Outcomes Assessment for Women's Studies
Outcomes and Assessments and Programmatic Changes (expanded
version of Outcomes and Assessments document -1/2005)
Drafted by Women's Studies Curriculum Committee
- April 2005
Learning Outcomes
For a B.A./B.S. in Women's Studies the following are the desired learning outcomes:
- Students will gain a contextual understanding of the historical, political,
social, economic, cultural, artistic, scientific evolution of the status
of women;
- Students will develop critical/analytical skills together with knowledge
of Women's Studies theories and their applications;
- Students will expand their knowledge and understanding of the differences
among women in the U.S. and how gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation,
socio-economic, religious and other dimensions of difference are interrelated.
- Students will acquire global knowledge about women and gender in
other parts of the world besides the US and the West.
- Students will use and draw from the knowledge gained in their WS
curriculum both within and beyond the classroom setting, including professional
and community contexts.
- Students will be given opportunities to apply the knowledge gained
in the classroom to activism in the university and broader community.
Assessments
- Across the WS curriculum, the following are tools of assessment used
to measure desired learning outcomes
- Tests: quizzes, multiple choice, essay, and/or take-home exams.
- Presentations: oral, multi-modal, individual and/or group.
- Compositions/Written Texts: journals (analytical and personal),
formal papers, creative works (art and design, fiction, nonfiction,
essay, poetry), reading and discussion commentaries, research papers,
abstracts and bibliographies, formulation of discussion questions,
project reviews.
- Class Participation: attendance, oral interaction, discussion,
coordination and presentation of group/individual projects.
- Activism Projects: Outrageous Acts, Semester-long, community
and/or campus-based projects
- For the B.A./B.S. in Women's Studies, all students also complete either
a thesis or internship, both of which involve a written component/report.
These written components are on file with the Director of Women's Studies.
Programmatic Changes
Programmatic Changes Implemented within current catalog 03-05
- New course offering - WS 391: Learning in Action. This resulted from
a WS 402 report/project in 2002/03 in which WS majors were interviewed
for feedback regarding programmatic improvements.
The WS program will consider making WS 391 a requirement for majors
in the future.
- Core Faculty meetings once/month.
- Internationalization of the WS curriculum - based on student feedback.
Especially in WS 301, international perspectives on women and gender
have been more cognitively infused in the material(s) available for
students.
WS 201 used to be largely US-based, but is now more global in scope
as well.
Programmatic Changes to be implemented in next catalog 05-07
- One to one Exit Interview for graduating WS majors, to be conducted
by WS Program Director/faculty. This will follow an email survey/questionnaire,
the responses to which will be kept in an electronic file by WS Program
Director.
- Keeping track of WS majors post-graduation. This will involve maintaining
forward addresses, information regarding occupations/jobs and post-graduate
work.
- WS 201: Introduction to Women's Studies reader/text. Produced/published
by Kendall/Hunt and the cover designed by ISU students in response to
a design competition, this text will incorporate ISU faculty work as
well as texts produced by national and international Women's Studies
scholars and can be revised/changed in future years.
- WS would like to create a specific course, which would focus on race,
gender, class and sexuality as well as the multiple dimensions of oppression.
While many of the courses in the curriculum touch on these issues, we'd
like a course that specifically addresses them.
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