E. Assessment
Assessment is a multi-process ongoing activity that encompasses a variety of reviewing methodologies for not only me as a faculty member, but also includes student learning in relation to my effective classroom performance, including learning outcomes, and overall program performance within the department. The following areas represent the multi-process review of my teaching, departmental, and institutional review:
A. Faculty Annual Reviews
B. Course Reevaluation Reflection/Course Review
C. ECP Review
D. Student Praise Email/Letters
A. Faculty Annual Reviews
My faculty annual reviews have remained excellent since I began teaching for WIT. Both Suzanne Kennedy (current dept head) and Pat Hafford (former dept head) believe I am a valuable faculty member who can always be counted on. Each has stated that my student evaluations are excellent and they both appreciate my willingness to teach different courses or multiple sections of the same course when needed. In addition, they have both commented on my ability to help other faculty in and out of our department with technology needs. Finally, they both have supported my application in rank to full professor.
B. Course Reevaluation Reflection/Course Review:
At the end of each academic year I reevaluate my courses to determine if there are any improvements or changes that should be made. Below is a sample of past and present reevaluation reflection statements of several courses based on my own thoughts, as well as student evaluation comments:
Principles of Management
Principles of Management is a 4-hour credit course that I developed for the MGMT department to be taught to computer science networking students. This course was taught as a hybrid, whereas their labs were online using our Course Management System. Computer Science students in general do not take enough MGMT courses. Thus, the objective of this course is to provide students with a survey course in the basic principles of management. The Principles of Management course is much needed for these computer sciences students. These students are computer and programming literate, but most do not have the management skills that are needed for the computer, networking, MIS, or IT positions that these students will seek out. Many students think they will sit behind a computer all day and have little or no interaction with others in the workplace. Discovering the types of management skills presented in this course opens their eyes so to speak to many new management skills, terms, theories, and the like. Basically, this course is a survey of management concepts and disciplines for non-management majors. Concepts include planning, organizing, directing, controlling, and supervising along with new and rapidly developing areas of management. The skills needed to manage effectively under constantly changing conditions are identified. Active involvement through lectures, discussion, case studies, role playing, and group exercises will be required of each student.
Management Information Systems (MIS)
Students in the MIS course take it as part of their MGMT program of study. One major issue for MIS students is the lack of pre-requisite preparedness given to them in the Pre-requisite Business Applications course and surprisingly the lack of skills obtained in Introduction to Computers. However, now that this course is offered as a freshman level course under the new MGMT program, these issues are resolved since they are taking Computers and Business Applications during the previous semester. This course was taught as a hybrid, whereas their labs were online. As this is approximately the eighth time I have taught MIS, I feel that I have more than adequately designed this class to meet student needs, truly teach MIS concepts, and offer students a challenging course in their major. Also, in MIS students gain the analytical skills and comprehensive objectives for such issues as define management, information systems, management of information systems, the role of information system managers, the infrastructure of the information systems network (including, the people, the hardware, the software, and the support), understanding dynamic group systems, knowledge management systems, decision-support systems and the like. Finally, I have also incorporated a research paper and a case analysis into the course objectives.
Technical Communication
The students entering Technical Communication are from all disciplines at WIT, have a variety of skills, passions, and motivation. Since these students are so diverse the first item of business for this course is to do a skills inventory check so that groups can be matched up quickly. Also, I must encourage students in the Technical Communication courses to work in groups with diverse students or they tend to flock together by major or gender. All students understand the importance of more comprehensive technical communications, such as descriptions, instructions, and reports; yet, 90% of the students do not like to practice speaking in front of the class. The past four years I have also added an electronic portfolio competency to the class objectives. I would say that 90% of my students understand how valuable this tool is to their career objectives and put forth a great deal of time and energy designing and developing a robust Web site for their portfolios. Many students tell me they plan to keep up their Web sites for their future careers.
Introduction to Management
This was the second time teaching Introduction to Management under the new MGMT curriculum for incoming freshman. Some orientation objectives, such as library resources, program requirements, and co-op requirements just to name a few were covered in the class. In addition, students analyzed a management article, compiled a 5-set annotated bibliography in their field of study, and gave a digital presentation on a new business venture. The newly revised course is a great stepping-stone, which helps students to discover and to fully understand their new MGMT program of study.
Computers and Business Applications
This was the fourth time teaching Computers and Business Applications. Again, I am very pleased with this course and how it went over the semester. Combining Intro to Computers and the Business Application course for our MGMT majors was the best thing that we could do for our students. The new books offer an intermediate level approach to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. Students also learn basic HTML, FrontPage, Publisher, and these new freshmen created their main EP Web page for our new Electronic Career Portfolio initiative. I am hoping that by giving them this foundation, students will begin to use these application tools to make decisions throughout their program of study and on into their co-ops and careers.
Review Comments
Each semester I learn many new things on how to improve my classes and my teaching philosophy grows and changes over time. One way that I learn how well I am doing in my classes are from student comments. Based on student comments there are a few areas in which I would like to work on for future classes.
Overall, I am very pleased with my student evaluations. My student evaluations continue to reflect higher ratings then the average ratings in my department and most are higher than the overall school ratings. Based on the evaluations students generally like my classes, feel like they get a lot out of the classes and also like the way I manage my classes. Students appreciate how organized my classes are and, although several students do not like Blackboard for the most part, they appreciate how I post all class materials online.
Multiple students commented that my Technical Communication courses would help them to be perceived as more professional in the work place and that they feel confident that they can plan, prepare, and write basic business documents, more structured business reports, and felt confident they could present in front of an audience on a more professional level. In addition, due to the amount of team projects, students commented that that they understand group dynamics, what it takes to be a leader, and also the time and effort it takes to meet milestones. Students were impressed with the course management system and commented on the ease to obtain handouts, lecture materials, and any class announcements. Several students also commented that they like the fact I force them to prepare a resume and a career portfolio, which was discussed earlier in this report.
Student comments were very also very favorable for Principles of Management. I feel that this course has been a great success for these computer science students. There were a lot of comments to get rid of GamePlan, which I have decided it is time to put it to rest anyway. There were a few comments about the class being too early on the morning, but is normal when you have an 8:00 am or 9:00 am class.
I am extremely pleased with student comments for MIS. Students indicated that this class helped them to prepare for their four years at WIT and specifically what to expect in the MGMT program. Student comments about their learning process in this class were extremely favorable. I am very pleased with the many positive comments received in this batch of evaluations. Last year I had comments requesting more group work in my MIS course. I tried this for my MIS class during spring and it did not go over so well. I plan to cut back on the group work for that class next time I teach it. I restructured MIS this past spring and I am not happy with the way I restructured it so I plan to change some things back and to attempt another restructuring Fall 2012.
A few students commented poorly on Blackboard. I have no control over Blackboard; however, I do plan to take a look at all my courses to see if there needs to be more organization. I am piloting testing the new Blackboard Learning system during summer semester. I believe students will like this CMS versus Blackboard Vista.
C. ECP Review
Since 2006 our Management department began requiring an online Electronic Career Portfolio (ECP). I began assessment research to determine how our students were doing in preparing their ECPs. With the help of the Co-op office I sent out a survey to 1400 career co-op employers. I received approximately 100 responses. A management student was actually contacted about a potential job after this survey was sent out. The responses were an eye-opener and helped us to see we have a lot of future work to do to help our students continually improve their ECPs. Briefly, the Co-op employers indicated that the ECPs were designed poorly and need to be consistent throughout with correct graphical design. In addition, they stated that students needed to edit throughout, obtain more professional pictures, and get rid of anything personal on the sites. Finally, they also stated that the ECPs needed goal statements and more reflection statements about work and school projects. Due to this feedback I held two senior workshops (more discussed in a later section) to help our first graduating class improve their overall ECPs. I was also able to present this research at a Webinar for the NorthEast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP), along with one of our students, Mike Burke (discussed in more detail later in this report).
D. Student Praise Email/Letters
From time to time over the years I have received emails, cards, and letters with students appreciation for my teaching, advising, and help in many areas.
F. Advising
Advising is a required activity for all faculty members within departmental programs at WIT. WIT’s advising mission is to help students achieve success within their respective academic programs. However, it is a much more challenging activity above and beyond trying to help students stay on track with their program of study. My advisees frequently visit me during office hours to get advice on passing courses, speaking to other faculty members, dealing with roommate issues, needing letters of references and many other reasons. In addition, advising goes above one-on-one faculty-to-student meetings, which includes program advising, liaison with admissions, curriculum planning, and more. The following areas represent my advising areas and roles:
A. Departmental Advising
1. Faculty Advisor
2. Program Coordinator
3. ECP Advisor
4. BSM Website Coordinator
B. Other Interaction
1. Liaison with Co-op Office
2. Liaison with Admissions
3. Alumni Relations
4. References/ Recommendations
5. Curriculum Planning
6. Honor Society
A. Departmental Advising
I am faculty advisor for approximately 40 students per year. My advising role includes helping students select classes each semester, helping new freshman learn how to register for classes, helping students stay on track, and helping those students off track come up with a new program of study each semester which will lead them to graduate as close as possible to their original graduation date.
In addition, I am the Technology Management concentration (discussed earlier) coordinator within the management department. Besides developing and teaching the courses, I advise management students on whether they are the right fit for this concentration. I also visit freshman level management courses yearly to present the concentration to management students and to answer questions.
I am also the ECP advisor within our department. Since I teach the freshman level class that gets them started on their ECPs, I am considered the “go to” faculty when students need help or suggestions in developing their ECPs over the years. I meet with students on a regular basis individually to help with technical concerns, design concerns, and content issues. Also, this past year I conducted two ECPS workshops to help students with final ECP preparation for senior graduate submission and plan to do so each year.
B. Other Interaction
As mentioned earlier, advising is not limited to internal departmental activities. It also includes other interaction. Each year I meet with the management student co-op advisor to discuss focus, ECP usage, and any challenges for Co-op placements. We also discuss the ways to improve student learning and objectives to match with current job placement trends. Yearly, the entire management department meets with the advising office to keep the focus on our department and to address any recruiting concerns that we may have. As mentioned earlier, since I am the faculty advisor for the BSM Web site I am able to keep up with a great deal of BSM alumni students to determine their job placement, obtain feedback from them, and keep connections with many of them.
Regarding other areas of advising, I am often asked to write letters of references/recommendations for current and graduated students. Students must either be my advisee or have taken at least two classes with me in good standing to obtain letters from me. I am very honest with students who have a less than average track record for trying to obtain a letter from me.
Finally, my department head often consults with me regarding curriculum planning. We continually update our management curriculum based on current trends, evaluation from students, and external research. Most recently, I have been involved with course hour changes, which included course content learning objectives changes, based on feedback from management students and researching other schools’ programs for course transferability. These changes involved our Management Information Systems (MIS) course and our Business and Computers Applications course.
Finally, I have been president of our Honor Society (discussed in more detail in the service section of this report) for a number of years. As part of this role I am part of the advising team regarding student honoree selection.
A. Faculty Annual Reviews
B. Course Reevaluation Reflection/Course Review
C. ECP Review
D. Student Praise Email/Letters
A. Faculty Annual Reviews
My faculty annual reviews have remained excellent since I began teaching for WIT. Both Suzanne Kennedy (current dept head) and Pat Hafford (former dept head) believe I am a valuable faculty member who can always be counted on. Each has stated that my student evaluations are excellent and they both appreciate my willingness to teach different courses or multiple sections of the same course when needed. In addition, they have both commented on my ability to help other faculty in and out of our department with technology needs. Finally, they both have supported my application in rank to full professor.
B. Course Reevaluation Reflection/Course Review:
At the end of each academic year I reevaluate my courses to determine if there are any improvements or changes that should be made. Below is a sample of past and present reevaluation reflection statements of several courses based on my own thoughts, as well as student evaluation comments:
Principles of Management
Principles of Management is a 4-hour credit course that I developed for the MGMT department to be taught to computer science networking students. This course was taught as a hybrid, whereas their labs were online using our Course Management System. Computer Science students in general do not take enough MGMT courses. Thus, the objective of this course is to provide students with a survey course in the basic principles of management. The Principles of Management course is much needed for these computer sciences students. These students are computer and programming literate, but most do not have the management skills that are needed for the computer, networking, MIS, or IT positions that these students will seek out. Many students think they will sit behind a computer all day and have little or no interaction with others in the workplace. Discovering the types of management skills presented in this course opens their eyes so to speak to many new management skills, terms, theories, and the like. Basically, this course is a survey of management concepts and disciplines for non-management majors. Concepts include planning, organizing, directing, controlling, and supervising along with new and rapidly developing areas of management. The skills needed to manage effectively under constantly changing conditions are identified. Active involvement through lectures, discussion, case studies, role playing, and group exercises will be required of each student.
Management Information Systems (MIS)
Students in the MIS course take it as part of their MGMT program of study. One major issue for MIS students is the lack of pre-requisite preparedness given to them in the Pre-requisite Business Applications course and surprisingly the lack of skills obtained in Introduction to Computers. However, now that this course is offered as a freshman level course under the new MGMT program, these issues are resolved since they are taking Computers and Business Applications during the previous semester. This course was taught as a hybrid, whereas their labs were online. As this is approximately the eighth time I have taught MIS, I feel that I have more than adequately designed this class to meet student needs, truly teach MIS concepts, and offer students a challenging course in their major. Also, in MIS students gain the analytical skills and comprehensive objectives for such issues as define management, information systems, management of information systems, the role of information system managers, the infrastructure of the information systems network (including, the people, the hardware, the software, and the support), understanding dynamic group systems, knowledge management systems, decision-support systems and the like. Finally, I have also incorporated a research paper and a case analysis into the course objectives.
Technical Communication
The students entering Technical Communication are from all disciplines at WIT, have a variety of skills, passions, and motivation. Since these students are so diverse the first item of business for this course is to do a skills inventory check so that groups can be matched up quickly. Also, I must encourage students in the Technical Communication courses to work in groups with diverse students or they tend to flock together by major or gender. All students understand the importance of more comprehensive technical communications, such as descriptions, instructions, and reports; yet, 90% of the students do not like to practice speaking in front of the class. The past four years I have also added an electronic portfolio competency to the class objectives. I would say that 90% of my students understand how valuable this tool is to their career objectives and put forth a great deal of time and energy designing and developing a robust Web site for their portfolios. Many students tell me they plan to keep up their Web sites for their future careers.
Introduction to Management
This was the second time teaching Introduction to Management under the new MGMT curriculum for incoming freshman. Some orientation objectives, such as library resources, program requirements, and co-op requirements just to name a few were covered in the class. In addition, students analyzed a management article, compiled a 5-set annotated bibliography in their field of study, and gave a digital presentation on a new business venture. The newly revised course is a great stepping-stone, which helps students to discover and to fully understand their new MGMT program of study.
Computers and Business Applications
This was the fourth time teaching Computers and Business Applications. Again, I am very pleased with this course and how it went over the semester. Combining Intro to Computers and the Business Application course for our MGMT majors was the best thing that we could do for our students. The new books offer an intermediate level approach to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. Students also learn basic HTML, FrontPage, Publisher, and these new freshmen created their main EP Web page for our new Electronic Career Portfolio initiative. I am hoping that by giving them this foundation, students will begin to use these application tools to make decisions throughout their program of study and on into their co-ops and careers.
Review Comments
Each semester I learn many new things on how to improve my classes and my teaching philosophy grows and changes over time. One way that I learn how well I am doing in my classes are from student comments. Based on student comments there are a few areas in which I would like to work on for future classes.
Overall, I am very pleased with my student evaluations. My student evaluations continue to reflect higher ratings then the average ratings in my department and most are higher than the overall school ratings. Based on the evaluations students generally like my classes, feel like they get a lot out of the classes and also like the way I manage my classes. Students appreciate how organized my classes are and, although several students do not like Blackboard for the most part, they appreciate how I post all class materials online.
Multiple students commented that my Technical Communication courses would help them to be perceived as more professional in the work place and that they feel confident that they can plan, prepare, and write basic business documents, more structured business reports, and felt confident they could present in front of an audience on a more professional level. In addition, due to the amount of team projects, students commented that that they understand group dynamics, what it takes to be a leader, and also the time and effort it takes to meet milestones. Students were impressed with the course management system and commented on the ease to obtain handouts, lecture materials, and any class announcements. Several students also commented that they like the fact I force them to prepare a resume and a career portfolio, which was discussed earlier in this report.
Student comments were very also very favorable for Principles of Management. I feel that this course has been a great success for these computer science students. There were a lot of comments to get rid of GamePlan, which I have decided it is time to put it to rest anyway. There were a few comments about the class being too early on the morning, but is normal when you have an 8:00 am or 9:00 am class.
I am extremely pleased with student comments for MIS. Students indicated that this class helped them to prepare for their four years at WIT and specifically what to expect in the MGMT program. Student comments about their learning process in this class were extremely favorable. I am very pleased with the many positive comments received in this batch of evaluations. Last year I had comments requesting more group work in my MIS course. I tried this for my MIS class during spring and it did not go over so well. I plan to cut back on the group work for that class next time I teach it. I restructured MIS this past spring and I am not happy with the way I restructured it so I plan to change some things back and to attempt another restructuring Fall 2012.
A few students commented poorly on Blackboard. I have no control over Blackboard; however, I do plan to take a look at all my courses to see if there needs to be more organization. I am piloting testing the new Blackboard Learning system during summer semester. I believe students will like this CMS versus Blackboard Vista.
C. ECP Review
Since 2006 our Management department began requiring an online Electronic Career Portfolio (ECP). I began assessment research to determine how our students were doing in preparing their ECPs. With the help of the Co-op office I sent out a survey to 1400 career co-op employers. I received approximately 100 responses. A management student was actually contacted about a potential job after this survey was sent out. The responses were an eye-opener and helped us to see we have a lot of future work to do to help our students continually improve their ECPs. Briefly, the Co-op employers indicated that the ECPs were designed poorly and need to be consistent throughout with correct graphical design. In addition, they stated that students needed to edit throughout, obtain more professional pictures, and get rid of anything personal on the sites. Finally, they also stated that the ECPs needed goal statements and more reflection statements about work and school projects. Due to this feedback I held two senior workshops (more discussed in a later section) to help our first graduating class improve their overall ECPs. I was also able to present this research at a Webinar for the NorthEast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP), along with one of our students, Mike Burke (discussed in more detail later in this report).
D. Student Praise Email/Letters
From time to time over the years I have received emails, cards, and letters with students appreciation for my teaching, advising, and help in many areas.
F. Advising
Advising is a required activity for all faculty members within departmental programs at WIT. WIT’s advising mission is to help students achieve success within their respective academic programs. However, it is a much more challenging activity above and beyond trying to help students stay on track with their program of study. My advisees frequently visit me during office hours to get advice on passing courses, speaking to other faculty members, dealing with roommate issues, needing letters of references and many other reasons. In addition, advising goes above one-on-one faculty-to-student meetings, which includes program advising, liaison with admissions, curriculum planning, and more. The following areas represent my advising areas and roles:
A. Departmental Advising
1. Faculty Advisor
2. Program Coordinator
3. ECP Advisor
4. BSM Website Coordinator
B. Other Interaction
1. Liaison with Co-op Office
2. Liaison with Admissions
3. Alumni Relations
4. References/ Recommendations
5. Curriculum Planning
6. Honor Society
A. Departmental Advising
I am faculty advisor for approximately 40 students per year. My advising role includes helping students select classes each semester, helping new freshman learn how to register for classes, helping students stay on track, and helping those students off track come up with a new program of study each semester which will lead them to graduate as close as possible to their original graduation date.
In addition, I am the Technology Management concentration (discussed earlier) coordinator within the management department. Besides developing and teaching the courses, I advise management students on whether they are the right fit for this concentration. I also visit freshman level management courses yearly to present the concentration to management students and to answer questions.
I am also the ECP advisor within our department. Since I teach the freshman level class that gets them started on their ECPs, I am considered the “go to” faculty when students need help or suggestions in developing their ECPs over the years. I meet with students on a regular basis individually to help with technical concerns, design concerns, and content issues. Also, this past year I conducted two ECPS workshops to help students with final ECP preparation for senior graduate submission and plan to do so each year.
B. Other Interaction
As mentioned earlier, advising is not limited to internal departmental activities. It also includes other interaction. Each year I meet with the management student co-op advisor to discuss focus, ECP usage, and any challenges for Co-op placements. We also discuss the ways to improve student learning and objectives to match with current job placement trends. Yearly, the entire management department meets with the advising office to keep the focus on our department and to address any recruiting concerns that we may have. As mentioned earlier, since I am the faculty advisor for the BSM Web site I am able to keep up with a great deal of BSM alumni students to determine their job placement, obtain feedback from them, and keep connections with many of them.
Regarding other areas of advising, I am often asked to write letters of references/recommendations for current and graduated students. Students must either be my advisee or have taken at least two classes with me in good standing to obtain letters from me. I am very honest with students who have a less than average track record for trying to obtain a letter from me.
Finally, my department head often consults with me regarding curriculum planning. We continually update our management curriculum based on current trends, evaluation from students, and external research. Most recently, I have been involved with course hour changes, which included course content learning objectives changes, based on feedback from management students and researching other schools’ programs for course transferability. These changes involved our Management Information Systems (MIS) course and our Business and Computers Applications course.
Finally, I have been president of our Honor Society (discussed in more detail in the service section of this report) for a number of years. As part of this role I am part of the advising team regarding student honoree selection.
