Geography, Environment and Sustainability

Assessment Plan

Core required courses for majors ( and Gen. Ed. Courses)	Completed 2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
GEOG 1000 PS Natural Environments of the Earth	X		X		X		X
GEOG 1300 SS/DV Places and Peoples of the World		X		X		X		X
GEOG 1500 PS Science of Global Warming			X		X		X
GEOG 1520 SS/DV Geography of US & Canada		X		X		X		X
GEOG 3790 Research Methods in Geography	X		X		X		X
GEOG 4990 Senior Research Seminar		X		X		X		X

Assessment approaches:

Possible approaches include (but are not limited to):

? A standard set of Exam Questions that assess general education and departmental learning outcomes. They will be based on the essential core content developed by faculty. These are to be delivered each semester, and tracked through Chi-tester.

? Homework assignments, Research papers, Journals or Reflection papers, Field work, Surveys, Data collection, Statistical and/or Spatial Analysis, Map Design and Creation, Presentations, Portfolios, Service Learning, and Graduate Exit Interviews.

Plan Overview:

As part of outcomes assessments for General Education courses in geography (GEOG 1000, GEOG 1300, GEOG 1500, and GEOG 1520), full time faculty have collectively crafted a standardized set of topics and skills that we expect all instructors (full-time and adjunct) to deliver whenever those courses are offered. For example, in GEOG 1000, students should always be exposed to Plate Tectonics, Biogeographic Processes, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics, Geomorphology, the Hydrologic Cycle, Human-Induced Climate Change, Soils, Concepts of Sustainability, the Scientific Method, etc. This will insure that any student who takes a general education class in our department (whether on campus, off campus, at night, online, or in person), will have been exposed to what the geographic community widely considers the standards of the discipline. What we expect students to know will be consistent with the General Education Course learning outcomes and objectives as well as our Departmental Learning Objectives. A set of standard exam questions only will form the basis of our assessment, and will be tied to outcomes. Assessment methods will vary from course to course as noted in the Assessment Plan matrix above only for non-general education classes. The assessment of introductory level General Education Courses will be based solely on analysis of individual test item results. We chose a minimum of 70% on scores for test items as the bottom threshold for demonstrating mastery since the lowest grade accepted for the geography major is a C-, or 70% (soon to be raised to a minimum of a C). Exam copies with assessment results will be kept by the department chair and/or with the instructor who taught the course along with other evidence of learning “artifacts” as part of program review documentation. Once fully deployed, we can gather the question results through Chi-Tester in every section and in every semester.

The two required core upper division geography courses (also soon to change and grow) will be assessed as part of an ongoing process using more diverse methods (exams, research papers and projects, and homework assignments) by individual faculty who typically teach these courses (see Assessment Plan matrix above). Upper-division geography elective courses will also be assessed periodically, although the department’s focus at this time is on general education classes and our common core geography courses.

Assessment Report Submissions
- 2021-2022
  
  1)   Review and comment on the trend of minority students enrolling in your classes (particularly lower-division, GEN Ed) and in your programs.
  
  (Answer is in full report)
  
  2)   What support (from enrollment services, advising, first-year transition office, access & diversity, etc.) do you need to help you recruit and retain students?
  
  At this point, I think marketing is more what we’ll need. We’ve begun to work with the campus Marketing and Communications Office to “get the word out” about our new programs. This is a rather robust campaign with lots of components, and beyond the thrust of this question.
  
  3)   We have invited you to re-think your program assessment. What strategies are you considering? What support or help would you like?
  
  As mentioned elsewhere, Geography has recently undergone a complete curricular overhaul. As our new classes, tracks, core requirements, minors, and majors are deployed, we’re eager to see how things go. At that point, we’ll just be assessing, not re-thinking how we’d like to assess. We’ve got departmental learning outcomes as well as learning expectations for each of the seven tracks or emphases that we offer. Once some students have journeyed through those tracks, we’ll evaluate, assess, and undoubtedly, make some adjustments.
  
  4)   Finally, we are supporting our Concurrent Enrollment accreditation process. Does your program offer concurrent enrollment classes? If so, have you been able to submit the information requested from the Concurrent Enrollment office? Staff from OIE will reach out to you in the next few months to assist in finalizing that data submission as well as gather information for concurrent Gen Ed assessment.
  
  Geography, happily given all of the recent hand-wringing over CE, does not offer any Concurrent Enrollment courses.
  
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2019-2020
  1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:
  - Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s).
    
    The vast majority of first-year students that come through the geography department, do so as General Education students in our four Social and Physical Science Gen. Ed. classes (1000, 1300, 1500, 1520). The department spends a good deal of time helping students succeed in those classes, as well as encouraging them to take other geography classes and consider the discipline for a major or minor. We actively invite those students to presentations, film screenings, field opportunities, and especially to Geography club events.
  - Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s)
    
    New students to our program (majors, minors, BIS, and certificate seeking students) benefit from the full range of our attention as a department. Regular advisement, tutoring, field and travel opportunities, scholarship help, support for internships, career preparation, technical skills, and graduate school are widely encouraged. We often bring back successful alumni to interact with students, invite them to participate in undergraduate research, and strongly support their quest for financial assistance, conference presentation, and meaning field experiences. And, while we struggle at this, we actively try to follow our alumni after graduation.
  2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.
  - Much of this, really, is detailed above. In response to our formal outside department review, yearly assessment, interviews with alumni, graduate exit surveys, interaction with other geography chairs nationwide, and our own faculty discussions, the department is continuously looking for ways to “close the loop.”
  - For example, we are (again) revising the core concepts for our Gen. Ed. classes and crafting better questions to measure those outcomes. After an exhaustive research and deliberation, we’ve changed our department name to Geography, Environment and Sustainability, and are completely revising our curriculum: emphases or tracks, course titles and descriptions, electives, and content. We’ve just begun a thorough look at “KSAs” or the Knowledge, Skills, and Aptitudes essential for any student to be a successful and meaningful geographer after they graduate. It is, to understate the obvious, a work in progress.
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2017
  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  - As noted above, the Geography Department completed its 5-year Review in 2016-17, and the Program Review by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness was delivered September 29, 2017. Thus, we are only just beginning to implement these recommendations. We are also engaged in a top-to-bottom evaluation of the department. With a new department Chair, Office Administrator, and a new home in an old building, this seemed like a logical time to look at everything we’re doing as a department. Already, we’ve written a new mission statement, sharpened our departmental objectives, and begun the process of looking at course titles and content, curriculum, major emphases or tracks, and our bachelor’s, teaching, and minor degrees. This process, we hope, will come together in a department retreat scheduled for finals week at the end of this semester.
  - As far as this particular annual assessment is concerned, the department feels like it is doing a good job of measuring and evaluating our general education physical science courses, but that we could greatly improve our social science general education and core major class assessment. We plan to begin those improvements this term.
  - Our overall assessment allows us to endorse this statement from our last full assessment report: “Overall, the assessment results give the faculty confidence that we are preparing our students for careers in geography and related fields. Furthermore, high impact, service learning course projects are assisting both students and community organizations with research that can be applied in a ‘real world’ setting.”
  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors or graduate students. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed. Finally, what were your findings from this past year’s graduates?
  - The Department of Geography believes that it is doing a good job of preparing our students for employment and graduate school opportunities. We’d like to be doing a great job though, and that is why we’ve undertaken the thorough departmental evaluation as detailed above. Word-of-mouth evidence suggests that our students are finding jobs and graduate appointments, but we have not been forthright in tracking students after graduation. We do survey our graduates (see below), and on our website, there is a place for graduates to check-in and update us on their doings, but they haven’t been very informative. Additionally, we invite graduates back to campus to talk to our majors, but not in a systematic way. So, like in several areas listed earlier in this document, we endeavor to do better.
  - To reach that goal, one of our first tasks is to set up a Geography Advisory Board to help guide us toward preparing students for the marketplace. Staffed with leaders in business, industry, non-profits, and government, we hope that the board will steer us in a way that helps our graduates succeed. Likewise, I’ve joined a nationwide group of geography department chairs who are also working to improve their departments by sharing their successes, shortcomings, and experiences. I expect this to be a great resource as we move forward. We also plan to engage our adjuncts more formally as we retain and advise students, as well as help our graduates prepare for life after graduation. And finally, I can say unequivocally, I have the department faculty’s full support for strengthening our program. We’ve already had more department meetings this semester than we’ve had in the last several years. Their commitment to our students and our department is tremendously encouraging and presages a bright future our program.
  The full report is available.
- 2016
- 2015
  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
  - Program assessments and individual course assessments that have been completed in the last year give the faculty confidence that student learning objectives overall are being met. Some curriculum adjustments are being made and our senior research seminar is being refined so that we are consistently meeting objectives while the course is taught by different faculty from within the department. GEOG 3600, Quantitative Methods in Geography will be retitled “Research Methods in Geography.” The course will be expanded to include both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - Perhaps most importantly, the assessment results have been reviewed and will continue to be reviewed by full-time faculty members in the geography department. As more assessment data become available, results will be discussed in faculty meetings toward the end of each semester.
  - Both the Dean of the Social and Behavioral Sciences College, Frank Harrold, and Gail Niklason, Director of WSU Institutional Effectiveness also received a copy of this assessment report.
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  - As noted in the assessment results for GEOG 1000, students are encouraged to take an introductory statistics course in preparation for GEOG 3600 that is required for geography majors. During advising meetings, geography majors are encouraged to take MATH 1040, Introduction to Statistics (meets university-wide Quantitative Literacy requirement).
  - Overall, the assessment results give the faculty confidence that we are preparing our students for careers in geography and related fields. Furthermore, high impact, service learning course projects are assisting both students and community organizations with research that can be applied in a “real world” setting.
  - The Department has begun a strategic planning process that articulates departmental goals, including ongoing student learning assessment. As part of the long-range planning process, we intend to track our graduates to better gage employment and career training opportunities, such as internships that the department facilitates.
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2014
  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
  - Program assessments and individual course assessments that have been completed in the last year give the faculty confidence that student learning objectives overall are being met. Some curriculum adjustments are being made and our senior research seminar is being refined so that we are consistently meeting objectives while the course is taught by different faculty from within the department.GEOG 3600, Quantitative Methods in Geography will be redeveloped during spring semester, 2015.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year's assessment efforts?
  - Perhaps most importantly, the assessment results have been reviewed and will continue to be reviewed by full-time faculty members in the geography department. As more assessment data become available, results will be discussed in faculty meetings toward the end of each semester. Both the Dean of the Social and Behavioral Sciences College, Frank Harrold, and Gail Niklason, Director of WSU Institutional Effectiveness also received a copy of this assessment report.
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  - As noted in the assessment results for GEOG 1300, students are encouraged to take technical writing classes. Students will attend a presentation by a librarian early in the semester, and faculty will review proper citation style. These skills should better prepare our students for upper division geography courses, particularly the senior research seminar when they are required to write a senior thesis research paper.
  - Overall, the assessment results, particularly program review results from 2013/2014, give the faculty confidence that we are preparing our students for careers in geography and related fields. Furthermore, high impact, service learning course projects are assisting both students and community organizations with research that can be applied in a “real world” setting.
  - The Department has begun a strategic planning process (fall 2014) that will articulate departmental goals, including ongoing student learning assessment. As part of the long-range planning process, we intend to track our graduates to better gage employment and career training opportunities, such as internships that the department facilitates.
  The full report is available for viewing
- 2013
  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
  - Since comprehensive assessment of geography courses was begun in 2011-12, the geography department has not had sufficient time to analyze any long-term trends in course assessment results. However, program assessments and individual course assessments that have been completed in the last year and half give the faculty confidence that student learning objectives overall are being met. Some curriculum adjustments are being made and our senior research seminar is being refined so that we are consistently meeting objectives while the course is taught by different faculty from within the department.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - Perhaps most importantly, the assessment results have been reviewed and will continue to be reviewed by full-time faculty members in the geography department. As more assessment data become available, results will be discussed in faculty meetings toward the end of each semester. Both the Dean of the Social and Behavioral Sciences College, Frank Harrold, and Gail Niklason, Director of WSU Institutional Effectiveness also received a copy of this assessment report.
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  - As noted in the assessment results for GEOG 1000, students are encouraged to take a statistics course although it is not required (although a 3000 level statistics course is required for geography majors). This action item will mesh well with the new recommendation that geography majors consider taking MATH 1040, Introduction to Statistics (meets university-wide Quantitative Literacy requirement) in preparation for GEOG 3600, Quantitative Methods in Geography. As noted in the assessment results for GEOG 1300, students are encouraged to take technical writing classes. Students will attend a presentation by a librarian early in the semester, and faculty will review proper citation style. These skills should better prepare our students for upper division geography courses, particularly the senior research seminar when they are required to write a senior thesis research paper. Overall, the assessment results, particularly program review results from 2011/2012, give the faculty confidence that we are preparing our students for careers in geography and related fields. Furthermore, high impact, service learning course projects are assisting both students and community organizations with research that can be applied in a real world setting.
  To access the full report, select this link: Geography 2012/13 Assessment Report.
Program Review

This information is part of the cyclical program review process. Details such as mission statements, learning outcomes, etc., are updated as part of the biennial assessment reporting process, an integral component of program review.