COMMITTEE: Academic
Standards Committee
MEETING DATE: September
18, 2006
PERSON PRESIDING: Linda
Wolfe
REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Bauer,
McConnell, Smith-Canter, Richardson, Wolfe, Thomas
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Brown,
Griffin, Bailey, Sprague
OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Mark Taggart, Chair of the
Faculty
CALLED TO ORDER: 2:00 PM
ACTIONS OF MEETING
Agenda Item: Nominations and election of officers
Action
Taken: Linda Wolfe elected Chair, Thomas
McConnell elected Vice Chair, Mark Richardson elected Secretary, and William
Thomas volunteered to serve as Representative to the Athletics Committee
________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Decision to be made whether or not to implement the
online SOIS survey.
Discussion:
The committee will wait to discuss the issue until Mike Poteat provides more
information at the 10/23 meeting.
Action Taken:
Deferred to the next meeting
_______________________________________________
Agenda Item: Review whether the committee supports the trial use of the
Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) next year (put off from this year). Mike Poteat’s comments, as summarized by
George Bailey, are as follows:
1.
First, the CLA is not designed to be a measure of writing across the curriculum
or of our specific general education (or foundation) goals.
2.
The CLA is not a standardized test in the same sense that the ACT, GRE, and SAT
are standardized and normed. I would
characterize the CLA as a test in development, and the CLA project as a
national research project. It is in fact
being run as a research project under the auspices of the Rand Corporation.
3.
The results of the CLA will not be publicly released unless the University
(ECU) determines that we wish to make the results public.
4.
Before we administer the CLA, our protocol must be approved by the ECU IRB.
Discussion: The committee needs further information about
the CLA and its advantages for use at ECU before further action can be
taken. The committee will wait to
discuss the issue until Mike Poteat provides more information at the 10/23
meeting.
Action Taken:
Deferred to the next meeting
________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Guidelines need to be prepared for outcomes
assessment and a schedule for the assessment of Foundations courses.
Discussion: The
committee needs further information about the procedure from Mike Poteat in
order to request from the Provost and Chair of the Faculty that an assessment
committee be formed. The committee will
wait to discuss the issue until Mike Poteat provides more information at the
10/23 meeting.
Action Taken:
Deferred to the next meeting
________________________________________________
Agenda Item: The committee will need to revise the Foundations credit
proposal form as necessary.
Discussion:
The committee agreed that the form, developed by our committee for the better
organization of materials submitted by instructors for courses to be evaluated
for Foundations credit, will need to be refined as it is used and omissions or
clarifications are needed.
Action Taken:
Deferred until further changes deemed necessary.
_______________________________________________
Agenda Item: Decision by the committee to take further action upon the
Student Academic Rights Bill.
Discussion:
From deliberations made by our committee at our last meeting, our revisions
were offered to Justin Gary Byrd, representative from the Student
Government. He is presenting this
revised version to the Student Government.
Action Taken:
Deferred until a future meeting.
________________________________________________
Agenda Item: Follow up requested on experimental
courses. Unless an experimental course
taught in the Spring 2006 semester has been submitted
for review as a regular course and passed by review, it can no longer be taught
for Foundations credit.
Discussion:
A question was raised regarding whether we should ask those that taught
experimental courses to provide us with information on the success of the
course (such as SOIS results, etc.).
Each experimental course will now need to be resubmitted for approval
from our committee and the UCC to be classified as a Foundations course.
Action Taken:
Deferred to the next meeting
_______________________________________________
Agenda Item: A review of role of the service learning committee to
ensure that it does not conflict with the role of our committee to review
curriculum.
Discussion:
It was decided that we need a report from a representative of the Service
learning committee. We need assurance
that service learning is clearly defined, and though involving volunteer work
is distinguished as academically rigorous.
Action Taken:
Deferred to the next meeting
_______________________________________________
Agenda Item: Review whether a program in entrepreneurship
(spearheaded by the UNCGA president with funding from a foundation grant) is
desired at ECU
Discussion:
The committee needs further information about the entrepreneurship program and its
advantages for use at ECU before further action can be taken
Action Taken:
Deferred to a future meeting following additional details.
Assigned
additional duties to: Michael Brown,
Representative of the Chancellor, will attend a meeting and report back with
additional details about the program.
_______________________________________________
Agenda Item: Review process of student evaluation in Distance
Education courses to assure adherence to academic standards.
Discussion:
Questions arose concerning how tests are administered and how standards might
be compromised if students are able to cheat or given unfair advantages in
testing situations. The committee will
need more information from the Director of Distance Education courses to study
and evaluate the assessment process.
Action Taken:
Deferred to a future meeting
_______________________________________________
ADJOURNED: 2:40 p.m.
NEXT MEETING: The
Chair discussed the need to set a meeting date in October (an open date) due to
the need to discuss and resolve some agenda items early in the semester. Bailey stressed the need to bring Mike
Poteat, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, to our next meeting to speak
about three specific agenda items. The
committee agreed to meet October 23, depending upon Poteat’s availability. An alternate date was scheduled for October
30.
ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED: Poteat
will be invited to speak about three issues on our agenda: the online SOIS survey, the trial use of the
Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), and how to begin the outcomes assessment
of courses approved for Foundations credit.