General Education

 

 



General Education Assessment History

 

       SUNY Cortland has a long history of systematic general education (GE) assessment (SUNY Cortland General Education Assessment Plan, April 2002).  Initial assessment of the Cortland GE Program began in 1996 and used students' self-reported perceptions regarding quality and achievement of program goals.  These data were fruitful for gaining a better perspective on student opinions; however, no objective information was collected or was used to make programmatic changes.  During 1997/98 the GE Committee and faculty who taught in the program developed the uniform approach of using standardized essays and rubrics to assess the GE program; the Cortland Faculty Senate later endorsed this approach.  In 1999, a pilot study was implemented to assess validity and reliability of the essays and rubrics, and these data were used to make several changes to the GE assessment process at Cortland . 
       Starting in 2002/03, Cortland began a three-year assessment cycle of the SUNY GE knowledge, skill, and competency areas (SUNY College at Cortland 2004–2005 General Education Assessment Report).  Campus strengths that emerged from this three-year cycle included administrative and faculty acceptance of and support for the GE assessment process, favorable student outcomes in the majority of areas assessed, and a validated assessment process.  Weaknesses related to providing faculty with adequate planning time for implementing the assessment in their courses, the need for uniform implementation procedures, and dissemination of outcomes.  The 2005/06 - 2007/08 cycle of GE assessment at SUNY Cortland is built on these strengths and addresses these weaknesses.