Assessment
The ISAT Program's commitment to the assessment process began with the launch of the Assessment Committee in 1995, two years after the Program's launch. Since then the ISAT faculty have been formally assessing the Program and students with the support of JMU's Center for Assessment and Research Studies (CARS). A program as rich and complex as ISAT requires a rich and varied set of data in order to shed light on its quality. Our assessment strategy involves collecting data from the following:
- Academic Skills Inventory (ASI)
Measures the degree of exposure a student has to experiences in ten academic skill areas that are relevant to science and technology students. - Attitudes Towards Learning (ATL) Scale
A self-assessment of attitudes toward learning designed to measure students' motivation on several subscales. - Epistemological Beliefs About Physical Science (EBAPS)
A forced-choice instrument designed to probe students' epistemologies- their views about the nature of knowledge and learning in the physical sciences. - Learning Styles Inventory
Addresses the way students concentrate on, process, and retain information, such as where they are on the global-analytical continuum, their preferred sensory modalities , and their needs with respect to authority and structure. - Concept Inventories in Chemistry, Physics, and Statistics
Assesses the students' grasp of fundamental concepts in chemistry, physics, and statistics. - Freshman Survey
Determines background of incoming students as to sex, high school math and science preparation, how they learned about and chose ISAT, and areas of concentration planned. - Senior Project Assessment
Measures broad technical problem solving and presentation skills, independent of the content of the Strategic Sectors. - Senior Exit Questionnaire and Exit Interviews
Solicits responses from seniors on career relevance, cohesion, breadth, adequacy of depth, cross-discipline integration, and what they learned in each segment of the curriculum. Also invites suggestions for improving the curriculum and student services, particularly academic and career advising. - Alumni Survey
Seeks the demographic background of alumni and asks them to report on how the ISAT Program has contributed to their present endeavors.
These information sources are in addition to more traditional forms of assessment such as course evaluation forms.
