Visual Arts & Design
- Mission Statement
Art is the universal language through which we express our common aspirations and experiences. As such, it has always been a channel for appreciating and understanding the diversity of humankind. In contemporary society the use of visual media has expanded rapidly. People who formerly typed documents now design web pages. More studies are indicating that children who experience the visual arts are more successful in their other studies. Attendance at art museums is at an all time high. The need to experience, understand and successfully create visual media is increasing. The Department of Visual Arts and Design is prepared to meet these needs.
Faculty: All of our faculty are practicing professionals. WSU-DOVAD takes pride that the faculty demonstrate the level of excellence we expect of our students. - Student Learning Outcomes
- Certificate (Not Applicable)
- Associate Degree
Measurable Learning Outcomes for the Associate of Arts in Art:
Creation Innovation
- Technical Proficiency - Produce technically proficient visual work.
- Conceptual, Ethical, Critical - Utilize conceptual frameworks, ethical reasoning, and critical thinking skills in the making of visual media.
- Learn, Adapt, Apply - Demonstrate the ability to learn, adapt, and apply new techniques, tools, processes, and ideas.
Analysis Communication
- Assess, Analyze, Synthesize - Assess, analyze, and synthesize historical and contemporary information regarding visual art and design.
- Writing and Oral Communication - Communicate effectively and ethically about visual media through written or oral means.
- Recognize and Identify - Recognize and identify historically influencial styles, movements, periods, theories, and practitioners of art and design in a global context.
Professionalization Collaboration
- Contemporary Professional Practices - Implement contemporary professional practices in the field.
- Cooperation With Peers - Demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively, ethically, and effectively with peers.
- Profession, Practice, Community - Explain visual art and design as a profession, practice, and global community.
- Bachelor Degrees
Measurable Learning Outcomes for the Bachelor of Arts in Art and Bachelor of Fine Arts:
Creation Innovation
- Technical Proficiency - Produce technically proficient visual work.
- Conceptual, Ethical, Critical - Utilize conceptual frameworks, ethical reasoning, and critical thinking skills in the making of visual media.
- Learn, Adapt, Apply - Demonstrate the ability to learn, adapt, and apply new techniques, tools, processes, and ideas.
Analysis Communication
- Assess, Analyze, Synthesize - Assess, analyze, and synthesize historical and contemporary information regarding visual art and design.
- Writing and Oral Communication - Communicate effectively and ethically about visual media through written or oral means.
- Recognize and Identify - Recognize and identify historically influencial styles, movements, periods, theories, and practitioners of art and design in a global context.
Professionalization Collaboration
- Contemporary Professional Practices - Implement contemporary professional practices in the field.
- Cooperation With Peers - Demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively, ethically, and effectively with peers.
- Profession, Practice, Community - Explain visual art and design as a profession, practice, and global community.
- Certificate (Not Applicable)
- Curriculum Grid
- Program and Contact Information
Our world is partially understood through smell, taste, sound, and touch. But perhaps most of all we make sense of our environment through what we see. The art, architecture, mass media and even the furniture in our spaces bear distinct messages that influence our decisions and enrich life.Creative processes are exciting. Students of art and design contribute new expression to the vitality of our visual environment and learn to interpret what is seen through trained observation. Innovative thinking is absolutely necessary for success and must be balanced against research and critical judgment. Emphasis is placed on writing and the critical evaluation of artistic products. Students gain experience at preparing exhibits and portfolios for eventual professional activity.
Studies in art, art history and design offer windows of understanding to other cultures, both past and present. This is one of our primary concerns in preparing citizens for productive relations in an increasingly multicultural society.
Seventy-eight different courses are offered by the Department of Visual Arts and Design. These span traditional areas such as art history, art education, ceramics, drawing, small metals/jewelry, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and graphic design. The department is continually expanding into emerging modes of expression involving digital video, digital photography, animation, interactive design, and sound. Classes are enhanced by public lectures, seminars, workshops and special sessions by critics, historians, and visiting artistsDepartment of Visual Arts Website
Contact Information:
Matthew Choberka
2001 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408
Kimball Visual Arts Bldg, Rm 101
(801) 626-7270 - Assessment Plan
GenEd Assessment:
- DOVAD has been collecting and archiving artifacts from its GenEd courses in an effort to assess information about these courses, and their effectiveness in educating students on the relevant GenEd outcomes. These artifacts include short papers, exams, quizzes, and samples of creative works. Despite their variations, the collected artifacts clearly indicate the relevant GenEd outcomes designated by the department are all being consciously addressed. The department plans to continue to collect, assess and archive for these courses.
Foundations Assessment:- Over the last year, our Foundations Coordinator, Molly Morin, gathered information about the current state of the studio foundation curriculum through surveys, conversations and observations across the department. In cooperation with the newly formed foundations committee, she wrote objectives for the five studio foundations classes. These one-page documents clearly define learning objectives for each course, and will be distributed to instructors around the time courses are schedules. These new objectives, to be implemented broadly in Spring 2015, will allow assessment to measure outcomes in a meaningful way moving forward. In addition, a revised adjunct instructor contract codifies our expectation that adjunct instructors (who teach the bulk of these courses) will work with the department to provide evidence of outcomes. In this way, we are prepared to collect artifacts and assess the curriculum more effectively beginning in Spring 2015.
- While GenEd offerings lie outside of the Foundation Coordinator’s responsibilities, the above will serve the assessment committee as a model for collecting artifacts and measuring outcomes for the GenEd curriculum.
BFA and Program Assessment:- Each fall and spring semester a portfolio review process is used to determine entry into the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. The evaluation form used to rank student portfolios helps faculty determine readiness for advanced and self-directed study in the various studio concentrations. This evaluation form serves a related assessment function, in that it allows DOVAD faculty to consider success with learning outcomes in foundations classes (see attached BFA Review Worksheet in Section H below).
- At the end of every fall and spring semester the DOVAD faculty evaluates the work created by students enrolled in the BFA Seminar class. In addition to a verbal exchange with the students, faculty members complete assessment forms for each student. This form has been developed over time and evaluates the outcomes of the student in the areas of concept, form, and articulation (see attached BFA Seminar Assessment forms in Section H below).
- At the completion of the BFA Thesis class the students are again evaluated. There is again a verbal dialog between student and faculty, as well as an assessment form completed by the DOVAD faculty members. The thesis form is the same as the BFA Seminar form, which evaluates concept, form, and articulation. The data gathered on these forms gives the department information to gauge the success of our students at the completion of the BFA Thesis course. Since these same students were assessed using the same form for BFA Seminar we also have the ability to make comparisons between student development relative to the learning outcomes in BFA Seminar and Thesis, and to therefore evaluate the BFA program more broadly. In addition to the assessment forms, images of the completed student works are collected and archived. The department plans to continue to collect, assess and archive materials for these courses.
- The department’s assessment committee will review the information gathered from this process annually. They will evaluate the materials and then report their findings to the entire DOVAD faculty to discuss recommendations. The Department of Visual Arts and Design believes the continuation of assessing both GenEd and both BFA courses, as well as implementing a new dedication to collecting, reviewing and archiving artifacts from a variety of studio and/or art history courses, gives us the necessary information to successfully assess our effectiveness in teaching our students.
Assessment Evidence Collection Procedures:- To further expand the amount of information available for assessment of learning with the major, DOVAD will continue annually to collect, assess and archive materials from the reviews outlined above, and has also begun to collect and archive artifacts and information from five studio courses per semester from a range of disciplines taught within the department. These materials are not only from a diverse range of disciplines, they also allow the department to gather data on students in various stages of their education/development. By rotating through various classes per semester we will be able to obtain evaluative artifacts from across the spectrum of courses taught in the Department of Visual Arts and Design. You can find a copy of this schedule in the appendix of this document.
A three-year schedule for these courses has been developed by the assessment committee, and will be followed by DOVAD faculty moving forward. (Please see the proposed artifact collection schedule in the Appendix on page 24 of this document). This schedule will not only ensure a full spectrum of courses are represented each semester and year, but will also ask faculty to fairly participate in the assessment evidence collection. Each professor/instructor selected will be responsible for providing the following items to the assessment committee at the end of the semester.
- 10–20 images of work completed during the semester that the professor/instructor believes connect back to the learning objectives stated in the course syllabus.
- These images should be named using the following convention: course#_project#_001 (each image should be named sequentially)
- Do not include student names
- 10 examples of quizzes, exams, papers or other kinds of written work, which the professor/instructor believes connect back to the learning objectives stated in the course syllabus
- These documents should be in an accessible format (Word doc, or text file)
- These documents should be named using the following convention: course#_writtenassignmenttypeand#_001 (each document should be named sequentially)
- Do not include student names
- A PDF or Word file of the following:
- Course syllabus
- Any project/assignment descriptions/briefs which relate to the assessment evidence given
- A one or two paragraph summary which analyzes how the artifacts/evidence collected specifically relates to the learning outcomes stated in the course syllabus
- Should be saved as a Word doc or PDF
- Should be clearly labeled as Evidence Summary Analysis
- Should include the course number and professor/instructor name in title of document
Each professor/instructor is responsible for organizing all these files into a folder, clearly labeled with the semester and year, the course number, and their name. At the end of the semester, the professor/instructor is also responsible for loading this organized folder onto the Assessment Collection external hard drive, which will be stored in the main department office. This hard drive will contain an organized series of folders for each semester and year. The professor/instructor is responsible for locating the appropriate folder and uploading their organized course folder into that space.
- Assessment Report Submissions
- 2021-2022
- 2019-2020
No report submitted for 2019-2020 Academic Year.
- 2017
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?
While we still see opportunities for growth, we were pleased to see that many assessment areas have improved over our previous assessment. With the implementation of new curricular initiatives and greatly increased assessment at the Foundations (core curriculum) level, we hope to continue the trend of improving students’ writing and oral presentation scores earlier on in their coursework. Our assessment metrics have improved significantly over our last report, particularly within our Gen Ed s and core curriculum, and we look forward to using these measures to identify new opportunities for improvement.
1) With whom did you share the results of the year's assessment efforts?
- We have shared the results with the Arts and Humanities Dean, Scott Sprenger, and plan to share these results with all DOVA affiliated faculty and instructors.
- Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- We will continue with our plan of assessment and evidence collection for the BFA program entry and exit. We will continue to collect assessment evidence from our GenEd courses and instructors using our new process. We will continue to collect assessment evidence from a rotating schedule of Foundations, Gen Ed, and Discipline-specific courses following the schedules included in this report.
The full report is available for viewing.
- 2016
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?
[To answer this question, compare evidence from prior years to the evidence from the current year. Discuss trends of evidence that increases your confidence in the strengths of the program. Also discuss trends of concern (e.g. students struggling to achieve particular student outcomes).]- While we still see opportunities for growth, we were pleased to see that many assessment areas have improved over our previous assessment. With the implementation of new curricular initiatives and greatly increased assessment at the Foundations (core curriculum) level, we hope to continue the trend of improving students’ writing and oral presentation scores earlier on in their coursework. Our assessment metrics have improved significantly over our last report, particularly within our Gen Ed s and core curriculum, and we look forward to using these measures to identify new opportunities for improvement.
- Finally, the committee noticed some variation in performance between sections of the same course in some lower-division courses that it would like to see improved. We expect that new assessment measures, a more engaged assessment committee, and continued improvement in communication with instructors will help to address this.
2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
- We have shared the results with the Arts and Humanities Dean, Scott Sprenger, and plan to share these results with all DOVA affiliated faculty and instructors.
3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- We will continue with our plan of assessment and evidence collection for the BFA program entry and exit. We will continue to collect assessment evidence from our GenEd courses and instructors using our new process. We will continue to collect assessment evidence from a rotating schedule of Foundations, Gen Ed, and Discipline-specific courses following the schedules included in this report.
- We have begun to address areas for improvement in writing and consistency across course sections and we will continue to monitor these areas. To improve these communications, the assessment committee has appointed assessment coordinators for each area: Gen Ed, Foundations and Discipline-Specific assessment. This will allow instructors more contact and communication with the larger assessment structure and will allow coordinators to become well versed in their assessment areas.
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We will pay close attention to ART 1010 courses and explore means for supporting instructors in improving outcomes
The full report is available for viewing.
The Department of Visual Arts and Design conducted a 5 year program review with full self-study during the spring of 2016. Those results are presented along with the Annual Assessment. Please reference those documents for information that includes data for the 2015/16 academic year as well.
- 2015
No report submitted for 2014-2015 Academic Year.
- 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?
[To answer this question, compare evidence from prior years to the evidence from the current year. Discuss trends of evidence that increases your confidence in the strengths of the program. Also discuss trends of concern (e.g. students struggling to achieve particular student outcomes).]- The evidence collected in the current year continues to show that students are mastering the use of the fundamentals of each discipline within our department: use of composition, quality of content, mastery of materials, and ability to create work from specific prompts given by the instructor. As we compare evidence from prior years to this current year, we continue to notice that students struggle with critical writing and oral presentation of their work. This has been noted as a trend across many programs and campuses, and our students are no exception. We are also continuing to work on our foundations program. Molly Morin (foundations coordinator) is establishing clear and consistent learning objectives across the foundations program, and is gathering data regarding how students are performing and how instructors are assessing that performance.
2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?- We have shared the results with the Arts and Humanities Dean, Madonne Miner, and plan to share these results with all DOVA affiliated faculty and instructors.
3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
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We will continue with our plan of assessment evidence collection for the BFA program entry and exit. We will continue to collect assessment evidence from our GenEd courses and instructors. We will continue to collect assessment evidence from ten courses a year across our curriculum according to the systemized schedule for this collection. We also plan to begin analyzing the data collected, looking for patterns of success and places for improvement in the next two years. Finally, our Foundations Coordinator position is conducting a thorough analysis and review of our entire foundations program and will have more specific recommendations and a plan of action at the end of Spring 2015 to bring to the full faculty for implementation.
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?
- The evidence collected in the current year continues to show that students are mastering the use of the
fundamentals of each discipline within our department: use of composition, quality of content, mastery of materials,
and ability to create work from specific prompts given by the instructor.- As we compare evidence from prior years to this current year, we continue to notice that students struggle with
critical writing and oral presentation of their work. This has been noted as a trend across many programs and
campuses, and our students are no exception. We are also concerned with how our foundations program is
functioning, which is why we solicited a new hire for a Foundations Coordinator position. As Molly Morin analyzes
and observes the faculty and adjuncts involved with our foundations program and writes up a report of
recommendation, we can begin to address the inconsistencies within that part of our program, and see how the
work of students changes over the next few years.
2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?- We have shared the results with the Arts and Humanities Dean, Madonne Miner, and plan to share these results with all DOVA affiliated faculty and instructors.
3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?- We will continue with our plan of assessment evidence collection for the BFA program entry and exit.
- We will improvement in the next two years. Finally, with the new Foundations Coordinator position, we plan to do a thorough analysis and review of our entire foundations program and will have specific recommendations at the end of Spring 2014 to implement.
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continue to collect assessment evidence from our GenEd courses and instructors. We will continue to collect assessment evidence from ten courses a year across our curriculum according to the systemized schedule for this collection. We also plan to begin analyzing the data collected, looking for patterns of success and places for
To view the full report, select this link: Visual Arts 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report
- 2021-2022
- Program Review