OATdb Archive

2009 - 2010

Family And Consumer Sciences BS (Interior Design)

Goal
Intern Evaluation
The Interior Design Program will graduate students who meet the expectations of employers in the profession of interior design.

Objective
Demonstration Of Applied Professional Competence
The students will demonstrate professional competence and the ability to apply what they have learned (egs., appropriate product knowledge, knowledge of business procedures, knowledge of industry systems) in various aspects of interior design.

Indicator
Employer/Supervisor Evaluation
The supervisor evaluation form for interior design interns evaluates three skill areas (personal skills, interpersonal skills, and professional characteristics including appropriate use of knowledge from the program content). Both questions from this form used as indicators are essentially overall supervisor ratings of the intern. One of them rates the interns on a Likert-type scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest rating and 5 being the highest rating. The other is a "yes-no" indicator of whether the employer would hire the intern in the company for an entry-level management position. Internship is a requirement for degree completion in this program, so all interior design students are evaluated in this way. The instrument, which includes the supervisor rating of the intern that will be extracted and reported, was developed by the department faculty as a whole. Instruments used by other family and consumer sciences/interior design colleges and departments were reviewed in the development of the instrument. The attached instrument was designed to be generic for all programs in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences that require this type of internship and is published in the Internship Handbook, which serves as the textbook for the internship courses (FCS 469). The other programs that use this same form are food service management, general family and consumer sciences (without a teaching certificate), and fashion merchandising.

Criterion
Employer/Supervisor Evaluation 3.0+ And 80% Would Hire If Possible
80% of business supervisors of interior design interns will give the intern a rating of 3.5 or higher on a 5.0 scale and 80% of business supervisors will indicate that they would hire the intern given the availability of a suitable entry-level management position in the company.

Finding
Employer/Supervisor Responses
Only one student completed the BS in interior design during the December 2009-May 2010 period. This student was given a rating of 5 on a 5-point scale, so this goal was achieved at 100%.  In addition, this student's business supervisor stated that she would hire the intern given the availability of a suitable, entry-level management position within the company, so this portion of the goal also was met at 100%.

The one student received a perfect evaluation.  Generalizing from responses to other programs' responses reported the following: poor punctuality, request for personal leave, cell phone use, time management etc.  Although we believe we repeatedly address professional characteristics, it is obviously an area in which we need to stress them even more strongly.

Action
Employer Evaluation Data
The finding associated with this goal indicates that this interior design intern was well-prepared for the job mrket and was deemed worthy of employment by her supervisor, an interior design professional.  However, there is always room for improvement.  Internship supervisors from SHSU will strive to uncover ways in which the program can be improved through extended conversation with business supervisors. One obvious area is in professional behavior.

Goal
Student Knowledge Of Content Area
Students graduating from the interior design program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level interior design positions.

Objective
Demonstration Of Content-Area Knowledge And Skills
Students graduating from the interior design program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level interior design positions.

Indicator
Exit Survey - Knowledge And Skills
The Exit Survey for interior design majors includes multiple-choice and short-answer sections that test retention of course material and a case study that applies directly to food service management; it is graded on a pass/fail basis. (Each program area has multiple-choice, short answer, and other questions that are specific to that program content.) To develop this instrument, faculty in the content area reviewed course and program objectives and chose questions from exams that reflected important concepts that students should retain. The test is used repetitively and the scoring is consistent. For security reasons, the "test" portion (multiple-choice questions, short essay questions, and case study) is not attached. However, this document is available in the chair's office.

Criterion
Exit Survey - Knowledge And Skills - 80% Pass Or High Pass
80% of students who complete the interior design program's Exit Survey will score a grade of Low Pass, Pass or High Pass on the content portions of the exam.

Finding
Student Knowledge Of Content Area
Only one student earned the BS degree in interior design during the period of December 2009 - May 2010, and that student attained a score of Pass on the content portion of the Exit Survey.  Therefore, this goal was met at 100%.

Typically, students to do well on the case study which is an essay format.  However, they do more poorly on multiple-choice items which requires sufficient knowledge to recognize appropriate solutions to the given item.  Deep learning rather than shallow learning can be achieved through more active strategies.

Action
Student Knowledge Of Content Area
This finding shows that this goal was met.  With only one student in the program, this finding shows more about this one student than it does about program delivery of content.

Goal
Computer Literacy
The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will graduate students who have performed satisfactorily in the area of computer literacy through computer-based assignments in courses that are required of all FCS majors.

Objective
Computer Literacy
Students will meet university requirements for computer literacy through assignments in two courses that are required of all undergraduate majors in the department. When it was decided to eliminate the requirement of a basic computer literacy course as part of the undergraduate core at SHSU, faculty in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences decided that, to assure competency in this area, students would be required to complete specific assignments in FCS 268 (a written assignment requiring use of a word-processing program and a budget assignment requiring the use of a spreadsheet) and FCS 462 (a presentation using PowerPoint). Satisfactory completion of these three assignments will indicate achievement of basic computer literacy skills that students are projected to need as they graduate from FCS programs and enter the world of work.

Indicator
Computer Literacy Assignments
Students who graduate from undergraduate programs in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will satisfactorily complete three assignments in courses required of all undergraduate majors in the department: a word-processed assignment and a budget prepared using a spreadsheet in FCS 268 Consumer Education and a presentation involving use of PowerPoint in FCS 462 Presentation Techniques.

Criterion
Computer Literacy Assignments - At Least 3.0
90% of program majors who take the courses FCS 268 and FCS 462 during the 2009-2010 academic year will score 3 or better on a 5-point scale with 5 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest score on the three assignments that are required to meet this computer literacy competency. Examples of assignment sheets for these three assignments and rubrics for grading them are attached.

Finding
Computer Literacy
This data was difficult to collect and was collected on all of the undergraduates from the department who took the department's two foundation courses, FCS 268 and FCS 462, a requirement of all undergraduate students in the department for the 2009-2010 academic year.  In FCS 268 undergraduate students complete an assignment using an Excel spreadsheet to organize information related to a monthly budget analysis.  80.6% of students enrolled in FCS 268 met the rating of 3 or better on a 5-point scale.  In FCS 462 undergraduate students complete several writing assignments that use a word-processed format and develop three visual presentations using a PowerPoint format.  The writing assignments require students to use titles, page layouts, justifications, appropriate fonts, spacing, spell-check, bullets, bolding of fonts, italics, and underlining.  100% of students met the rating of 3 or better on word-processed assignments.  The PowerPoint assignments require the students to design the background; use text, illustration and clip art; nd incorporate animation.  Students also must present the PowerPoint assignment in class to an audience of their peers.  89.8% of students in that course met the rating of 3 or better on a 5-point scale.

From the percentages, it is obvious tha students have more difficulty with database management and PowerPoint Presentations than they do with word-processing.


Action
Computer Literacy
This goal was not met, although over 80% of all undergraduate students in the two courses during the 2009-2010 academic year were successful in that areas that impact computer literacy competency.  At least some of the problem was seen in the collection of the data.  Beginning with the Summer I 2010 session, the department chair will work with those teaching FCS 268 and FCS 462 to verify that data is collected in a way that they can be easily sorted to determine whether the computer literacy requirement is met for each individual program and at the level set by the criterion. More instruction is necessary in the areas of database management and PowerPoint presentations.


Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

Plan for continuous improvement The interior design programs have been through a substantial curricular review and all of the changes that were deemed appropriate and necessary have been implemented.  A Council on Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) site visit is tentatively scheduled for April of 2011.  Success in program accreditation should lead to substantial program growth.  A new faculty member was hired this past year and he has worked to schedule visits to architectural firms and design facilities in the Houston area.  During this past year, senior students worked on a ShowRise project with Houston area designers, and a smaller group worked with a Houston-area builder to design housing for veterans with combat-related disabilities.  There seems to be a current trend for interior design majors to complete the BA as opposed to the BS degree, and that could explain the low number of graduates in this program.  Foreign-language courses offered in an on-line format through community colleges in the State of Texas have facilitated this trend.  The programs (BA and BS) are looking forward to completion of the accreditation process in the coming year.

Weaknesses that emerged through the assessment process included:  1) students do more poorly on multiple-choice items which requires sufficient knowledge to recognize appropriate solutions. Active learning strategies will likely contribute to deep learning rather than shallow learning; 2) professional behavior in the workplace must be driven home as a necessity; and 3) more instruction is necessary in the areas of database management and PowerPoint presentations.  We will incorporate more active learning and instruction on database management and PowerPoint presentations, as well as emphasize professional behavior, in our classes.