OATdb Archive - Sam Houston State University

OATdb Archive

2013 - 2014

Family And Consumer Sciences BA/BS (Interior Design)

Goal

Student Knowledge Of Content Area

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 - 90% Pass Or High Pass

At least 90% 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

Exit Survey - Knowledge And Skills

There were four students who graduated with the BA/BS in Interior Design for the 2013-2014 cycle. There is a complete set of data for these four students. All of them passed the Exit Survey; there was one with a Low Pass (25%), two with a score of Pass (50%) and one with a score of High Pass (25%). Therefore, 100% of graduates passed the Exit Survey, and this criterion was met.

Action

Exit Survey - Knowledge And Skills

In recent years, we have struggled with how to handle this Exit Survey. It is difficult to remember to update the survey every time a change in the curriculum occurs (programs and courses in the department must continually be updated because they are pre-professional programs that serve fields that are constantly in flux), so we get to the point of administering it and realize that it is needs updating. Dr. Laura Burleson is working on a rubric whereby we would access students' logs during the internship process to determine effectiveness of course content as students applied it to the internship activities and problems. We are going to try it for a cycle with the expectation that it will lead to curricular changes and improved program effectiveness.

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 skills including appropriate use of knowledge from the program content). Both questions from this form used as indicators are derived from supervisor ratings of the intern. One of the questions 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 assistant position.

Criterion

Employer/Supervisor Evaluation 3.5+ And 80% Would Hire If Possible

At least 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

There were four students who graduated with the BA/BS in Interior Design for the 2013-2014 cycle. There is a complete set of data for these four students. The employers/supervisors gave them all (100%) ratings of 5 on a 5-point scale, and they were, in fact, all excellent students. Therefore, this criterion was met.

Action

Employer/Supervisor Evaluation

We believe it is important to retain this evaluation instrument and to seek this sort of feedback from the business supervisors. We are hoping to be able to group the comments they provide in order for this feedback to be applied to the program and therefore lead to program improvement.

Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement We decided to eliminate the options for "yes" and "yes, hire with reservations" and go with simply "yes" and "no." However, instead of using the fourteen professional skills noted on the evaluation instrument as a means of evaluating content area knowledge and skills, we developed a different plan that will be explained in the section below.

The marketing funds were put to good use! One of the reasons this cohort of graduates is small has to do with the timing of the accreditation for interior design. During the time leading up to the accreditation, some of the students who were very much wanting to graduate from an accredited program transferred to other institutions that already had accredited programs. Also during this time, there was a downturn in construction activity in the Houston area. However, now that the program is accredited and the construction activity has greatly increased, numbers of students in the lower-level interior design courses have improved significantly.

The department did participate in the bid for NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) accreditation, although a final decision has not yet been rendered. Dr. Laura Burleson, Program Director for Interior Design, was involved in writing both the interior design portion of the self-study and, more recently, a response to the report of the site visit team.

Plan for continuous improvement The program will continue its recruitment efforts, while at the same time it is planning a sophomore review. The sophomore review will mean that at the end of the sophomore year, faculty will review each student's work and decide on the top twenty students who will go forward to junior studio. This is a common practice in many art and design programs.

In recent years, we have struggled with how to handle the various program Exit Survey data. It is difficult to remember to update the survey every time a change in the curriculum occurs (programs and courses in the department must continually be updated because they are pre-professional programs that serve fields that are constantly in flux), so we get to the point of administering it and realize that it is needs updating. Dr. Laura Burleson is working on a rubric whereby we would access students' logs during the internship process to determine effectiveness of course content as students applied it to the internship activities and problems. We are going to try it for a cycle with the expectation that it will lead to curricular changes and improved program effectiveness.