Students graduating from the interior design program will have the knowledge and skills required for entry-level positions in interior design.
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 management in 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 interior design; it is graded on a pass/fail basis. (Each program area has multiple-choice, short answer, and identification 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 identification items) 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
100% of students (5 out of 5) who earned the BA in interior design during the period August 2010 through May 2011 attained a score of Pass or High Pass on the content portion of the Exit Survey (4 attained a score of Pass and one attained a score of High Pass). Students did well on the case study which is an essay format. However, again this year they did not do as well on multiple-choice items which require adequate knowledge to identify appropriate solutions to a given item. Examination of specific items indicates that areas of student weaknesses were product knowledge and business procedures.
Action
Student Knowledge Of Content Area
Although last year we said we would revisit the rubric to determine if revision would provide more information, we were not able to do so. Thus, this will remain our goal this year as well. However, we were able to examine scoring of individual items which showed some slight weakness in areas of product knowledge and business practices.
Goal
Internship Supervisor Evaluation
The Interior Design Program will graduate students who meet the expectations of employers in the profession of interior design during their internships.
Objective
Demonstration Of Applied Professional Competence
The student 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 design 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 Evaluation 3.0+ And 80% Would Hire If Possible
Employer evaluation ratings were available on all 5 of the students who earned a BA in interior design during August 2010 through May 2011. All of them earned a score of 3.5 or higher, and all but one earned a score of 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale. Therefore, this goal was achieved at 100%. In addition, all but one of the 5 supervisors would hire the intern given the availability of a suitable, entry-level position within the company, so this portion of the goal was met at 80%. The same student earned the lower score (3.5/5) and was not considered suitable for hire into an entry-level position. Before internship, this student had decided not to pursue interior design as a career upon graduation, and no doubt this change in career goal was communicated to internship supervisors. Overall, feedback indicates that student weaknesses were in the areas of product knowledge and business practices.
Action
Employer/Supervisor Responses
The finding associated with this goal indicates that interior design interns going out into the job market are well-prepared and are deemed worthy of employment by their supervisors in the interior design industry. However, there is always room for improvement. Internship coordinators from SHSU will strive to uncover ways in which the program can be improved through extended conversation with the business supervisors. One obvious area is in the commitment to the profession, at least through graduation. Other areas include product knowledge and business processes. This information will be used to upgrade those areas in courses throughout the interior design curriculum.
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 Assignments
These students did well with the computer literacy assignments. The data collection process was changed so that a single score on each student was calculated, using Excel spreadsheet-based assignments, word-processed assignments, and PowerPoint assignments. 100% of students met the rating of 3 or better -- of the five students in this program, one scored 4, one scored 4.5, and 3 scored 5, all on a 5-point scale.
Action
Computer Literacy Assignments
100% of students in this program met the university's requirements for computer literacy as part of the undergraduate curriculum. However, the instructors who teach the course believe that additional work in the area of database management is needed.