During the first semester of our new core curriculum in Fall 2017, a small pilot project was conducted to evaluate student learning in Critical Thinking and Information Literacy (CTIL). The primary purpose of the project was to establish procedures for assessing student learning across all areas of the Core. Overall, this pilot project resulted in a successful procedure for assessing across the Core. Additionally, it resulted in a new process to allow the Core Assessment Team to collaborate with appropriate Core Area Representatives to generate rubrics for all Core areas. This will allow the University to fast-track student and faculty access to approved rubrics for all core areas, even if they are not scheduled to be assessed in the immediate future. Rubric creation and revision remains an ongoing process and each rubric must be approved by the faculty Core Curriculum Committee before implementation.
Findings
A small data set on student achievement in addressing CTIL competencies was collected during this project. Although the sample size was too small to report specific conclusions, the results of this project initiated discussions on the placement of these competencies in the curriculum, and whether or not we should broaden the scope of courses eligible to satisfy the Core Critical Thinking and Information Literacy requirements.
Actions
In Spring 2019, the Core Curriculum Committee assembled a Critical Thinking/Information
Literacy Task Force consisting of five faculty members from across the undergraduate academic
divisions. This task force was charged with investigating the pros and cons of several models of
CTIL and reporting their findings to the Core Curriculum Committee. With the disruption of the
pandemic, the work of the task force was suspended. In Fall 2021 a new task force was
convened to review existing models and propose changes.