March 25
From Curriculum Advisory Committee
Curriculum Advisory Committee
Minutes from the Faculty Curriculum meeting on March 26, 2008.
Faculty/Staff attending: Jeannette Bastian, Jim Baughman, Gerald Benoit, Maggie Bush, Sheila Denn, Sergio Chaparro Michelle Cloonan, Jennifer Doyle, Peter Hernon, Dan Joudrey, Em Claire Knowles, Kris Lieberman, Pat Oyler, Amy Pattee, Robin Peek, Candy Schwartz, Allen Smith, Rong Tang, Jeanne Wallace-Buckley, Linda Watkins
Pat Oyler opened the meeting at 1:30 and introduced and welcomed the students from the CAC, Laura Krier, Adrian Mitescu, and Carolyn Sager.
Ph.D. Course Waiver Proposal
Em Claire Knowles brought up the petition by a GSLIS student to waive 3 credits toward his/her Masters degree based on the prior completion of a doctoral degree in philosophy. There was discussion about the pros and cons of this, some discussion regarding terminology (waiving vs. transferring credits), and ultimately a straw vote was taken. The majority voted against allowing the waiver, and Em Claire Knowles is going to report back to the student that the faculty is not in favor of the idea.
Evaluation and Assessment
Amy Pattee spoke about a review she did of the goals/objective/assessments & learning outcomes for the GSLIS core courses and secondary core courses. She distributed a 2 page document summarizing this. Amy believes the project needs revisiting, and perhaps an attempt to re-formulate new outcomes. She defined learning outcome as the “difference between what students knew, how they behaved, and attitudes, before the course and then after.” Discussion focused on: how to measure outcomes; evaluation at course vs. program levels; specialized areas such as the archives program; use of the data. There was some discussion about how large a project this would be, and a recommendation was made by Peter Hernon to start small and move along in steps to make it less overwhelming, and to take one outcome and follow it through. A suggestion was made to begin the process by looking at the GSLIS mission and vision.
Yonsei University, Korea
Michelle Cloonan spoke of a possible joint program with GSLIS and Yonsei University in Korea. Discussion was about the advantages to Simmons of proceeding. Some advantages mentioned were ‘Simmons as a growing international presence’, GLSIS students can study in Korea during the summers. There was also a discussion of the logistics of implementation such as timing of Korean students at Simmons (Fall/Spring or summer/Fall), and what library resources would be available for the program. No decisions were made.
Additional Items
Terry Plum informed the faculty that the College has decided upon implementing an online course evaluation tool from GAP Technologies/OnlineCourseEvaluations.com, and will start a pilot program this summer. He distributed a 2 page document summarizing the decision and the benefits of the software, including a memo from Roslyn Taylor to David Dwiggins. There was much discussion about this topic, specifically regarding issues of governance and how the data would be used. There was discussion about the current methods of course evaluation, the form used by LISSA, and the RTA (Rank, Tenure & Appointments) form. LISSA has asked if they could also use the RTA form, since they prefer it to the current LISSA evaluation form. The faculty will vote on this at the April 16 faculty meeting. Terry summarized by saying the GAP software is a done deal; the College has chosen it, and GSLIS will now need to decide if they want to use it. No decisions were made and the topic will be on the April agenda again.
Pat Oyler adjourned the meeting around 3:15.
Respectfully submitted,
Carolyn Sager
