General Education Assessment

Apply Now to Assess Your General Education Course

Academic Affairs is now accepting applications for 20 $1,500 grants to support General Education Assessment in response to the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Full and part-time faculty who are teaching General Education courses this Spring or expect to teach a General Education course in Summer I are invited to apply for a grant to fund assessment projects to help CCRI improve our General Education program and ensure that we are equitably developing the Educated Person outcomes in all students.

To participate in this program, faculty will be asked to select a General Education course and one of its Educated Person outcome sub-categories to assess. Examples of the types of assessment projects that you might develop that would be a good fit for this project include:

• An assessment of writing ability by analyzing student research papers with a rubric
• An evaluation of student success on a science final exam by matching test questions to learning outcome indicators
• A comparison of student presentations from an online section of a course to an on-campus section of the same course
• A comparison of math competencies mastered from a late start section of a course to a full 15-week semester section of the same course
• A focus group of students to discuss how they used their information literacy skills in a course

Faculty who are awarded this grant will be required to submit an assessment plan, collect assessment results during the Spring or Summer I terms, submit a self-reflection, develop a plan for sharing results with their department, and participating in a General Education workshop. Assistance and peer support will be provided to help with all steps of the assessment process.

Proposals will be selected by the General Education Committee so that as many of our Educated Person sub-categories will be assessed with a wide variety of courses and assessment techniques. To prepare your application, you’ll want to have an idea in mind of the course and outcome you’d like to assess, the type of assignment you might use to conduct the assessment, how the selected assignment might relate to CCRI’s Educated Person Outcome Key Indicators, and your current ideas about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the course. I estimate it will take about 30 minutes to complete the application.

Applications are due at 11:59pm on March 31, 2022. The General Education Committee will select up to 20 grant recipients, who will be notified by April 11, 2022. Assessment plans will be due May 13^th, and assessment results are due by July 25, 2022. Participating faculty will take part in a General Education Assessment Workshop tentatively scheduled for August 30^th.

To apply, please look for an application link from CCRI's Qualtrics survey platform in your email. If you'd like to view the application questions in advance, you can prepare your responses with the questions here. For more information, please review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below, attend an information session on Wednesday, March 16^th at 3pm (please see the recording here) or reach out to Lauren Webb, Interim Director of Academic Program Review and Accreditation at [email protected].

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is eligible to submit an application?
• What do I need to do to be funded?
• How do I know which Educated Person sub-category to assess?
• Where can I view the recording of the Info Session?
• How do I know what assignment to pick to assess?
• What is the best way to assess student learning?
• Does an assessment plan or assignment being assessed need to address every key indicator?
• When would we actually collect student work and assess it?
• How will you be evaluating who receives the funding?
• Can I apply in partnership with someone?
• Do I need to submit an IRB application?
• How do I apply?

Who is eligible to submit an application?

Any faculty member, full-time or part-time, who is teaching a General Education course in Spring 2022 or expects to teach a General Education course in Summer I is eligible to participate. Faculty members must submit student learning assessment results from Spring 2022 or Summer I 2022 to be eligible for the grant.

What do I need to do to be funded?

Faculty selected to participate in this assessment initiative will need to submit an assessment plan, assessment results by student ID, a self-reflection on the process and what was learned, a plan for sharing the results with their department, and participation in a Fall General Education Assessment Workshop.

How do I know which Educated Person sub-category to assess?

All Gen Ed courses were approved for two sub-categories, so pick the one that most interests you! You may have an assignment that more easily lends itself to one of the sub-categories over another, so pick whatever will be easiest to tackle first and that you’ll enjoy analyzing. We will be recording the outcomes and sub-categories that we assess in this cycle, so that we are able to focus on different outcomes in the future.

How do I know what assignment to pick to assess?

You should select an assignment that gives students the opportunity to demonstrate that they have achieved the learning outcomes for the course, the skills and knowledge that is most important for the student to gain, particularly as it relates to the General Education key indicators. Often an assignment or performance that is challenging and comprehensive like a final exam, end-of-semester portfolio or presentation is well suited for assessing the attainment of our Educated Person outcomes.

What is the best way to assess student learning?

There is no one best way – assessment is best when it answers the questions that you have about learning in a course or program. Some disciplines fit objective techniques like analyzing test responses best, and others produce written work or student performances that fit best with a rubric. Sometimes we’re most interested in process questions, or learning more about how students think, and focus groups fit well with those types of questions.

Does an assessment plan or assignment being assessed need to address every key indicator?

No, the assignment you select to assess only needs to address at least two of the key indicators for the sub-category.

When would we actually collect student work and assess it?

You will be expected to collect student work that was completed this semester or in Summer I. You will have until July 25^th to submit the assessment results and your analysis.

How will you be evaluating who receives the funding?

The General Education Committee will be analyzing the applications without the names of the applicants attached. We will seek to select 20 proposals that address all of our sub-categories across a wide range of courses and assessment techniques so that we are able to generate rich discussion about what methods and processes will work best for us moving forward.

Can I apply in partnership with someone?

Yes, but we would want to see a comparative analysis that’s looking at two different sections of the same course, rather than both looking at the results from one section. Our goal is to maximize the number of outcomes assessed in this project.

Do I need to submit an IRB application?

No. CCRI works in partnership with URI's IRB, and assessment work does not meet the definition of research, because it does not contribute to generalized knowledge. Activities designed solely for quality improvement or evaluation of a program or course do not require IRB review. If you are planning to use this work for a conference presentation or paper submission to an academic journal, however, you would be responsible for submitting an Exempt Research application.

How do I apply?

You will receive a link to complete the application on CCRI’s Qualtrics survey platform in your email. You can see a Word Document version of the application here so you can plan your answers in advance. If you’re not able to complete the application in one sitting (it should take about 30 minutes to complete), you should be able to return to the link provided in the email from Qualtrics and submit your application in a later session.

Where can I view the recording of the Information Session?

Here is a link the recording of the Info Session on Zoom.