Tools of the Trade

History of General Education Outcome Five

The effort to find a method of assessing Lakeland Community College's effectiveness at teaching a set of general education outcomes began in 2001. A committee including faculty and administrators, called GETForce (General Education Task Force), was established. After determining outcomes and the accompanying measures (Performance Indicators), the committee began working on rubrics as a means of assessing student work.

Lakeland purchased Foliotek e-portfolio software as the utility for accessing and managing student work. For the college it functions as an anonymous storage bin of work for use in assessing institutional success in teaching the General Education Outcomes. For the students it functions as a means to create work portfolios for prospective employers to view (with student permission).

Library faculty championed the Information Literacy Outcome. Lakeland Library faculty offered the first Information Literacy Faculty Workshop in Assignment Design, "Incorporating Information Literacy Skills to Meet General Education Outcomes" in February of 2002.

Collaborating with Faculty

1. Develop lessons, website, reach out to faculty through liaison program
2. Faculty Workshops began in 2002 through 2006
   • Excellence in Teaching Faculty Challenge Grants for Stipends, Points to Certificate program, food, handouts etc.
   • Market Workshop via campus email, flyers, liaison contact, college bulletin board, etc.
   • Pre-workshop email with agenda, article to stimulate conversation, request for class assignment to revise and worksheet to be used in revision
   • Developed presentation which included:
     • Introduction to GEO process by Library Department Chair
     • Library Services to Faculty Booklet
     • Explanation of GEO process and definitions for GEO 5
     • Conversation about article chosen to illustrate the need for GEO 5
     • Demonstration of GEO 5 website and selected assignment templates
     • Group work on least adaptable assignment
     • Group discussion of their adaptation
   • Assessment of presentation's success
   • Follow-up with Faculty attendees' questions, input
3. Build on Faculty response - share their assignments
4. Liaisons continue to collaborate with Faculty

Implementation of GEO 5

In preparation for this year's Faculty Workshops, librarians gathered assignments faculty had been using that addressed GEO 5, either of their own invention, or based on the library templates. We found the Information Literacy General Education Outcome already being addressed through assignments and activities in many departments including Biology, Physics, Nursing, Engineering, English, Counseling, Pyschology and ISYS. Examples of some of those assignments can be seen by clicking on Sample Faculty Assignments link above.

Foliotek will be the e-portfolio software used to store student work for assessing the success of Lakeland's ability to convey the General Education Outcomes to its students. Uploading artifacts to the e-portfolio began this fall with four classes. No evaluation can be made as data collection for comparing progress for GEO 5 is incomplete.

Action Plan for 2006-2007:

• To involve and obtain input from faculty at every step of the general education process
• To embed general education outcomes into the academic culture and curriculum
• To measure the effectiveness of the college, department/program and individual courses in meeting the general education outcomes