Our assessment plan is detailed in the following table. Through attitudinal surveys such as SALG, instructor evaluation of student work, peer assessment, and longitudinal tracking of student and faculty who have used the tablets we plan to develop a comprehensive picture of the impact of this project.
| What change do you anticipate (be specific)? List separate. | Baseline Measures (what is current state?): | Data Collection (what data will be collected?): | Method of Data Collection (HOW will you collect the data?): | When will you collect the data? | Evaluation |
| Student attitudes towards the power, process, and limitations of science. | Surveys of students in existing course (non-tablets). | Student views about scientific progress, knowledge, and "truth". | Questionnaires/survey instruments (SALG). | At the end of the non-tablet offering (completed) and at the start and end of the tablet offering. | Instructor and colleague who has taught same course but not using tablets. |
| Improved student ability to be discerning consumers of information. | Performance of student news reports in existing course (non-tablets). | Compilation of student reaction papers to news articles and websites. | Instructor assessment e.g. Do they consider the source? Do they question the reasoning and conclusions? Do they look elsewhere for corroboration? | Completed for this year. Will repeat for the tablet offering of the course next year. | Instructor and colleague who has taught same course but not using tablets. Will compare a cross section of responses from year to year. |
| Improved student proficiency in collection and analysis of environmental data and geospatial patterns. | At present we do not ask students to perform this type of analysis. | Students will perform these types of analyses three times during the course. | Instructor evaluation of performance. | Next year during new offering after each major laboratory unit. | Instructor and colleague who is a GIS user, but not teaching course. |
| Faculty will relinquish some control over the classroom/lab and give students more freedom to explore and collaborate. | Existing offering is a traditional lecture style. | Documentation of new modes of presentation and student-faculty and student-student communication. Instructor attitude of effectiveness. | Course notes - what happened in each class session? What new/unplanned ground was covered? What was left out? | Daily during next year's tablet offering of the course. | Instructor and colleague who has taught same course but not using tablets. |
| Enable upper-level Environmental studies classes to make greater use of technologies such as GIS that students are introduced to in the Introductory Class. | Survey faculty in Environmental Studies courses to discern what technologies are currently employed in the classroom. | Tracking of the change in the technologies used in upper-level classes. | Track the # of students engaging in research projects that make use of technologies such as GIS through survey of faculty in upper-level courses. | In subsequent years following the implementation of the revised introductory course. | Environmental Studies steering committee. |
| Enhance the use and understanding of technologies by Faculty members. | Survey faculty members about the degree to which they currently use technologies in their classroom and in their research. | Tracking of the change in the extent of the use of these technologies by faculty members in their teaching in other courses and in their research. | Survey of faculty members and assessment of the number of classes that these technologies are used in and the number of research papers and presentations that use these technologies. | Annually. | Environmental Studies steering committee. |