Public Reporting from AY 22-23
Art
Our current senior majors are assessed through art writing, oral presentations, and the senior exhibit. Students earlier in the program and minors are evaluated through an early assessment, usually based on work in the foundation’s courses and an individual presentation to department faculty. Our recent students have been more successful presenting ideas orally than in writing, so to help our students improve their art writing skills, we now incorporate multiple writing assignments into all of the lower- and upper-level art history and design history courses. To help our students more adequately prepare for their senior exhibits and presentations, since Fall of 2017, we have offered Art Seminars in the fall rather than in the spring and set multiple deadlines to break projects down into smaller steps. Pandemic conditions continued to affect our courses and some of our assessments last year.
Biology
Most (nearly 100%) Bethel graduates with biology majors successfully enter a graduate program (science or health science) or are employed in a science-related field. The pandemic made it harder for our students to focus on their studies, but this semester (Fall 2022), as we have returned to a more normal environment, students can focus more on their studies. We have changed BIO481 to ensure students have more accountability for their progress. We also hope to fix our chronic problem with students “falling through the cracks” because they enroll in BIO481/482 but are actually advised by professors in other departments. We hope adding the exercise science major (with its seminar) will help.
Bible and Religion
Most of the BRL department teaching continues to focus on students taking our courses to meet requirements in the common core of our General Education program. The re-introduction of BRL157 Religion and Human Identity for the 2022-23 year will relieve some of the pressure on Intro to Biblical Studies and open the possibility of a new major requirement and assessment need.
Business
Bethel College’s bachelor of science degree in business administration is designed to expose students to skill sets in high demand for business, nonprofits, and civic organizations. Combined with a commitment to experiential learning, Bethel business students have opportunities to engage with outside speakers, work on real-world problems with local businesses, and gain valuable experience in teamwork. While the primary mission of Bethel’s business faculty is teaching, faculty recognize the importance of keeping abreast of current developments in their fields through research, consulting, speaking, and service activities.
Bethel continues to offer more Accounting courses than any other ACCK school, thus better preparing students interested in this career area for the CPA exam. Business faculty engage in ongoing continuing education; some are sought after for national speaking engagements. Currently, the Business department at Bethel College is led by three women. Recent AAUW reports suggest that females account for 20-30% of full-time faculty in business programs across the nation. It is our pleasure to be outliers in this group.
It is noted that the growing number of students entering Bethel College who identify business as their major continues to increase steadily. At the same time, a growing divide is evident between well-prepared, academically gifted students and those who enter the program less prepared and less able to complete college-level academic tasks. The department is encouraged to see additional support services for underprepared students and the hiring of athletic coaches who value the whole person.
Most business majors enroll in an external internship during their senior year. During the 2021-22 academic year, 17 students successfully completed experiential learning opportunities at for-profit and not-for-profit businesses in Newton and the surrounding area. Internship foci included accounting, marketing, graphic design, and small business management. Bethel College business majors who participated in an internship experience continued to score in the “excellent” range on the following personal competencies: professional attitude, enthusiasm, teamwork, initiative, and dependability. Bethel College business majors who participated in an internship experience continued to score in the “excellent” range on the following professional competencies: academic preparation, communication, critical thinking and leadership.
Chemistry
The Chemistry assesses the content knowledge of its Biochemistry and Molecular Biology students using standardized American Chemical Society (ACS) exams. Based on the results of the exams, the department is modifying its pedagogy to meet the needs of entering students better. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are actively engaged in research projects, and most of our students present their research findings at the annual URICA Symposium and local and national chemical conferences, such as the Midwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society and PittCon. Finally, we have placed most of our graduates over the past five years into the workforce, a professional school (medical, dental, veterinarian), or graduate school within the first year (often sooner) following graduation from Bethel College. This success has been achieved by ensuring that our students graduate knowing how to use most scientific instrumentation and the skills to be critical thinkers.
Communication Arts
Departmental assessment data suggests that we should remain vigilant about supporting students as we assist them in meeting departmental benchmarks–especially students who transfer in lower-level hours toward the major. Much of the content, theory, and skills tested in the exit exam appear to be areas of weakness for transfer students. Similarly weak for transfer students are areas of application tested in the final senior seminar project. While students fell short of the benchmarks demonstrating competence in public presentation (Goal I), demonstrable gains were noted since last year. Students continue to demonstrate forward movement toward academic writing benchmarks (Goal II), and students’ ability to articulate meaningful connections among historical, theoretical, and practical implications of communication processes (Goal III) remains on pace with our long-range plans. With only three graduates in this year’s assessment pool, the data may not be conclusive and should be re-evaluated next year when the graduate pool will be larger. While the department is pleased with our graduates’ progress toward achieving several established benchmarks, we recognize our need to give extra attention in advising and teaching to the areas where students’ scores were below the benchmarks.
Elementary Education
The elementary education assessment plan utilizes the content knowledge tests for elementary students, which cover English language arts, math, science, and social studies. The department is continuing to use assessment data to modify the program to modify the program. We will continue to emphasize the importance of learning course content necessary for passing these assessments required for licensure. [AJ1]
English
Assessment of the performance of Bethel College English majors confirms that students in this program are achieving key learning goals: 1) to engage critically with a variety of literary texts, both traditional and contemporary, remaining attentive to issues of social justice and inclusivity; and, 2) to produce a substantial body of creative and scholarly writing that demonstrates analytical skill, theoretical fluency, and critical insight.
History
Despite ongoing challenges from Covid disruptions that made classroom learning and access to research material more difficult, Bethel College history majors produced consistently high-quality work that resulted in some cases of publication in national undergraduate research journals. In all cases, their work has allowed them to proceed with their desired post-graduation plans.
History and Political Science
Ongoing challenges from COVID-19 disruptions made classroom learning and access to research material more difficult. These circumstances impacted some history and political science majors in a significant way.
Math
The Mathematical Sciences department met all the goals and measurable objectives for 2021-2022. The department is excited about the new Software Development major and hopes to maintain a consistent, full-time faculty dedicated to growing majors within the department. There is a strong interest in recruiting incoming and current students to pursue a potential Data Science minor within the department.
Music
Music Department graduates continue to meet our goals. Our graduates continue to score relatively high on comprehensive exams compared to music graduates from across the country. In addition, our graduates place well in the job market and are accepted into graduate programs nationwide. We continue to assess how we can integrate theory, history, and aural skills into our curriculum in a unified manner.
Nursing
The Department of Nursing is excited to include our 100% first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate for the graduating class 2022 in this year’s assessment report. The Department of Nursing continues to monitor student performance on holistic admission criteria compared to NCLEX performance. In addition, departmental data evaluating student performance on program-utilized standardized testing comparing NCLEX Client Needs Categories and Cognitive Levels to the overall first-time pass rates will allow for some new information for the program. The Department participated in a semester-long NCLEX item writing professional development process. In addition, the Department of Nursing works to monitor student performance on the NCLEX-RN exam as well as program-identified student outcomes for the RN-BSN program to ensure continuation of approval requirements by the Kansas State Board of Nursing and accreditation requirements by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
Psychology
We plan to continue using the marked goals 1 − 3 and corresponding objectives to assess departmental outcomes. However, we will likely change some curricular aspects that could affect the outcomes in the following assessment report, which will be adjusted if needed. Due to departmental faculty changes for both faculty lines, and the impending hire of a new faculty member for 2023-24, several curricular and assessment changes are likely in the next 1 − 3 years. We may also adjust assessment goals based on changes to the standardized ETS Psychology Area Exam in the future. Lastly, we are convinced that student growth and progress is holistic rather than discrete, and changing student demographics at the college may warrant consideration of other types of assessment instruments or learning outcomes in the coming years (e.g., more specific work-related outcome assessment).
Social Work
The Bethel College Social Work Program has been fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education since 1974. In February of 2019, the Program received reaffirmation of accreditation for the full eight years with no concerns. Annual internal assessments indicate that all nine competencies/outcomes required by CSWE are routinely met (exceeding the benchmark of having 85% or more of students score in the adequate to outstanding range). In addition to meeting competencies, the Program’s strengths include strong advising relationships between students and faculty, the advice of the Bethel College Advisory Council, and strong attention to issues of service, diversity, and social change.
Teacher Education
The Teacher Education Department regularly assesses its students and programs regarding institutional objectives and state and national standards. Institutional data demonstrate that Bethel students and graduates compare favorably with local, state, and national indicators. Affirmation of this assessment has been provided by the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) and the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) (onsite visit, March 2019). For further consumer information about the education programs, see consumer information at the following website: https://www.bethelks.edu/academics/areas-study/teacher-education
Academic Co-Curricular Assessment
Library Services
This second year assessing our co-curricular goal at the Bethel College Library was a positive and valuable experience. One assessment tool was found to be clumsy and ineffective. It will be retired and replaced with an assessment modeled after the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL’s) Project Outcome. While some results, from this tool in particular, can be interpreted as “poor,” we saw overwhelmingly positive feedback from students overall, including in results from our surveys given after one-on-one instruction sessions and library programming and the student feedback given during focus groups. We will maintain these effective strategies and implement others to maintain a balanced workload for our library staff. As staff are able, we will use student feedback to improve the library’s offerings and continue to support students in their research pursuits.
Collegian
Once again, several of the desired outcomes were not met. However, this report’s goals, outcomes, instruments, and objectives indicate that Collegian leaders have made progress toward the desired goals. We are confident that the 2021-2022 assessment report will assist us in planning for and maneuvering through the 2022-2023 academic year. We anticipate that the 2022-2023 assessment report will prove just as revealing as the 2021-2022 report and will assist us in our goal of consistent improvement. Additionally, we anticipate that a change in student leadership will result in significant changes to the student newspaper’s format, function, and reach.