Outcomes Assessment at GHC

Outcomes Assessment Committee

Introduction

Outcomes Assessment at Grays Harbor College (GHC) derives its focus from the introductory statement within GHC's mission:

Grays Harbor College is a learner-centered community college that exists to improve peoples lives through education.

Outcomes related efforts are coordinated by the campus-wide Outcomes Assessment Committee. The Vice-president of Instruction serves as chair of the committee and is assisted by the outcomes liaison and the institutional research office. Both student services and instructional areas have sought funding through the Outcomes Committee to assess their effectiveness in helping learners achieve their goals. More specifically, student services has administered national surveys such as the Community College Student Experience Questionnaire as well as locally generated surveys to gather students' perspective on their learning. Faculty within the instructional divisions have worked at both the classroom and divisional or program level to assess student progress toward achievement of the Grays Harbor College Desired Student Abilities whose topics include:

Competency in the Disciplines
Literacy
Critical Thinking
Social and Personal Responsibility
Using Resources

Progress Toward Major Issues and Concerns

Several classroom and program level outcomes projects were undertaken during the 2000/2001 academic year. However, much of Grays Harbor College's outcomes related efforts for the 2000/2001 academic year were focused on gathering and organizing assessments from across the campus and especially within the instructional divisions to prepare for the April, 2001 visit by the Northwest Accreditation Commission. At the end of its visit, the accrediting body made two recommendations related to outcomes.

The committee recommends that Grays Harbor College regularly and systematically evaluate the priority goals established by the Board (of Trustees)and that this evaluation be used to influence planning and budget allocation. (1.1 - Institutional Mission and Goals)

The committee recommends the implementation of a regular and continuous assessment plan for every segment of the college in compliance with the specificity of Policy 2.2, Policy on Educational Assessment.

Since that accreditation visit in April, several steps have been taken to meet the recommendations of the Commission:

Representatives of the Outcomes Committee developed a draft Plan for Institutional Assessment. The proposed plan was presented to the GHC Instructional Council and resulting feedback shared with the Outcomes Assessment Committee.

An all-campus retreat was held during fall planning days to focus on outcomes assessment. A facilitator guided discussion of the process of implementing a regular and continuous assessment plan for all areas of the campus. Maintaining program creativity and autonomy while concurrently developing an all-encompassing plan has been identified as one of the key challenges. The day also included an in-depth discussion of the GHC Priority Goals and a showcase session highlighting major 2000/2001 assessment projects.

As a result of the fall retreat, two initiatives were adopted. An expanded Associate in Arts Committee will focus on the Desired Student Abilities and how best to assess students' achievement of those abilities. The Outcomes Assessment Committee will focus on assessment of three of the ten Priority Goals during this academic year.

Significant Assessment Related Projects & Activities in 2000-01

Assessing Office Technology Student Outcomes - CIS instructor purchase software students skills and proficiency using Office Proficiency Assessment and Certification software. wbeldin
Office Technology Student Portfolio - two CIS instructors are identifying components, standards and assessment criteria for office technology student portfolios as Phase 1 of this project. Phase 2 of the project, the actual implementation of the folders will occur during Fall, 2001. wbeldin and dmiller
Assessing Student Writing Skills - Two English 101 instructors used quantitative research to evaluate the relationship, if any, between objective testing as an evaluation tool of student writing and written evaluations of student writing in 3 sections of English 101. They found a positive correlation when examining grades. cportman and dcavin
Developmental Qualitative Survey and Program Assessment - Three full time and five part time developmental math, English, and reading instructors administered a modified version of last spring's survey both in person on campus and online for off campus students. Some Likert scale averages for satisfaction improved, some stayed the same, and others decreased. A follow-up retreat gave the full and part-time instructors an opportunity to discuss those results and the written feedback provided to the mathematics instructors. Another part of the project involved the mathematics instructors enhancing that portion of the Developmental Web Page. kpace and kbails
2001 National Conference on Research in Developmental Education - Attending, Sharing, and Using the Research, to be held October 24-28, 2001. Two developmental instructors were funded to pay for the registration and plane tickets out of this year's funding with hotel and other costs to be funded as needed out of next year's budget.kpace and tdutro
Pacific Northwest 2001 Assessment Conference - funding 8 faculty and 1 administrator to attend this conference. Eight of the nine people attending had never attended this conference before. 7 of the 8 faculty were new full-time instructors this year.