Students graduating with a BA in Geogrpahy must demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of location, place, regions, movement, and human-environment interactions
Objective
Students Will Demonstrate An Awareness Of Significant Geographic Themes
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the basic components of a geographical perspective and will recognize major geographic themes.
Indicator
Successful Completion Of Geography Comprehensive Exam
All students complete a common final comprehensive exam on the foundations of geography.
Criterion
Passing Rate
The average score of Geography students will be at least a 75% on this exam.
Finding
Geography Exam
The average score was 52%. 78% answered factual knowledge questions correctly. 86% answered science terminology questions correctly. 78% answered scientific inferences questions correctly. Only 32% answered physical laws questions correctly, 32% answered graph interpretation and reasoning questions correctly and 22% answered correlation versus causation questions correctly.
Action
Geography Exam
Since the "Understanding that nature is governed by physical laws" had low scores across the board, the department will enhance our emphasis on this concept throughout our courses. "Graph interpretation and inference/reasoning" also had low scores, which surprised us because students should receive this information throughout highschool and college. Thus, we will stress this more in our laboratories.
Objective
Students Will Demonstrate An Understanding Of The Foundational Concepts Of Maps
Students will be able to utilize maps and understand concepts related to maps.
Indicator
Maps Exam
Students will correctly answer the embedded questions on the comprehensive final exam for the Maps Use and Map Interpretation class.
Criterion
Map Exam
70% of students will correctly answer the embedded questions on the comprehensive map exam.
Finding
Map Exam
75.8% of students answered the questions concerning Knowledge of the Principles of GPA correctly, 76% correctly answered the Air Photo Knowledge questions, 83.9% correctly answered the Scale questions, 78.6% correctly answered the Area Measurement questions, 67.8% correctly answered the Slope Determination questions, 75% correctly answered the Sun/Earth Relationship questions, 76.3% correctly answered the Map Types/Map Properties questions, and 69.6% correctly answered the Coordinate Types questions. Thus, students had the most difficulty on the following areas: Slope Determination and Coordinate Types.
Action
Map Knowledge
The department will focus more of the class on the topics of Slope Determination and Coordinate Types. Additionally, the faculty will meet to decide other pedagogical strategies to use to improve the understanding of these two areas.
Objective
The Student Will Be Able To Demonstrate An Understanding Of Cultural Geography
The student will be able to demonstrate an understanding of cultural geography, including cultural diffusion, human and environment interaction, globalization and popular culture, race and ethnicity, and linguistic and religious diversity.
Indicator
Cultural Geography Exam
Students will correctly answer the embedded questions on exams throughout the semester that address cultural geography. The faculty decided on 9 foundational concepts in cultural geography. Each of these was tested in GEO 330 with embedded questions.
Criterion
70% Of Students Will Correctly Answer The Embedded Questions
70% of students will correctly answer the embedded questions that pertain to cultural geography.
Finding
Cultural Geography Exam
70% of the students correctly answered the Relative and Absolute Location questions, 60% correctly answered the Nature of Diffusion Processes questions, 68% correctly answered the Migration questions, 65% correctly answered the Cultural Barriers to Diffusion questions, 73% correctly answered the Cultural Regions questions, 61% correctly answered the Human and Environment Interaction questions, 60% correctly answered the Globalization and Popular Culture questions, 65% correctly answered the Spatial Dimensions of Race/Ethnicity, and 59% correctly answered the Linguistic/Religious Diversity questions. Overall, students did not do as well as we would have liked.
Action
Cultural Geography
There were several areas of concern, but we decided to work on three of the greatest areas of concern: Linguistic/Religious Diversity, Globalization and Popular Culture and the Nature of Diffusion Processes. We will refocus assignments and lectures to give these areas more emphasis.