Shared by the Learning Assessment Committee
Our General Education Learning Outcomes state that students should be able to “Examine diverse perspectives and cultures as they relate to the individual, the community, and the global society” at the time they graduate from Harper.
During the Spring 2022 semester, the Learning Assessment Committee and its Diverse Perspectives and Cultures Work Group led an assessment of this outcome.
Students were presented with data and were asked to answer three scenario/research-based multiple-choice questions focused on diverse perspectives, diverse backgrounds, and diverse cultures, and to also provide a written explanation as to why they chose each answer. A fourth question asked students whether they had covered certain topics related to diverse perspectives and cultures in other Harper courses. In total, 847 student assessments were collected.
The criterion for success was set at 80% of students will answer at least 2 of 3 questions correctly and the results are shown below. Although the overall criterion for success was achieved, when examining the results by question, student success rates were low in the category of diverse perspectives (55%) compared to the high student success rates in the categories of diverse backgrounds (90.0%) and diverse cultures (94.6%).
What happens next?
Based on these results, the Learning Assessment Committee and the General Education-Diverse Perspectives and Cultures Work Group are gathering feedback to inform development of a Diverse Perspectives and Cultures Improvement Plan for the College. The plan will be implemented in FY2024, and a follow-up assessment of this outcome will be conducted in FY2025. Thank you to all the faculty members who participated in this important assessment!
Learn more!
- View the Can Harper Students Effectively Examine Diverse Perspectives and Cultures? presentation shared by Nellie Khalil and DuBoi McCarty on HIP
- View the Spring 2022 Diverse Perspectives and Cultures assessment Results Report shared on HIP
- View the Evidence and Improvement of Student Learning
Do you have feedback to share? Join or contact the work group.