OATdb Archive - Sam Houston State University

OATdb Archive

2012 - 2013

Biology MS

Goal

Increase Knowledge Of Profession

Students will gain knowledge of the profession by gaining experience in presenting at scientific conferences and through publication.

Objective

Students Knowledge Of Publication Process

Students will be evaluated on their knowledge about the publication process.
A test that examines the students knowledge of the profession will be admistered when the student enters graduate school. After they take a course on professional aspects of biology, they will retake the exam. Student progress will be evaluated to examin knowledge of the publication process, etc.

Indicator

Exit Exam

Students will take an exit exam that asks specific questions about the publication process.

Criterion

Exit Exam - Publications

Scores will be compared to entrance exam. An increase in knowledge about the publication process will be an indicator of success.

Finding

Knowledge Of The Profession

An entrance exam (pretest) was given to all incoming MS students. The same exam was given following completion of a required course that surveys the profession of biology (Profesional Aspects). The average score (8 students) for the pretest was 32.5% and the average score for the post-test was 86.5.

Indicator

Publication Rate

Each student's publication record will be tracked throughout the MS degree.

Criterion

Publication Rate

The number of papers published following the MS graduation will be compared to number published when admitted into the program. An increase in publications over this time will indicate the student has learned about the process through direct experience.

Finding

Quantification Of Publications

Our first census of MS publications was in January 2013. We have not completed an annual cycle to quantify a change in rate.

Action

Continue Collecting Data

We will continue administer and evaluating pre and post-test data. Additional data will allow across year comparisons and allow estimates of variation in learning across MS cohorts.

1. We will continue to collect publication rate data and report on findings in the 2013-2014 cycle.
2. We will track progress across years.
3. We will encourage successful submision of theses for publication prior to graduation. These data will be tracked.

Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement The origianal plans for improvement were implemented by the previous chairs. However, many of these objectives were part of the graduation process for a MS in biology. Therefore, we succussfully completed all of the objectives for ~10 graduate students that graduated in 2013.

Because of change in the biology chair, new goals were established for the MS program. These new goals will provide quantitative data on more specific objectives. We will streamline our data collection methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of our MS program and set imporvement milestones that can be quantified and reached. See below.

Plan for continuous improvement We learned that collecting and databasing information is critical for tracking students and evaluating goals. Since various faculty direct graduate students in independent research labs a better mechanism for tracking MS success in publications is needed.

To address this, we will:
1. develop a committee to plan and implement a data collecting system
2. we will begin compiling data from previous years.
3. we will analyze change in MS success (publication) over time.