OATdb Archive

2008 - 2009

Bearkats Read To Succeed

Goal
Common Experience
Provide a common intellectual experience amoung students, faculty, staff, and administration.

Objective
Authors' Forum
University community will attend the Authors' Forum.

Indicator
Attendance Numbers
Head counts taken at each program of the Author's Forum.

Criterion
Attendance
Head count for the two-day event will be over 500.

Finding
Attendance
Over 800 heads were counted at the events over 2 days.

Action
Author's Forum
Although we reached our objective of having over 800 people attend the events, this does not truly assess anything. We will be rethinking this objective for 2009-10.

Objective
Books Distributed
Books will be distributed to first-year students, faculty who request an examination copy, staff and administration who request a copy to discuss with students.

Indicator
Distribution Lists
Lists of students, faculty, staff, and administration who received common readers.

Criterion
Books
Counts will be taken for each group (students, faculty, staff, and administration).

Finding
Books Distribution List
Books were distributed to 2,031 students during Freshman Orientation and afterwards to approximately 50 freshmen who did not attend a summer orientation session. Books were distributed to 175 faculty/staff/administration.

Action
Books Distributed
Although books were distributed to a good number of people, this does not truly assess anything. We will be rethinking this objective for 2009-10.

Objective
Classes
The common reader text will be used in classes across the campus.

Indicator
Faculty Survey
Faculty members who received a copy of the common reader will be surveyed as to whether or not they used the book and how they used it in the past year.

Criterion
Courses
Of the faculty members who obtained an examination copy of the common reader, the majority of them will use the book in at least one course.

Finding
Faculty Survey
There was not a good return rate of the survey of the faculty who obtained a book to integrate into their curriculum.

Action
Faculty Survey
The faculty who obtained a book to use in their classes did not respond to a end of the year survey concerning how they used the book in their classes. We will search for a better means of assessing how faculty are using the book in their classes.

Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement
Plan for continuous improvement The Bearkat to Read program has just completed its first year in existence. The data collected in the first assessment cycle was designed to generate participation benchmarks. It is clear that these measures on their own do not provide measures of effectiveness. It is the intention of this year's assessment process to start the process of developing effectiveness measures. For the 2009-2010 academic year, there will be a reading assessment (most likely the Nelson-Denny) to assess reading rate, reading comprehension, and vocabulary of the SAM 136 students. This assessment also infers critical thinking skills. There will also be an pre- and post- survey that will be given to all SAM 136 students. We will continue to count numbers of people attending events and obtaining books, but not as a true assessment of the program.

Sam Houston State University | A Member of The Texas State University System