Mathematical and Computer Sciences

Action Response Plan

Action Item / Who / Dates* / Accountability Measures
Create Associate Chair / Bennette Harris / effective spring 2007 / (already approved)
Phase 1 assessment (eg. Praxis II) / Dept. Assessment Comm. / spring 2007 / approval by L&S CC
Revise department mission & goals statements / As hoc committee / fall 2007 / approval by department faculty
Develop Advisory Board / Bob Horton & Bennette Harris / by spring 2008 / first meeting scheduled for fall 2008
Develop learning outcomes (300-400 level courses) / Course instructors & course committees / semester next offered 2007, 2008 / approval by department faculty
Develop learning outcomes (100-200 level courses / Course instructors & course committees / by spring 2008 / approval by department faculty
Develop learning outcomes for majors and minors / Dept. Curriculum Comm. / by spring 2008 / approval by department faculty
Align course and major/minor learning outcomes / Course committees & Dept. Curriculum Comm. / fall 2008 / approval by department faculty
Phase 2 assessment (focus on program assessment) / Dept. Assessment Comm. / by spring 2008 / approval by department faculty
Phase 3 assessment (expand phase 1 to differentiated outcomes) / Dept. Assessment Comm. / by spring 2009 / approval by department faculty
Develop formal mechanisms for "closing the loop" / Dept. Chair & Assessment Committee / by spring 2008 / approval by department faculty
Develop formal mechanisms for sharing assessment information with stakeholders / Dept. Chair & Assessment Committee / by spring 2008 / approval by department faculty

Notes:

* Spring 2008 dates for several items allow for presentation to new advisory board in fall 2008.

Action items delayed by this initiative

-Revision of placement policies to include online testing and remediation options

-Revision of Math 141, perhaps back to 3 units. (helping solve staffing problems)

-Development of alternative non-algebra proficiency course that can serve as a prerequisite to statistics

Narrative

Create Associate Chair
Experience ahs shown that the skills needed to lead and manage the department effectively are not necessarily vested in one individual. In addition, the time demands on the chair are such that one individual cannot always perform the required work in the time allowed. Also, previous chairs had little, if any, training for their duties. Adding an associate chair to the department's administrative staff helps to correct all of these items. This initiative has already been approved by the Dean and Provost.
Phase 1 Assessment
The department is committed to establishing a meaningful assessment process as quickly as possible. Phase 1 of this effort will be to authorize the use of the Praxis II test as an across-the-board assessment instrument for all students in all major tracks. This will provide comparative data that will later be supplemented with track-specific data. The department is expected to act on this initiative this term, and seek approval through the college curriculum committee in spring 2007.
Revise Mission and Goals
Reviewers noted that the departments mission and goals are dated, are not forward-looking, and therefore do not serve well to guide the department in its decision making. The mission and goals will be revised to correct these deficiencies, including the addition of goals in computer science. This will be a non-trivial discussion, and a spring 2007 date for adoption would be ambitious. A working draft by the end of that term is practical, with final adoption in fall 2007.
Develop Advisory Board
An Advisory Board has long been eschewed by the department as unnecessary, perhaps due in part to the large number of majors in the highly-regulated education track, and perhaps due to the de facto standards in an undergraduate mathematics major leading to graduate school. Maintaining the integrity of the department's tracks in applied math, statistics, and math/computer science, and the minors in computer science, however, clearly requires an Advisory Board, and the benefits of such a board would undoubtedly spread to all the department's programs. The department intends to capitalize on the experience of Dr. Horton in this area to develop a board as quickly as possible. A first meeting is planned for fall 2008.
Develop Measurable Learning Outcomes for All Courses
This will be done in two separate paths. Many of our upper-division courses are run on a rotation, some only being offered once every two years. Starting with the current term, each upper-division course instructor, together with the department course committee governing that course, will develop measurable learning outcomes for the course in the term the course is next taught. This effort should conclude by spring, 2008, allowing for the full set to be available by the start of the fall 2008 term.
Lower-division courses typically run every term, or at worst every year, and so development of learning objectives can begin immediately. However, these courses have a greater number of stakeholders, and so it is expected that the effort will last until spring 2008.
Develop Measurable Learning Outcomes for Majors and Minors
This effort, spearheaded by the department curriculum committee, should be completed by spring 2008.
Align Course and Program Outcomes
The committees developing the learning outcomes for specific courses and for the majors/minors are intentionally separate. It is expected that differences, perhaps significant differences, will be exposed when the outcomes developed for courses in a specific program are compared with the outcomes for the program itself. These will be aligned in fall 2008.
Phase 2 Assessment
The department's assessment committee will begin working on developing a meaningful program assessment process as soon as Phase 1 is completed. Even though a phase 2 plan is expected by spring 2008, which is before the fall 2008 date when the department is expected to align course and program outcomes, it is hoped that the development of this plan will help guide the alignment efforts.
Phase 3 Assessment
With clearly articulated outcomes in hand, and with guidance from its Advisory Board, the department should be able to expand its assessment efforts so that assessment in each track is differentiated on the basis of that tracks outcomes. This effort should be completed in spring 2009.
Close the Loop
The department chair and department assessment committee, initially with the phase 1 assessment data, but ultimately expanding to include all assessment data, will develop formal mechanisms for closing the loop. Expected mechanisms can be expected to include: regular formal reports to the faculty; department-level requirements for citing assessment data in course proposals; expectations of including assessment data in course preparations during performance reviews, etc.
Sharing with Stakeholders
The department will develop preliminary mechanisms by spring 2008, and then expand these under guidance from the advisory board.