Assessment Plan

(...currently under review)

Introduction

The Department of Geology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM) is committed to continually review its effectiveness and promotes the assessment of its program as part of a continuous process to achieve its mission and vision. This process will eventually result in the development of new courses that respond to societal needs, providing the students with the knowledge needed to improve their learning and the faculty with the tools that will help in the planning of more effective instruction. The assessment of student learning is the most important of the components within the department’s assessment plan. We have created an Assessment Committee consisting of various faculty members. An Assessment Coordinator was appointed with the responsibility of developing and carrying out the assessment plan.

Click the link to download the Assessment Plan
The first assessment plan was approved by the Faculty of the Geology Department on September 13 of 2004. That plan was subsequently reviewed and approved on April 8 of 2008 and again on March 11,2014. The current plan will be implemented over a 4-year period and reviewed again in Spring of 2018.

Click the link to download the Administrative Assessment Plan

The first Administrative Assessment Plan was approved by the Faculty of the Geology Department on December 8, 2015. The Plan is an iterative document that will be updated and augmented every semester to year.

UPRM Geology Department Statistics “At a glance”

The following graphs were prepared with data obtained from UPRM Office of
Institutional Research and Planning http://oiip.uprm.edu.estu.html :

The Geology department currently (2015) has a maximum freshmen enrollment of 40 students per academic year. With this restriction in mind, we have been very near capacity since 2012.

The historical high year for Geology BS degrees awarded was 2014 with 20 graduates.

The average 4-year graduation rate from 1982 to 2014 is 12.5%.
The average 6-year graduation rate from 1982 to 2014 is 14.0%.
These apparently low rates may be an artifact of students transferring out of the program because of the University policy which requires all students to declare a major upon enrollment. We do not have data in order to know whether those not graduating are transferring department or institution or if they are withdrawing from school altogether.

Nonetheless, gender comparisons can be made:
The average 4-year graduation rate from 1982-2014 is 12.2% for males and 22.0% for females.
The average 6-year graduation rate from 1982-2014 is 12.3% for males and 25.6% for females.

Purpose of the Assessment

The fundamental purpose of assessing student learning in the Department of Geology is to improve the quality of our program through a continuous revision of its educational objectives, curriculum, and program outcomes. A secondary purpose of this assessment is accountability; demonstrating to the accrediting agencies, governing bodies, constituencies, and other interested parties that we are effective in achieving the goals of our strategic plan. Our efforts will help with the institutional responsibility for producing, reporting, interpreting, and explaining learning outcomes.

This academic assessment ensures that our departmental reviews contribute in a fundamentally important way to the attainment of the Institution’s Mission. Along with the purpose in the UPRM assessment plan, we will assure that the assessment of student learning in the Department of Geology must demonstrate that our students have knowledge, skills, and competencies consistent with institutional goals and that at graduation have achieved appropriate higher education goals.

Progress Reports

The procedures, data, results, and interpretations of every semester assessment activities are summarized in a progress report that is submitted to the Dean Office of Arts and Sciences at the end of the semester. In this document a general plan of future assessment activities is also included. Here are examples the progress reports prepared in the past.

Fall 2006 Spring 2007

Questionnaires

In order to carry out our assessment we have prepared several questionnaires that help us to obtain the appropriate information. Some of them are specific for our needs and others are more general. They are available here in pdf and word formats.

To see, open the following [pdf documents] just press the link:

Geology Curriculum

Student Profile

Undergraduate Research

Alumni