CENTRAL NEW MEXICO COMMUNITY COLLEGE
ASSESSMENT REPORT

Due to SAAC by October 15

PART 1: CONTACT & PROGRAM IDENTIFICATION

Report Year and Contact Information
2017-2022 / Hope T. Ecksel / / 505-224-4000x32123
Academic Year / Contact Person / Email / Phone Number
Subject of this Assessment Report
Program: / Sampleton Inputology / Gen Ed Area: / Discipline Area:
X / Certificate / AA / AS / X / AAS / Applicable to: / AA/AS / AAS

PART 2: EVIDENCE OF OVERALL PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS

Program/Area Highlights (Including, wherever applicable, course completion, job placement, and licensing examination information)
Sampleton Inputology saw a 12% increase in new enrollments during the past year, thought to be due in part to our new partnership with ComputaCorp. We modified our curriculum to address the company’s key training concerns, and in return they implemented a scholarship to pay half of their employees’ tuition. Because the ComputaCorp students bring to the classroom their job-related experiences, this partnership has enriched classroom discussions. We expect it to ultimately lead to increased persistence, graduation, and job placement rates as well. Fall-to-fall persistence has been around 50% in recent years, graduation around 38%, and we have set a goal to increase these to 60% and 45%, respectively, over the next three years. Graduate employment during the first 6 months following graduation hovers around 73%, and we hope to increase that to 85% within the next 5 years. We think these goals are reasonable due to the growing demand for inputology skills in the field. Our program is uniquely prepared to fill this niche within New Mexico, and we hope that doing so might attract more industry to the area.
Changes Made in Support of Student Learning
The curriculum revisions implemented in the fall of 2014 appear to have been influential in increasing student success rates on the licensing exam. We only have one year’s results so far, but we intend to monitor future results to see if the increase is sustained.

PART 3: REPORT ON RECENT ASSESSMENT OF STUDENT LEARNING

Student Learning Outcome(s) Assessed
To add rows: right –click in cell below and select “Insert,” “Insert Rows Above” / Classes/Cohorts Assessed
Apply compulary concepts to create a fully functional inputology program. / INPT 2033 and INPT 2041 (concurrent enrollment)
Resolve multi-layer output breakdowns through input revisions. / OTPT 2099
Coordinate multiple compulary strategies through collaborative caliperation. / INPT 1076, 1077, and 2011
Measurement Tool(s) Used
To add rows: right –click in cell below and select “Insert,” “Insert Rows Above” / Enter X’s for type of tool / Initial Achievement Target or Expectation
Internal / External / Direct / Indirect
Compulary inputology portfolio project / X / X / We expected all INPT 2033 students to demonstrate at least 75% implementation of compulary concepts through portfolio artifacts, with 70% of INPT 2041 projects resulting in fully functional programs.
Final exams / X / X / Our initial achievement target was that 80% of students would correctly identify solutions for output breakdowns on the OTPT 2099 final and that 70% of students would correctly answer the embedded output questions on the INPT 1076, 1077, and 2011 finals.
Group projects with peer evaluations / X / X / We expected to see 95% of peer evaluation ratings on collaboration and teamwork at the 3 or 4 level on a scale of 0-4.
Assessment Findings
INPT 2033 students demonstrated a 79% success rate in implementation of compulary concepts through portfolio artifacts. However, only 65% of INPT 2041 projects resulted in fully functional programs. The results on the INPT 2041 projects may have been influenced by changes we had recently made in the problems presented, which require prerequisite learning that is now part of the first-year curriculum (most of these students having completed the first year under the old curriculum).
In OTPT 2099, 82% of students correctly identified solutions for output breakdowns on the OTPT 2099 final, but only 62% of students correctly answered the embedded output questions on the INPT 1076, 1077, and 2011 finals.
We used a common peer evaluation rubric for group projects across all of the first-year courses and in INPT 2011, and we found that only 81% of the first-year students rated received ratings of 3 or 4 and only 75% of INPT 2011 students received ratings of 3 or 4. We disaggregated the data to look for demographic and course differences but found none.
Analysis and Interpretation of Assessment Findings
Given the potential misalignment of the measure used and this years’ student preparation (described above), we are not concerned about this graduating cohort’s ability to apply compulary concepts to create a fully functional inputology program. The faculty had observed through their interactions with the students in INPT 2041 and INPT 2099 that the students grasped the compulary concepts well enough but lacked practice in practical application at the INPT 2041 level, practice which they later got in INPT 2099.
The lower-than-expected performance on the embedded test questions, all of which involved problem solving through application of concepts and skills, appears to be a result of gaps in students’ understanding regarding caliperation. While this might be expected at the INPT 1076 level, we think students should have had sufficient exposure to caliperation inputs by the time they reach INPT 2011 to solve those problems. We reviewed our course curriculum in INPT 1077 and identified a source of confusion in the chapter that bridges caliperation inputs and outputs.
We anticipated that peer ratings would be inflated due to reluctance to give classmates critical feedback, so these lower than expected ratings suggest that our students are not adequately applying the collaborative skills we are emphasizing as industry basics. We considered the possibility that classroom dynamics or unintended cues from instructors were causing students to rate their peers more harshly than the instructors would have, but the instructors’ perception was that the peer ratings closely corresponded to their own observations of the group dynamics. In many instances, instructors had reason to believe that the bulk of the work was completed by just one or two of the group members.
Action Plan in Support of Student Learning
The faculty who teach INPT 1076 will develop supplemental materials and include an additional problem-solving activity to reinforce the bridging of caliperation inputs and outputs. We will follow up with the same assessment next year to see if the changes result in higher next-level performance in INPT 2011.
We are making additional course changes to include training in industry-related collaboration skills, using a scaffolded model that will engage students in increasingly demanding team problem-solving activities. We will follow up with the same peer evaluation instrument next year to see if the students are doing a better job of internalizing this competency.

Please indicate with an X all of the following that characterize the types of changes described in the above action plan:

X / Pedagogical change / X / Course revision / Process revision / Curricular revision
Budgetary reallocation / Faculty training/development / Assessment criteria revision / Assessment methodology revision
Recommendations, Proposals, and/or Funding Requests
The program faculty have observed that the integration of formative assessment activities prior to assignment of group activities reinforces collaborative skill application. To better facilitate the type of formative assessments that the faculty want to use and better document the results, funding for a clicker system is requested.

PART 4: ASSESSMENT CYCLE PLAN (Copy and paste from original plan if unchanged)

Cycle Years: / Description of Changes Made (if applicable)
2017-2022 / In alignment with the CNM vision of changing lives and building community, Sampleton Inputology aims to produce graduates who are fully prepared to enter and contribute productively to the growing demands for innovation and leadership within the inputology industry. Our assessment approach, therefore, focuses on measuring proficiency in problem-solving ingenuity and collaboration as well as industry concepts and skills. We are updating our assessment plan to include two additional years of assessment related to collaboration.
Student Learning Outcomes: / When Measured: / Where Measured: / How Measured:
1. / Apply compulary concepts to create a fully functional inputology program. / 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 / INPT 2033 and 2041 and internships / Compulary inputology portfolio project and supervisor evaluations in internships (which will begin in 2016-17 with ComputaCorp)
2. / Resolve multi-layer output breakdowns through input revisions. / 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 / OTPT 2099 and INPT 2333 / Final exams
3. / Coordinate multiple compulary strategies through collaborative caliperation. / 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 / INPT 1076, 1077, 2011, 2141, 2151, and 2090 / Group projects with peer evaluations
4. / Create original, innovative solutions that relate to inputology industry problems. (Degree only) / 2017-18, 2020-21, and 2021-22 / OTPT 2299 and INPT 2399 and employer mailing / Capstone projects, summative portfolio review, oral exam, and employer survey

Assessment ReportPage 1 of 4Last Revised 03/2015