Bachelor of Integrated Studies

Assessment Plan

BIS Outcomes *	Method of Assessment	Time of Assessment **
1. Make multiple connections across three disciplines.	1. Survey to capstone faculty committee, completion of capstone 2. Survey to students at graduation 3. Survey to department faculty of BIS students	1. Upon completion of capstone 2. At "graduation dean's sign off" meeting with adviser 3. At student's graduation
2. Create a Capstone experience demonstrating depth of understanding.	1. Survey to capstone faculty committee 2. Survey to students at graduation	1. Upon completion of capstone 2. At "graduation dean's sign off" meeting with adviser
3. Synthesize and report key research/skills/theories from academic disciplines	1. Survey to capstone faculty committee	1. Upon completion of capstone
4. Provide analysis/results/conclusions from Capstone experience.	1. Survey to capstone faculty committee 2. Survey to students at graduation	1. Upon completion of capstone 2. At "graduation dean's sign off" meeting with adviser
5. Organize and use human resources and manage time.	1. Survey to capstone faculty committee 2. Survey to students at graduation	1. Upon completion of capstone 2. At "graduation dean's sign off" meeting with adviser
6. Create and implement a lifelong learning plan for career and/or graduate program.	1. Feedback from Pat Wheeler, employment advisor, after teaching EDUC 3800 2. Survey to students at graduation	1. At completion of EDUC 3800 2. At "graduation dean's sign off" meeting with adviser

In the future, we may add "life-long learning" as one of BIS' desired outcomes. In that case, we will develop a survey to give to BIS students a year or two after they've left Weber State University.
These surveys will be designed and implemented in the next year.

Assessment Report Submissions
- 2021-2022
- 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).
    
    BIS only offers two courses, both upper division. However, the program director routinely explains GEN EDUC and walks incoming students over to the Student Success Center to introduce them to advisors.
    
    Currently, most of our students have been at Weber or are transfer students from other institutions. As with our first-year students, BIS personnel will welcome, advise, and take current students to the Student Success Center to help promote quality campus advising.
  - Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s)
    
    BIS works with all students—regardless of major/minor or BIS—to help them with university requirements, procedures, and resources. Our motto is: “If BIS isn’t right for you, we’ll work with you to help you find the right fit.”
  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’.
  - BIS used data collection to help improve the quality of student work, success, and advising. Based on data from BIS scoring rubrics, we have added specific assignments to BIS 3800 to address two previously identified areas of concern.
  - First, that BIS students were not meeting the “Knowledge, Skills and Research Base” indicator. To improve students’ ability to interact and report professional literature, BIS 3800 included a session where students were required to meet with a Stewart Librarian/Bibliographer and document their research efforts. This enabled the last two years’ BIS students to meet the 80% threshold for this indicator.
  - Second, that BIS students were not meeting the “Grammar, Syntax, and Mechanics” indicator. To improve students’ ability to write better, a BIS 3800 requirement was created where students needed to take their capstone proposals and completed projects to the campus writing center to put the paper in APA Style (unless directed otherwise by committee members) and to revise and edit as necessary. This inclusion enabled the last two years’ BIS students to meet the 80% threshold for this indicator.
  - This semester, BIS has updated its “paper and pencil”student exit survey to an electronic Qualtrics survey that better probes the interactions and quality of advisement from the BIS director and administrative assistant. Data from this instrument will be used to improve in any areas of weakness identified by students.
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2017
  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?
  - BIS program data support the conclusion that the capstone project experience consistently produces BIS graduates who demonstrate mastery in the five of the seven BIS program outcomes. A 80% threshold has been met in five of the BIS program indicators; however, data for AY 2016-2017 revealed that Program indicators “Nature of the Capstone” and “Knowledge, Skills, and Research Base” and need improvement. Although data are not at the 80% threshold in these areas, averages of 3 and 4 are at 77 and 74% respectively. Data also reveal that BIS faculty members consistently rate capstone projects are being mostly of high to very high quality. Evidence supports that BIS students receive quality mentoring and advising as they proceed through the BIS experience. The most important thing that has changed since the last assessment report was the inclusion of a High Impact Standards based on definitions from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). AY 2016-2017 served as a pilot year for the additional AAC&U Standard.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - These data will be presented to the BIS Program Advisory Council during our next meeting Spring 2018 for member input. Copies of scoring rubrics have been posted on the BIS website so students become more familiar with their use.
  - Capstone Project Scoring Results will be posted on the Department’s website (weber.edu/bis) for student, advisor and faculty use.
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  
  Based on 2016-2017 data, the following action steps are needed:
  - The Department is moving to incorporate recommendations from our 5-Year Campus report.
  - Added emphasis will be placed on improving the “Nature of the Capstone” and “Knowledge, Skills, and Research Bases”.” To improve these, the BIS Program director will create Capstone open hours from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday. BIS 3800 and 4800 students will be required to attend at least 4 of these sessions prior to defense.
  The full report is available. The BIS program also completed a program review. The documents are 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?
  - BIS program data support the conclusion that the capstone project experience consistently produces BIS graduates who demonstrate mastery in the four of the six BIS program outcomes. A 80% threshold has been met in four of the BIS program indicators; however, data for AY 2014-2015 revealed that Program indicators “Knowledge, Skills, and Research Base” and “Use of Grammar, Syntax and Mechanics” need improvement. Although data were not at the 80% threshold in these areas, averages of 3 and 4 are at 70 % and 77% respectively. Data also revealed that BIS faculty members consistently rate capstone projects are being mostly of high to very high quality. Evidence supports that BIS students receive quality mentoring and advising as they proceed through the BIS experience.
  - BIS Program data for AY 2012-2013 served as a pilot year for Capstone Scoring Rubric data.
  - During AY 2013-2014, the BIS Capstone Scoring Rubric revealed reliable data from BIS students’ Capstone Project Quality measures. The BIS Department has continued to use Capstone Scoring data for AY 2014-2015 and does not anticipate changes in indicators or in rubric verbiage. These data continue to reveal strong patterns of academic achievement.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - These data will be presented to the BIS Program Advisory Council during our next meeting Spring 2016 for member input. Copies of scoring rubrics have been posted on the BIS website so students become more familiar with their use.
  - New this year, Capstone Project Scoring Results will be posted on the Department’s website (weber.edu/bis) for student, advisor and faculty use.
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  - The BIS director will continue to build bridges with various academic departments to strengthen understandings and advisement for BIS students.
  - Results of Capstone Scoring are presented annually on Weber’s BIS assessment page (https://www.weber.edu/portfolio/departments.html)
  - BIS will post exemplarily examples, by capstone type, on its webpage for demonstration purposes and in accord with our 5-year charge to better disseminate quality Capstone Projects
  - Added emphasis will be placed on improving the “Knowledge, Skills, and Research Bases” and Use of “Grammar, Syntax, and Mechanics. To improved “Knowledge, Skills, and Research Bases” the Department will require that BIS students enrolled in BIS 3800 provide evidence of having met and discussed research bases/literature with a Stewart Library bibliographer. To improve use of “Grammar, Syntax, and Mechanics” BIS students will provide evidence of having collaborated with a campus writing center to edit and revise the Capstone manuscript before a defense date.
  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?
  - BIS program data support the conclusion that the capstone project experience consistently produces BIS graduates who demonstrate mastery of the six BIS program outcomes. Data also reveal that BIS faculty members consistently rate capstone projects are being mostly of high to very high quality. Evidence supports that BIS students receive quality mentoring and advising as they proceed through the BIS experience. The most important thing that has changed since the 2011-2012 assessment report was the articulation of the BIS 4800 Capstone Scoring rubric to outcomes based on LEAP—Liberal Education and America’s Promise Standards from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
  - AY 2012-2013 served as a pilot year for Capstone Scoring Rubric data.
  - During AY 2013-2014, Capstone Scoring Rubric data reliably collect data on BIS students’ Capstone Project Quality measures. These data continue to reveal strong patterns of academic achievement. Specifically, over 90 percent of BIS students scored 3s and 4s (4 being the highest) in all six of the BIS scoring rubric instrument.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - These data will be presented to the BIS Program Advisory Council during our next meeting Fall 2014 for member input. Copies of scoring rubrics have been posted on the BIS website so students become more familiar with their use.
  - New this year, Capstone Project Scoring Results will be posted on the Department’s website (weber.edu/bis) for student, advisor and faculty use.
  3) Based on 2013-2014 data, the following action steps are needed:
  - BIS has strengthen its relationship with the WSU Career Services Center to improve BIS students’ life action plans and familiarize them with the mission and services of WSU Career Services. A three-hour seminar with Pat Wheeler of Weber’s Career Services Center has been added to BIS 3800. Students are actively engaged in registering and using WSU Career Services for career paths. This addition, from last year, needs to be strengthened and nurtured.
  - BIS Capstone Rubrics are now interwoven into BIS 3800 course content and have been available as a web resource for over a year. The BIS 3800 instructor, department secretary, and BIS director all point students to the web resource so that students receive uniform information about Capstone Project rubric scoring. Capstone Scoring results will be posted on the BIS webpage (weber.edu/bis)
  - The BIS director will continue to build bridges with various academic departments to strengthen understandings and advisement for BIS students.
  - Results of Capstone Scoring are presented annually on Weber’s BIS assessment page (https://www.weber.edu/portfolio/departments.html)
  - BIS has revised our website to organize Capstone Project information in a more user-friendly manner. (https://weber.edu/BIS) The materials on our website will be integrated into BIS 3800 and used for Capstone one-on-one advisement.
  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?
  - BIS program data support the conclusion that the capstone project experience consistently produces BIS graduates who demonstrate mastery of the six BIS program outcomes. Data also reveal that BIS faculty members consistently rate capstone projects are being mostly of high to very high quality. Evidence supports that BIS students receive quality mentoring and advising as they proceed through the BIS experience. The most important thing that has changed since the 2011-2012 assessment report was the articulation of the BIS 4800 Capstone Scoring rubric to outcomes based on LEAP—Liberal Education and America’s Promise Standards from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - These data will be presented to the BIS Program Advisory Council during our next meeting Fall 2013 for member input. Copies of scoring rubrics have been posted on the BIS website so students become more familiar with their use.
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  
  Based on 2012-2013 data, the following action steps are needed:
  - BIS has to strengthen its relationship with the WSU Career Services Center to improve BIS students’ life action plans and familiarize them with the mission and services of WSU Career Services. A goal for both BIS and WSU Career Services is to collect and describe BIS graduates’ employment rates and placements for the next annual report.
  - BIS Capstone Rubrics need to be interwoven with BIS coursework so students become more familiar with how scoring rubrics will be used in BIS 4800. Rubric data need to be share with participating departments/faculty to support BIS claims of Capstone Project rigor.
  - The BIS director will continue to build bridges with various academic departments to strengthen understandings and advisement for BIS students.
  To access the full report, select this link: BIS 2013 Annual Assessment Report
Program Review