(AWA 101), which integrates the student's various learning experiences during the summer portion of the program. Faculty/staff teams participating in the QEP Pilot Project will develop the initial rubrics for evaluating the e-portfolios over the summer of 2008. Current assessment instruments used in the developmental program, including diagnostic exams for reading and exit exams for writing and for mathematics, will also be a means for measuring student academic performance. Assessments used (and others currently under development) by the Division of Mathematics and Sciences and the Division of Literature, Languages, and Philosophy in their gateway courses, along with the newly created Liberal Studies Core Committee Learning Outcomes Assessment, will ensure a range of "in-house" evaluation mechanisms. To provide a measure that also allows comparisons with national data, students will take the ACT measure of Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAPP) at the end of their freshman year and again at the end of their sophomore year to evaluate their progress in the areas of reading, writing, critical thinking, mathematics, and basic science. The Noel-Levitz College Student Inventory (CSI) provides direct and indirect measures of student attitudes; where appropriate, such as assessing students' desire to finish college and their attitude toward educators, the CSI will be used as a direct measure. The University has collected CSI data in UNV 101 courses on more than 1100 freshmen from 2004 to the present and will collect more data from the AWA Pilot Project control group of students for drawing comparisons between students under AWA management and those not. The CSI is also discussed below as an indirect measure.
The CSI will be used also as an indirect, self-reported measure of student attitudes and engagement in learning. Several learning outcomes associated with Educational Goal 1 are categorized on the CSI, including “Academic Motivation” (study habits, verbal confidence, math and science confidence), “Dropout Proneness,” “Receptivity to Institutional Help,” and “Receptivity” (to academic assistance, personal counseling, and career counseling). Under the QEP, the CSI will be administered twice, once during their first AWA 101 class to establish a baseline of initial student attitudes, and a second time at the end of the summer portion of the program to ascertain changes over the summer session. AWA 101, the hub course for all new freshmen, requires that students write an autobiography, which instructors compare with the results of the CSI to clean more specific information and acquire deeper insight into the attitudes of their students. The e-portfolio that integrates the student's learning experiences in their courses with support and student life/resident life services will be an additional measure of their academic engagement. Course evaluations conducted by the University provide self-reported information on student's perception of their attendance and hours per week spent studying. Course grades and retention of students from freshman through the end of the sophomore year will provide the final two indirect measures for gauging the success of the QEP in achieving the three AWA Educational Goals.
In addition to the aforementioned assessments, the National Survey of Student Engagement will be used to measure student engagement with their education. The University has administered and collected data from NSSE surveys in 2003, 2004, and 2007, and will continue to do so. The NSSE is given in the spring, which will allow
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