Governors State University’s (GovState) College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) views assessment of student learning as a continuous and systematic process that is faculty led and administratively supported. These efforts span seven academic departments affecting 15 degree programs. Since GovState’s last December 2020 Comprehensive Evaluation and subsequent June 2022 Interim Report on assessment, CHHS has advanced its efforts to maintain an effective and approachable assessment model across all CHHS departments and programs. Selected highlights from these efforts follow below.
Ten of CHHS’ 15 degree programs maintain individual programmatic accreditations requiring the oversight and maintenance of specific assessment requirements. For example, the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program, maintains a program assessment plan governed by the program’s accreditor, The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) outlining direct and indirect measures for student success to include NPTE licensure exam pass rates (95.6% average pass rate over the past two years) and overall graduation rates (95% average over the past two years). In addition, 100% of the program’s students scored at or above entry level on the PT Clinical Performance Instrument (CPI), a measure used to evaluate student performance during their clinical experiences.
GovState’s Nursing bachelors, masters, and doctoral programs maintain a Systematic Plan of Evaluation as required by its accreditor, Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN). This detailed plan outlines the programs’ student learning outcomes, methods of assessment, expected levels of achievement, and the data collection/assessment frequency process. As an example, nursing students must “display professional leadership skills exhibiting ethical, moral, and legal behavior”. GovState’s nursing programs assess these skills in a variety of courses (NURS 8103, 8210, 8350, 8649, and 8949) with a target set to 80% or more of students will achieve a grade of 85% or higher on the signature assignments for ethics in each of the named classes. The signature assignments consist of ethics projects, a needs assessment paper, and a capstone project. Data are collected each semester the courses are offered and communicated by faculty to the department via a “Course Instructor Course Summary Sheet”, summarized by the Program Coordinator, then reviewed in Evaluation Committee meetings each Fall and Spring. Signature assignment results are reviewed, and the data are used to inform curricular improvements as a part of the programs’ continuous improvement efforts.
The Master of Health Administration (MHA) program within CHHS’ Department of Health Administration and Informatics is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Health Management Education (CAHME) which outlines a series of 22 competencies within six domains that each graduate must be able to know and apply. GovState’s MHA assessment model measures student mastery of these competencies through an initial student self-rating (pre-test at beginning of program), four signature assignments during pre-candidacy, a competency for candidacy assessment at mid-point, four signature assignments during candidacy, a field experience project assessment, a preceptor assessment, and a post-program assessment. Quantitative and qualitative data collected from these assessments are used to inform curricular quality and program improvements.