Without a doubt, these data
should give the state universities anxiety about the type and quality of students we send
them. Value-added measures are nice. But, just as pouring a glass of water into
Lake Michigan increases the tortal amount, there is lots of water already there. Our
"lake" seems pretty empty. Here at DuPage we hear so much about the quality of
our programs (the objects). What's the point if we start with folks having so little to
begin with?I'm a new faculty so this
was difficult - I don't mean to be overly analytical, but I was unsure of the meanings of
some of the aims of the gen. Ed. Model. Terms can be loaded. "Their culture" is
that our culture or each student's own culture?
"Synthesis" as a pulled out -
stand alone term, synthesis ability? Or synthesis of the previous terms?
This was an excellent report that really
helped inform me about general education at COD and my individual role in accomplishing
general education. It wa also helpful in understanding how individual disciplines are
interconnected. I hope the work of this committee will serve as a foundation to open more
dialogue about general education competencies among all faculty at COD and help us all
work towards meeting standards set by faculty and the institution.
This is exactly the right study! Many
thanks to the people who spend time and effort on it!
I want to express my appreciation to the
committee for the time and effort involved in helping us to understand & support
the necessity for outcomes assessment. I believe that implementing outcomes
assessment has made me pay closer attention to what I am using in the classroom, as well
as to how successful these activities, assignments and approaches have been. Many thanks!
As the French teacher, I need to let you
know that French language and culture goals are specifically French! The ideas here are
excellent, but the parameters are very different for people of French cultural heritage!
Those differences need to be addressed in the French class and the students non-French
culture is not relevant to the French class! Thank you!
I remain unenthusiastic about the whole
enterprise though I realize we have no choice. The most valuable things about general
education are not easily quantified. I wish I did know a better way to do this, but I'm
afraid I'm not much help. I will always favor methods which are as unintrusive as possible
& waste the least time.
Improving these competencies will 1)
improve retention, 2) improve success here & transfer.
Sadly, these competencies should have been
developed at an elementary school level - This kind of knowledge at the college level
should be honed, ……(?) the basics.
I would gladly work to support an
orientation of incoming students.
This workbook was quite time-consuming. I
sat down 5 different times to try to complete it. Maybe timing it at the end of the
quarter was part of the problem I had. It's not my best effort, but I tried….
I feel very awkward in filling out this
report. In most ways, all my goals are centered on the writing process and knowledge and
skills needed to help students become proficient. I feel that student skills and
understanding of general information is somewhat independent of formal college training
& learning.
The school has an obligation to meet the
student half way in the educational process. Let's not lose sight of the half-way mark.
After that point, the student needs to be held responsible for his/her progress. We should
not spoon feed or doddle. We meet them half-way and then hold them accountable beyond
that.
I wish I didn't need to take the time to do
this. I think assessment is the latest buzz word in education and feel that filling out
surveys to justify some administrator's/administrators' job/jobs infringes upon my right
to use my time to improve my teaching on a personal level. There are many things I would
like to do but don't find the time to do. Exercises such as this one don't help me. They
might be beneficial in some disciplines but I could benefit my students more doing other
things.
These exercises don't help much at my
students' level in Spanish.
I really do think assessment is very
important. I am constantly assessing what I do every class, every week. Even though I
teach some of the same classes quarter after quarter, each new class represents a new
audience who will have different needs, skills, & even interests. I try to modify as I
go along in an effort to help students be successful.
Thus, I spend a lot of time on class
preparation and with student appointments.
