Closing the loop 2007

Desired Outcome:

Students will improve their ability to write and orally communicate over the course of a semester as evidenced by formal written work, a formal presentation and daily class communication.

Data Collection:

Student papers and formal oral presentations will be collected at the beginning, middle, and at the end of the semester. The written papers will be evaluated based upon the student’s ability to clearly and concisely integrate and synthesize in an organized and effective manner the essential points of the assigned texts using the proper style, punctuation, and grammar. Students’ oral presentations will be evaluated on the basis of their clarity, organization, content, delivery, and impact. Specifically, students’ presentations will be assessed on the basis of the effectiveness of their introduction in stating the purpose of the presentation; the delivery of their main points in a manner that is well developed and supported by reference to outside sources; and a conclusion that effectively summarizes the essential points and develops and conveys a sense of the importance of their presentation.

Interpretation of the Data:

The three written course assignments were tied to the three reading assignments. First, the class read The Trial by Franz Kafka. Second, the class read and analyzed One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Finally, each member of the class selected individually a 20th century novel that included social justice issues to read, write about, and orally present. Throughout the course, class members were expected to participate during each class session orally analyzing the current assigned reading or – in the case of the individually selected volumes – commenting on and questioning the class member presenting her/his oral analysis of the novel chosen.

The evaluation of each student’s writing was enhanced by the fact that the instructor had previous pedagogical experience with four (4) of the nine (9) class members. (Ultimately, there were only eight (8) students to assess in the class: one class member effectively dropped out of the class due to personal issues during the semester.) Thus, in addition to using the initial writing assignment as a measure of ‘entering behavior,’ the instructor was able to reflect on, and compare, these students’ previous written work from the prior semester.

Changes to implement:

While generally successful in achieving a number of the Criminal Justice learning objectives, the above assessment suggests several possible avenues for improvement and change in the content and delivery of this course.

First, the assessment suggests that the entering level of skills for the class as a whole might show better improvement if the 3rd assignment was changed from a ‘student choice’ 20th century novel offering social justice themes to a ‘limited student choice’ model based on an instructor generated, limited list of choices.

Second, the assessment suggests that any student whose writing skills are not among the first tier of students would benefit from continued referral to the Writing and Tutoring Center and instructor preview for each assignment.

Third, strategies for expanding opportunity for daily oral expression earlier in the semester also would appear to offer significant benefit so that more students would voluntarily participate more often throughout the term, especially in the earlier weeks of the semester.