals. In response to cramped conditions, as verified by the space study, USC Beaufort is well underway with plans to expand the library at the Carteret Street Campus.
14. Administrative and Financial Processes and Performance
This component was reported on last in 1994. Based on the Schedule of Reporting, this component will be reported on next in 1997.
15. Facilities
This component was reported on last in 1994. Based on the Schedule of Reporting, this component will be reported on next in 1998.
16. Public Service
This component was reported on last in 1995. Based on the Schedule of Reporting, this component will be reported on next in 1999.
17. Research
This component is not applicable to this campus.