Examples of Assessment by Institution

Agnes Scott College began implementing its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), in 2004. This included evaluating the benefits of linking Living and Learning Communities (LLCs) to interdisciplinary First Year Seminars (FYS), which are required of all incoming first-year students. The project compares academic performance, active and collaborative learning, and satisfaction and retention between students in LLCs with those not in such communities. The project makes use of institutional data, select data from national surveys, focus groups with first year students, and faculty evaluation of student writing in FYS courses.

 

The information collected as a result of this project has allowed the College to make several changes to the curriculum, including expanding the LLCs to the entire first year class. Agnes Scott used information from the analysis of FYS papers to refine the goals of the Seminar program to reflect the importance of FYS as an introduction to college; this led the College to rethink the sequence of FYS and the other required first year course, English 110 (The Craft of Writing). This project has also prompted changes at individual and departmental levels, with most faculty reporting that evaluating FYS writing assignments has allowed them to begin to develop a common language about student writing that transcends discipline, to be more objective about the student writing they see in their own FYS courses, and to make greater use of the pedagogical tools available to them on campus.

                                                   

 

Agnes Scott College