Department of Theatre Arts CSU Chico

Contact Information:
James M. Gilbert, Chair
Tel: (530) 898-6161
Fax: (530) 898-5283
Email: mgilbert@csuchico.edu


Theatre Arts Student Outcomes Assessment Plan

Theatre Arts Student Outcomes Learning Goals

1. Collaborative and interpersonal skills:
Collaboration is at the very center of process and nature of theatre. Whether the student's emphasis is performance, technical production, or design; collaboration is inherently central in the process.

2. Organizational skills:
Because theatre is a collaborative art involving the contribution of actors, directors, designers, playwrights, engineers, technicians, seamstresses, dressers, stage crews, carpenters, etc., organizational skills are required at every level in the process of making theatre happen.

3. Leadership skills:
All Theatre majors are required to participate in department productions. Undergraduate students in Theatre Arts direct full length plays, design faculty directed productions, technical direct faculty directed productions, are assigned major parts in all productions and stage manager all theatre productions. All of these activities require the practice of leadership skills.

4. Vocal and visual communication skills:
Theatre majors are required to have communication and performance skills in speech and movement and expression. Performance courses (acting, movement, mime, etc.) provide effective training in oral and visual communication.

5. Ability to comprehend, articulate, and execute aesthetic ideas and concepts:
Theatre is a combination of arts and crafts that, when brought together with intelligence and artistic skill, create an independent and unique work of art. In theatre, intellectual processes and hands-on arts and crafts blend elegantly. The Theatre Arts major works on a daily basis with problem-solving, critical thinking, aesthetic evaluation, and artistic conceptualization.

Department of Theatre Arts Assessment Implementation

Portfolio review:
Theatre Arts students are encouraged to prepare portfolios that represent their work at Chico and are designed according to the student's career goals. Guidance for the preparation of the student portfolios is considered a part of normal student advising. Folio preparation is required as a part of the upper division Career Management course usually taken during the third year in preparation for graduate school admission and job applications.

Assessment examination:
Theatre Arts administers an assessment examination to all Theatre Arts major early in their first year at Chico, and a parallel examination administered prior to graduation.

Student satisfaction survey:
Theatre Arts distributes a survey to all majors and minors each spring.

Exit interview:
An "exit interview" is conducted each spring by a faculty member from outside the department. This interview will focus on both self-evaluation of the students' work at Chico and student satisfaction with his/her education in the Theatre Arts Department.

On-going student evaluation through theatre production program.