B.A. Psychology –ORAL COMMUNICATION 2021-2022
(Note: the data for this assessment was turned in after the overall institution’s findings were published and is not included in the calculations)
Have formal Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) or Student Learning Outcomes (SLOS) been developed?
YES
Published where? (website)
Do PLOs include or imply a link to Core Competency? (AY 2021-2022: Oral Communication)?
Though not specified, the department’s understanding of “communication” includes both oral and written.
Process of Core Competency Assessment:
Course (300 or 400- level)
PSY 322 Special Psychology
A 15 – 20 minute presentation in which students present their proposals to the rest of the class. Presentation should summarize the same 5 sections that were described in the proposal:
- A description of the problem and why it’s something that needs to be changed.
- A detailed, thorough description of the intervention
- An explanation, in social psychological terms, of why the intervention should work.
- A description of how the team would evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention if it was actually carried out.
- A list of at least five references from the psychological literature.
Students may choose to include some sort of visual presentation (such as a PowerPoint presentation, or Prezi) to accompany their talk, however students cannot simply read the slides to the audience. The presentation should feel like a conversation with your professional peers which you attempt to persuade them to agree with your plan. Because this is an online course, students will record presentations and post a links to the recording for classmates to view.
Type of Student Artifact
Oral presentation of research proposal
Rubric or other instrument
GE Rubric for Oral Communication
Data (measurement of the competency)
Two readers from the department undertook evaluations of the student presentations:
The overall means (based on n =10 scores) were as follows:
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- Organization = 3.05
- Content = 2.825
- Language = 3.175
- Delivery = 3.15
The readers also made the following observations:
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- The overall means for each category hover around a 3 on a 4-point scale, indicating that students show a trend toward being competent in each of these domains.
- Relative to the other three domains, students seemed a bit weak in the content area with a mean of 2.825 (the only mean that fell below 3).
- The reliability of the scores between the two raters who reviewed these presentation was strong at .725, indicating that the raters, with few exceptions, agreed on the quality of the presentations in the assessed domains.
Action Taken in Response to the Data (What will you do in response to the Findings?)
The department, as a whole, decided to make the following recommendations to individual faculty for implementation in their courses:
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- Provide more opportunities for individual student feedback from faculty. This could take the form of anything from individual meetings with students to discuss progress up to more extensive feedback on rough drafts (and final drafts) of papers.
- Encourage more student participation in class, including individual and small group presentations, to provide more opportunities for practice in the assessed domains.
- If not already provided, give students rubrics so that they’re clear on faculty expectations for their work. Perhaps also have examples of previous student work available for students to review so that they have models for their work.
The Psychology Department is pleased overall with the work that students submitted in this course, particularly given that it was conducted entirely online during a time that many students were isolated due to the pandemic and were unable or unwilling to meet regularly with classmates or their instructor. We do expect that these scores could have been significantly higher if the presentations were conducted in a face-to-face (hence more natural) rather than recorded format.
Date of Last Program Review
2009 self-study. Psychology is expected to complete a review in AY 2023-2024.