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Project Coordinators
Chuck Darrah
Department of Anthropology
San Jose State University
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0113
(408) 924-5314
email: darrahc@email.sjsu.edu
Lynn Sikkink
Department of Anthropology
San Jose State University
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0113
(408) 924-5713
email: sikkink@email.sjsu.edu
Thanks to support from the CSU system, we were able to fund and host a conference of CSU Bay Area anthropology departments as a way to discuss anthropology program objectives and progress towards our assessment goals. The main benefit of the conference was that it allowed us to share ideas, material on assessment, and plans for the future as a way to collectively further our goals in assessing student learning outcomes. Faculty from four campuses (Hayward, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose) were present; in the process of planning we have had contact with two other campuses. From the conference emerged a plan to continue to work together in a number of ways. We thank the CSU system for supporting this undertaking which we hope will be of use to other CSU anthropology departments, as well as to other departments outside our discipline.
1.0 Conference Objectives
As stated in our grant proposal, the objectives for this conference focused on four main points: 1) to develop a shared set of student learning outcomes that can guide our individual programs, 2) to provide resources by which any CSU anthropology program might develop its own processes for assessing student learning outcomes for its major and graduate programs, 3) to discuss ways in which we might begin to assess specific and general education courses, and 4) to disseminate our findings as a way to aid other programs to develop assessment processes.
2.0 Preparation for the Meeting
- Prior to submitting the grant application, participants from the six CSU anthropology departments were contacted. There was strong interest even at this stage. After receiving the grant, participants were more actively recruited by individually contacting department chairs and following up on their suggestions of potential participants. Participants from Sacramento, San Francisco, Hayward, Sonoma, and San Jose were recruited; at least one participant attended from all of these campuses except Sonoma.
- A literature review was conducted to locate material on assessment, especially that relevant to the discipline of anthropology. This material came from books, journals, newsletters, and the internet; very few sources, however, were specific to anthropology. Participants were asked to contribute material from their departments or other sources. This material was collected for the conference and made available to all participants. Four articles were selected prior to the meeting as background material to help us begin our discussion at the conference. At the meeting, individuals were able to review the collected material and request copies of anything they found useful.
- After consultation with all of the participants about their respective schedules, the meeting was set for April 22-23. We agreed to meet together on Thursday evening for dinner and an informal discussion prior to a full day of discussion on Friday, April 23.
3.0 The Meeting
April 22: The eight conference participants met on Thursday evening for dinner. As many of the participants did not know each other prior to the meeting, it was a good chance to talk about issues of relevance to our respective departments and to outline, informally, some of the points we wished to address on Friday. Each participant was given a small booklet of materials as a way to organize and record our discussion.
April 23: The meeting began at 8:30 in the morning and ended at 5:00. Before lunch we began to outline our points about program objectives—because of the small size of the group we were able to accomplish this effectively as a whole, with no need for smaller working groups. We had lunch in the same room as the conference; our discussion did not break but continued on through lunch. After a short tour of San Jose State University anthropology facilities, we were able to continue our outline of program objectives, leading to proposals about program assessment. Although the meeting was formally concluded by around 4:00, the participants stayed for another hour to talk about their respective programs, and to make further comments about assessment and other general considerations. The overall ethos of this group meeting was one of cooperation, mutual respect, and sincere interest in the issues at hand. One conference participant later commented that the meeting was "fabulous"…"a valuable service"…and "important to developing (our) programs."
4.0 Cooperation and coordination steps taken by participants at the conference/Future directions
In general, there was a strong feeling that this coordination effort was extremely useful ands that we would continue these efforts in the future. In particular, we agreed to:
- Develop a listserv system/discussion group for the participants of this conference to discuss issues of learning outcomes, and also share ideas about curricular issues, etc. Sikkink is in the process of setting up the listserv for use by conference participants.
- Develop a separate listserv system for the chairs of anthropology departments of the regional CSU campuses to increase coordination and cooperation among the programs
- Develop student exchanges: agreement to refer students to other CSU departments as a way to strengthen learning outcomes—for instance, a student from SJSU might go to Sacramento to participate in an archeological field methods course; a student from Sacramento might go to SJSU to take a course in the Silicon Valley Cultures Emphasis. An internship at any of the campuses, or under the direction of any instructor, would count towards the student's major, regardless of the campus.
- Commit to plan a meeting with Joanne Craig of San Francisco State University (an anthropologist in the International Relations Program) who does workshops with faculty on how to implement a system of assessment via student portfolios. Dr. Craig has generously agreed to host an afternoon workshop for our group. The workshop is tentatively planned for September.
- In general, we wish to further the sense of camaraderie and common ground that emerged from this meeting. There was a strong agreement that we should communicate with each other and use our resources in a collaborative way so that they are optimally utilized.
Bay Area California State Anthropology Departments'
Student Learning Outcomes Conference
Meeting Schedule |
