How is our assessment program structured?

Each program in the College of Agriculture has unique needs, goals and resources. While we are uniform in the way we report our assessment efforts, each department is encouraged to find its own best way to assess learning and to improve from that process of assessment. Click on the icon beside each entry to examine:

our organizational chart and annual calendar of assessment activities and programs to stakeholders.
our assessment program coordinators and standing committee.
our course syllabi stating learner outcomes, and how these course-level outcomes are measured, reported and used.
how our system of data collection is sustained over time.
our annual reports to teachers and planners of our assessment program, in which the "feedback loop" is detailed.
our documented changes in learning caused by changes in curriculum, academic and support services.
how we have communicated to stakeholders the changes in learning enabled by the assessement practices of our program.
how assessment committee members work together within and between departments and programs to facilitated and improve assessment activities.

Organizational chart and annual calendar

Organizational Chart
Department Chair - General oversight of outcomes assessment
Coordinator Horticulture Resource and Career Center	Outcomes Assessment Committee	Curriculum Committee
Oversight of data collection, maintenance of records	Formulation of OA plan, preparation of surveys, analysis of data, communication with faculty	Implementation of changes in curricula based on OA data
Annual Calendar of Assessment Activities
April - May	Exit interviews by Department Chair with graduating seniors Outcomes surveys completed by students in senior seminar (Hort 497)
May - June	Meeting of OA committee to assess student outcomes and to present an annual report to the faculty
Nov - Dec	Exit interviews by Department Chair with graduating seniors Senior survey given, with results returned to the teaching faculty at a department faculty meeting shortly thereafter

Outcomes assessment committee

The outcomes assessment committee is Loren Stephens, Chair, Rajeev Arora, Nick Christians, Kathleen Delate, David Hannapel, Barb Osborn (faculty). The two student representatives are the current presidents of Hort Club and Turf Club.

Course syllabi with learner outcomes

Course syllabi are available for viewing on our departmental website. Most courses have a course syllabus displayed during the semester that the course is being taught. Display of learner outcomes is at the discretion of each instructor, but all instructors are required to have developed learner outcomes for their classes. For course webpages that do not have syllabi and/or learner outcomes displayed, please contact the individual instructor and they will be happy to provide that information.

System of data collection and annual reports

Outcomes assessment data is collected each academic year. At the end of that year, the data is compiled into an annual report, distributed first to the Department Chair and the Curriculum Committee, then to the Department of Horticulture faculty.

Documented changes in learning

Our hope and intent is to document these changes during subsequent years in our annual reports.

Communication to our stakeholders

This website will serve as our primary means of communicating changes in learning to our stakeholders.

Coordination of assessment committees

Outcomes assessment within the Department of Horticulture will continue to be shared among the Department Chair, the Curriculum Committee, and the Outcomes Assessment Committee. In addition to informal coordination among these entities, the annual report by the Outcomes Assessment Committee will be the means of formally coordinating our assessment activities for the coming year.