Micronesian Studies

Program Student Learning Outcomes(PSLOs)

At the completion of Micronesian Studies Program, the student will be able to:

1. Enrich and deepen self-knowledge by exploring different academic experiences.
2. Articulate and understand their experiences through effective writing, reading, speaking and various modes of artistic expression.
3. Demonstrate fundamental knowledge and basic skills appropriate to their personal and professional goals in their chosen area of specialization.

PSLO Assessment Report Summary

What we looked at:

The Micronesian Studies Program assessment focused on PSLOs 1, 3, and 5.

PSLO 1was assessed on a common essay, with a scoring rubric developed the Micronesian Studies faculty. A Common essay was administered to the upper-level SS courses to assess this. The question will allow students to explain their understanding of the major concepts in the program which include: social, political, and economic influences. The courses are SS195, SS200, SS205, SS212, SS220, and SS280. The identified courses will be assessed, using a scoring rubric, on a range of 1-5; where 1=F, 2=D, C=3, 4=B, and 5=A. Common essays were administered the 14th & 15th weeks of Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 as part of an in-class work.

PSLO 3 was assessed by research papers, with a scoring rubric collected in the courses. ). The rubric used to assess the research papers looked the following criteria: Thesis/Problem; Information Seeking; Analysis; Synthesis; Documentation; & Product/Process.

PSLO 5 was assessed, using an exit survey questionnaire.

Listed below are the results for each of the PSLOs.

What we found:

• PSLO#1: The following was found:
  The Result of Common Essay for SY 2013-2014 Course Assess fro SY 2013-2014 Total Assessed #% of Students passed with a grade “C” or better #% of Students failed with grad D or lower SS195-Micronesia Cultural Studies 47 41 or 87% 6 or 13% SS200-Research Methods 41 35 or 85% 6 or 15% SS205-Micro. Gov’t & Politics 28 19 or 68% 6 or 15% SS212-Econ. Of Micronesia 43 38 or 88% 5 or 12% SS220-Contemporary Issues 32 31 or 97% 1 or 3.1% SS280-Directed Study 32 12 or 92% 1 or 8%
• Although between 87% & 95% of the students in all the courses passed the written assignment with a score of 3 or better, the weakest response as was seen from Fall 2013 and then in Spring 2014 was still identified to be in the area of “Economy”. Here, students either failed to respond to the concept of economy or they only gave a general explanation of the concept. Slight improvement is seen from the previous SY2012-2013, where the overall passing of students was at 70%. The improvement can be attributed to the implementation of the uniform attendance Policy for the SS division in Fall 2013.
• PSLO#3: Despite which semester or course (SS200 or SS280), results indicate that the passing rate of students around 70%. Results for research papers show the following:
  
  Table 2 shows results of research papers for SS200 & SS280 for SY 2013-2014. Courses assessed for
  SY 2013-2014 Total # of students Assessed #/% of students passed with a C or better #/% of students passed with a D or lower SS200-Research Methods 45 33 or 73% 12 or 27% SS280-Directed Study 31 22 or 71% 9 or 29% Figure 1 shows results of each criterion assessed for SS280 & SS200 research papers.
• Results show that students performed better in Thesis formulation and Product/Process, which represents organization of the paper. Given that results reflect final paper only, it can be concluded that areas may have improved over the course of the drafts that students worked on in both courses. However, even at the final paper, students were still lacking in Analysis at a 58% and Documentation at 68%, which are failing scores. In response to this, it should be made a recommendation to focus on building critical thinking skills and on evaluating literature. The overall passing rate of students has slightly increased from 60% in SY 2012-2013 to a 70% for the SY 2013-2014.
• PSLO#5: A total of 21 students in both Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 were given the exit survey questionnaire. Results have shown that in general, students are satisfied with the overall program.

What we are planning to work on:

• Promote deep learning and cooperative learning by promoting group work, research projects, team debate, and other practices that prepare them to face real world activities.
• Take proactive role in advising ensure that student enroll in the course have met the pre-requisites; make resources (e.g., computer lab) accessible and available.
• Maintain uniform attendance policy
• Reduce class size of Research Methods from 25 to 15 (starting Fall 2014) to build student-teacher interaction and careful evaluation of weak areas in research for students.

Recommendations for students:

• Students have to pass with at least a C or better in EN 120a and EN110.
• Students must have good reading and writing skills; critical and analytical skills to articulate ideas, concepts, and issues about Micronesia, both in written and oral communication.
• Students must have research skills to write commendable papers in the upper level SS courses.
• Students seek advice of the Micronesian Studies Program advisors in terms of course-planning.

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