HLTH 54 - Intro to Public Health - Stage 5 - Janey Skinner
Assessment
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| Assessment Description | Used a variety of measures mapped to specific SLOs, and some measures were different for in-person or online sections. Measures included Quiz (multiple choice and short answer); Forums online; short in-class essay; categorization quiz (matching); essay question on final exam; short written homework; research-based essays assessed with a rubric. In addition, Professor Annie Tse conducted a sabbatical project that included an SLO-related survey of students in online and face-to-face (F2F) HLTH 54, HLTH 53 and HLTH 33 classes, to see if the methods and adequacy of SLO attainment in the online vs. F2F environment were substantially different, based on self-report (student opinion). This was an online survey which teachers announced to the class and Annie Tse announced to students directly via email. The survey was anonymous and no extra credit was awarded (which may have contributed to a relatively low response rate.) |
| Learning Outcomes | IV. A. Define and describe public health. IV.B. Compare and contrast the bio-medical model of health to the systems perspective of public health IV. C. Define and discuss the concept of social determinants of health IV.E. Analyze epidemiological data for population health. IV. F.Identify and discuss major public health challenges of the 21st century (NOTE: course outline was updated in spring 2013 for fall 2013, but the SLOs assessed were from the course outline of record in place at the start of spring 2013. The wording of these SLOs is slightly abbreviated from the official wording simply to save space) |
| Number of Sections | 4 |
| Number of Instructors | 3 |
| Number of Students | ~120 |
Data Analysis
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| Data Summary | Our aim was to see 80% of the students scoring 80% or higher on a variety of measures (each matched to 1 or more SLOs). Our numbers for spring 2013 were (again, across multiple measures): 90%, 70%, 70%, 90%, 98%, 86%, 95%, 85%, 98%, 84%, 84%, 91% In general our students are attaining the SLOs to the degree of mastery expected (80% scoring 80% or higher on specified assignments or lines of a rubric). One of the measures of 70% was taken early in the semester (in-person section) and repeated in April, when 90% of students attained 80% correct (improvement). The data from Annie Tse's sabbatical project related to SLOs in online HLTH courses and their corresponding F2F sections were reported in August 2013 - they will be discussed and analyzed by faculty during Fall 2013 and therefore their analysis does not comprise part of this Spring 2013 report. |
| Analysis Summary | In general we found excellent attainment of student learning outcomes; in particular, students were able to articulate and apply the concept of social determinants of health and the distinction between a bio-medical and a public health approach with a high level of fluidity. |
| Next Steps Planned | We did note a few areas in the assignment prompts and/or quiz questions that could be clarified or explained better, in future. This is just basic tune-ups to pedagogy that every teacher does. One instructor also plans to create a checklist for students to fill out before handing in a paper, to help them catch common errors. This checklist will be created by spring 2014 (when that instructor, V. Legion, is next scheduled to teach HLTH 54). Also, based on first glance (August 2013) at the data from Annie Tse's survey, a slightly smaller proportion of students felt they had attained the SLO on "Analyze and discuss major public health challenges of the 21st century" (89% for that SLO vs. 97% overall). This SLO will be one of two that we focus on, in particular, in Fall 2013. |
| Learning Outcomes | ALL |
Changes
| Details | We submitted an updated Course Outline and Distance Education Addendum to Curriculum Committee in March 2013 and it was approved. The new Course Outline of record has been shared with all faculty who teach HLTH 54 regularly. Materials in the online version of HLTH 54 are regularly reviewed and updated for currency. One improvement added this semester was to add audio of the instructor reading the main materials in the course (for students who either do not read well or who can concentrate better when listening & viewing the instructions together), and to update brief video explanations of the main writing assignments in the online course. Also, a brief video discussing the SLOs was added to the syllabus. Materials in the in-person section/s of HLTH 54 are also regularly updated and new reading materials are incorporated. |
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| Learning Outcomes | ALL |
Tentative Future Plans
| Term | Fall 2013 |
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| More Details | The new course outline has 4 Major Learning Outcomes, all of which are similar to the previous MLOs. Data gathered in spring 2013 will be shared with Gayle Reznikov who didn't teach HLTH 54 that semester but is teaching in fall 2013. In particular, the data from Annie Tse's sabbatical project was received in August 2013, so we have not yet had a chance to analyze and respond to that yet - we will do that work in fall 2013. Both the F2F and online sections will focus on assessing SLO D in fall 2013. As a gross measure of this, we will see if 80% of students attain a score of 80% or greater on the Ecological Model paper and the Solutions paper, both of which allow students to dig into one specific 21st century public health challenge. We will base the 80% score on the points awarded for content of the paper, not mechanics like citations, grammar or being on time. As a more detailed measure of this, we will discuss strong and weak examples of the papers among the faculty teaching the course to get a sense of what is supporting students to analyze public health challenges using public health tools - and how we can do better. In addition, we will exchange materials for a single public health challenge that is addressed in both the online and the F2F sections - related to obesity, access to good nutrition and physical activity - to align and polish that material, and then conduct an assessment with students (either post-only or pre-post) on that unit in the course. Data will be reported and discussed this semester; further data-informed improvements will be implemented in spring 2014. |
SLO Details Storage Location
- HARD COPY - In my personal filing system (my office)
- HARD COPY - In a department filing system (department office)
- ELECTRONIC COPY - In my electronic filing system (hard drive or web server)
- V Legion & G Reznikov
Additional Highlights
I think we did well at incorporating multiple methods of assessment to get a more rounded picture of student attainment of SLOs, and in this way, also able to adapt to the needs of classroom and online teachers alike. So far our assessment shows that the majority of students are attaining a good level of mastery, so that is quite satisfying.A quote or two from student evaluation forms at the end of the semester, online sections:
"I really did learn a lot from this class. I feel I will be a better clinician as a result of the information learned in this course as I go further with my education."
"I am not a health major so much of this information, methodology, protocol, verbiage, etc. was new to me and I found it very useful to read what other people had to say and think about certain topics and how they fit into the weekly learning. The forums were the best place for this, and I did pick up some good info in the questions section. "
"Most useful part of this class was the ecological paper. it was because it taught how to evaluate and solve a problem in public health. "