Face to Face

Fall 2012 ECN212 Common Final Asssessment

Submitted by Erik Huntsinger on

EMCC's ECN faculty have developed and implemented the common ECN212 (Microeconomic Principles) final exam by first defining our discipline-wide Learning Objectives (LO) and then created multiple choice questions for the common final portion across all sections.  Instructors recorded each students' response for each question in an excel spreadsheet and sent to me, who aggregated and analyzed the results.  Overall results were good with 2 more LOs scoring above 80% and 2 fewer scoring below 60%.

Improving student understanding of basic accounting principles: Debits and Credits

Submitted by Clarissa Davis Ragland on

Business students have expressed difficulty understanding the accounting rules regarding debits (DRs) and credits (CRs) .  Therefore, during Fall 12, ACC111 class,  one of the honor students to created, for their honors project, a 3 min video presenting the 7 rules of DRs & Crs.   By creating the short video, students would:

a)display their understanding of the 7 rules of DRs & CRs;

b)learn a new skill (e.g. how to create a short and simple video about a comlicated topic);

Final Portfolio

Submitted by Steven Peist on

This is a final assessment of RDG 081, 091 and CRE 101.  The common elements included are a short essay (3-5 pages), long essay (5-7 pages), discussion board postings responding to the readings, letter to the reader, and self-assessment.  Other artifacts such as power points, prezis, games based on the books, are included with a rationale and rubric for inclusion.

Humannequin Project: Knowledge, Involvement on Campus, Group Projects

Submitted by Olga Tsoudis on

The Humannequin Project includes an assessment each year which varies by topic. The 2013 assessment, rubric, and student scoresheet are attached. Each questions always focuses on Bloom's Taxonomy: RememberUnderstandApply, Analyze,  Evaluate and Create.  Questions 4 and 6 have lower averages. These two areas need to be improved for the 2014 project. UPDATE: For 2014, the topic for the project was gender and language.

ENG101 Common Assignment Assessment -- 2012/2013

Submitted by Susan Malmo on

In order to compare the performance of those students who had placed directly into ENG101 (placers) with students who had completed ENG091 in order to get into ENG101 (completers), we completed an ENG101 common assignment and assessed an equal number of each group.  We used most of the EMCC Writing Rubric (Focus, Support, Organization, Language Use, and Mechanics--scale of 1 - 4.)  All nine residential ENG faculty took part in the assessment on January 7, 2013 -- we particiapted in norming and then scored papers.

Fall 2012 ECN211 Common Final Asssesment

Submitted by Erik Huntsinger on

EMCC's ECN faculty have developed and implemented the common ECN211 (Macroeconomic Principles) final exam by first defining our discipline-wide Learning Objectives (LO) and then created multiple choice questions for the common final portion across all sections.  Instructors recorded each students' response for each question in an excel spreadsheet and sent to me, who aggregated and analyzed the results (See attached).  Overall results showed slight improvements in 4 LOs but 2 were worse than the previous semester.

Enhancing College Algebra with Interactive Software

Submitted by Marianne Smith on

Having taught MAT151 (College Algebra) in both Fall 2011 and Spring 2012, I noticed that a fair number of students were having difficulty understanding the concept of a function.  Many failed to recognize how a function's output value varies in a predictable way based on changes to its input value, and most had a hard time connecting the geometric, tabular, verbal and equation representations of a function. Developing this understanding is critical to student success in MAT151 and subsequent math classes.

The Sociological Imagination: SOC 101 Common Assignment

Submitted by Olga Tsoudis on

Since Spring 2010, a common assignment has been incorporated into Sociology 101 (Introduction to Sociology). A group of faculty worked on the assignment and rubric with the SAAC co-chairs during Fall 2009. The assignment has been implemented at the end of each semester in the SOC 101 courses (learning outcomes, assignment, and rubric attached below). I have attached some of the comments and results from the instructors from each of the semesters (when information was provided).

AIDS Awareness- Implementing the SCGR Assignment and Rubric

Submitted by Olga Tsoudis on

The Social, Civic, Global Responsibility Common Assignment was implemented in SOC 130 (Human Sexuality). Students were given the topic of the AIDS epidemic as their focus for this assignment. The rubric was given at the same time as the assignment. Both were discussed and reviewed in class. The focus of the assignment tied in with the rest of the semester as the students organized the EMCC AIDS team, raised money for AIDS awareness, and created slides to be shown outside during the AIDS Day event. The average scores were as follows:



Question 1:  2.67(of 3)

Memory vs. Reasoning

Submitted by Sonya Zetlan on

Our goal was to raise the grade of muscle lab practicals. A muscle practical requires recognizing/naming 60 muscles, and stating  the action of those muscles. I hypothesized it should be easier for students to learn three rules and 8 joint movements, and reason out the muscle actions,  than it would be to memorize 60 names.  Students recieved a list of the name, origin, insertion, action of 60 muscles  a website showing muscle clay images,  flashcards,  and animations.

Service Learning Reflections & Social, Civic, Global Responsibility (SCGR)

Submitted by Roselyn Turner on

Student reflection is an integral aspect of effective Service Learning practices and should demonstrate both Academic and Affective learning. In the past I used student-self-directed reflection, with minimal guidance or structure. In order to better assess SCGR proficiency, I (1) provided the students the rubrics for this ability, (2) reviewed them carefully, and (3) required adherence to the criteria in the presentation of Informative Speeches, adding the SCGR criteria to the evaluation instrument as part of the content grade.

Group Menu Project CUL105/Enhancement

Submitted by Steven Griffiths on

Using a SAAC EZ form completed during spring '12,  this CAT documents improvements based upon suggestions in the original document (see attachment).   For Fall '12, the grading rubric was revised, group formation was made earlier, and a group contract was added to the project based upon the document provided by a finished CAT titled "Increasing Group Accountability with a Contract".  Results: 

An Enhanced Jigsaw approach to teach Cell Parts (BIO181/156)

Submitted by Rachel Smith on

Unit Two of BIO181/BIO156 comprises Protein structure/function, Enzymes, Membranes/Osmosis and basic Cell structure.   I initially taught cell structure in a straight lecture format, but switched to a jigsaw method in 2010, and most recently to an "enhanced" jigsaw method (2012)

SCGR The Debate Over Inclusion

Submitted by Rachel Holmes on

Students were asked to research, analyze, and explain the role of inclusion in today’s K-12 setting.  A detailed guide was provided to students in addition to the SCGR rubric.

Steps:  1. Online EDU222 were given a PP to build background and a number of related articles to review. F2F students participated in whole-class, interactive lesson on various SpecialEd programs 2. F2F rubric and assignment guide discussed in detail  3.  Student research- 1 day in-class 4. Submit to Writing Center 4. Implement feedback and submit to BB