Performance Assessment Implemented for all Department Majors in 2008

From the Geology & Environmental Science Department at James Madison University

Purpose

This assessment is used to determine the academic progress of majors relative to their point in the program. It includes prompts on knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

Implementation

The assessment is administered in person on the afternoon of the JMU Assessment Day, which occurs on the second Tuesday in February. Students participate in person with the visualization shown and samples available to them during the period.

Use of the Data

The data used by this instrument is intended to drive a more detailed discussion of the program curricula, such that important milestones are reached by all majors early, in the middle, and late in their stay at JMU. Where their responses differ from objectives mapped to expectations, adjustments are likely to occur, in a data-driven fashion.

Effectiveness

Data are preliminary at this point, having only one administration so far, and that is a pilot administration. The next administration will be on February 17th, 2009.

Instrument

Download the Assessment Outcrop Image (Acrobat (PDF) 232kB Feb12 09) and Assessment Questions with Rubric (Acrobat (PDF) 62kB Feb12 09)