ASSESSMENT:  MEASUREMENT, EVALUATION, IMPROVEMENT Edison Community College is committed to providing quality education and services to students.  To promote quality, Edison has implemented a number of assessment procedures involving General Education, career programs, and student perceptions regarding academic and support services (i.e., STEP).  This webpage provides a general overview of these assessment procedures and their results. GENERAL EDUCATION ASSESSMENT General Education is a group of courses that provide a broad educational foundation and promotes lifelong learning and personal, professional, and social growth.  The overall goals of a General Education at Edison is characterized using six learning outcomes.  These outcomes are:    Demonstrate critical thinking skills in order to understand complex relationships;                             to evaluate claims of truth, aesthetic value, ethics, and morality; and to make                            appropriate choices and draw defensible conclusions Use written and spoken English effectively in a free exchange of idea Appreciate the process and structure of mathematics and apply math to the                                      analysis of the physical world Develop a mental habit that is open-minded, tolerant, even appreciative of                                       diversity Develop effective interpersonal skills Use information resources and apply basic methods of inquiry from many fields, including scientific method, social and scientific observation, cause-effect analysis, and artistic criticism Annually, through various methods, these six General Education outcomes are assessed throughout the courses that are offered.  The results of the assessments are then evaluated and alterations to the assessments themselves are made to increase their effectiveness.  Also, if results indicate, changes may be made to General Education in order to enhance the focus relating to specific outcomes. Therefore, this assessment procedure allows Edison to verify that students receiving a General Education have increased their competency regarding the General Education outcomes. CAREER PROGRAM ASSESSMENT Career programs are assessed using two general assessment procedures.  The first is an annual program assessment and the second is a program review that is completed every five years. Annual Program Assessment Career programs and transfer degree programs develop outcomes that describe the general goals that the program emphasizes.  Specific outcomes for each program are published in the catalog and serve as the basis for an annual program assessment. Faculty members in each program area develop an outcome assessment procedure.  Many career programs require students to take a capstone course or participate in an internship.  Portfolio reviews, reports from internship supervisors, reviews of projects from capstone courses, and work samples taken from selected courses are commonly used as the basis for an annual assessment. Outside professional or college staff members are typically used to assess the quality of the students' work using a rubric designed to gather information related to program outcomes.  Using the information provided by the assessors, the program's faculty members prepare an annual assessment report that describes the students’ achievement of each of the outcomes. Based on this report, the faculty members will propose changes to improve the program. Annually, the program's faculty members will complete a form that identifies the program changes that are made in response to the results of the assessment. During the next academic year’s program assessment, the faculty members will determine whether improvement resulted from these changes. This information will be included in the program's annual assessment report. Program Review The five-year program review is a longitudinal evaluation as compared to the annual program assessment.  Specifically, this process is intended to provide the information necessary to make decisions concerning changes in courses and programs including the elimination or addition of courses or the elimination of a program.  For example, faculty and facilities need to be academically  current, fiscally responsible, and meet the community needs.  If an issue would be detected as a result of the program review changes to the program would be made. STUDENTS PERCEPTIONS ASSESSMENT The general purpose of assessing student perceptions is to understand students' concerns and their level of satisfaction regarding academic and support services.  In order to viably assess student perceptions, Edison administers two different surveys during alternating years.  The Community College Survey of Student Engagement has been administered previously during the Spring semesters of 2005, 2007, and 2009 and will continue in the future.  The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory has been administered previously during the Spring semesters of 2006 and 2010 and will continue in the future.  We chose these two surveys because of the breadth of topics that are included in the survey.  Immediately following the initial survey administration, an initiative was created in order to process any information that resulted from administering the surveys.  This initiative is called Strategies Towards Enhancing Perceptions (STEP).  Specifically, the STEP committee examines the survey results and in conjunction with existing committees or if necessary forming new committees or taking direct action attempts to resolve any significant concerns that were expressed by the students during the previous survey administration.  Furthermore, the committee in now examining how perceptions are changing from year to year in order to increase the engagement and satisfaction of students. Additionally, there are a number of other reasons for this assessment:  1) improving the engagement and satisfaction of students based on data and not speculation; 2) improving retention of current students by increasing student engagement and satisfaction; 3) increasing student enrollment by using current student's word-of-moth advertising; 4) increasing student enrollment by marketing specific strengths (e.g., veteran's support services); and 5) comparing Edison to itself longitudinally and to other similar colleges nationally. ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Dr. Paul Heintz Jr., Chair Nathan Adkins Patrick Shade Becky Telford Eileen Thompson Mona Walters William Waxman FURTHER INFORMATION: Selecting this link will allow you access to the General Education Assessment Reports, Annual Program Assessment Reports, Program Reviews, Community College Survey of Student Engagement Reports, and Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory Reports. For more information regarding assessment at Edison Community College, contact Dr. Heintz by email at pheintz@edisonohio.edu or by phone at 937-778-7921. [return to top]