ARCH 101 - Architecture Design Studio I - Stage 5 - Jerry Lum

Assessment

Assessment Methods
  • Analysis of exam, quiz, or homework items linked to specific SLOs
  • Assignments based on rubrics (such as essays, projects, and performances)
  • Direct observation of performances, practical exams, group work
  • Student self-assessments (such as reflective journals and surveys)
  • Capstone projects or final summative assignments
  • Student Learning Portfolios
Assessment DescriptionTwo sections beginning with 48 preregistered students total; 51 students total by first half of the semester; finishing with 49 students total at the end of the semester.

Each student submits two Learning Portfolios: 1.) for midterm grade assessment; and 2.) for final grade assessment. Each portfolio contains all work produced in written, drawing, and modeling forms. Written reflections address student learning process that not only focuses on the development of one's own design process of thinking and making; and the development of one's expressive and responsive tectonic language, but also one's acclimation experience to one's first exposure to a rigorous design studio environment. During the last half of the semester, students work in teams to design and construct full-size environmental installations in the courtyard and hillside.

Questions related to this final project include:

To what three significant site factors does your design respond and how?

How does your installation satisfy all of the Program Requirements?

Identify examples of professional work that inspired your design approach and specifically explain how each was informative.

Analyze, assess, and document the kit parts used in your final constructed installation that demonstrate a systematic approach to design and construction.

What gaps in knowledge and experience were bridged between small-scale representations completed in the studio environment and full-size constructed work built on site in the real world?
Learning OutcomesALL
Number of Sections2 sections with 49 students
Number of Instructors1
Number of Students49 students

Data Analysis

Data Shared With
  • Instructors of the same course (at CCSF)
  • Faculty and staff within our department
  • Students, invited design professional as final project guest jurors
Data Sharing Methods
  • Face-to-face meetings
  • Email
  • Website review and commentary
  • Shared document files, student digital portfolios published on www.issuu.com
Data SummaryAll student teams successfully completed their full-size constructed environmental installations either in the courtyard or hillside. These projects on the whole benefitted from past semester projects which served as inspirations and standards to achieve; and thus were more complex and sophisticated than ever in terms of design, engineering, constructed craft. 4 out of the 10 team projects (40 percent) demonstrated excellence; 3 (30 percent) were very good; and 3 (30 percent) had obvious challenges in terms of developing a responsive design language and site relationships.

While all students improved through an iterative process of thinking and making, approximately twenty-five percent have substantive challenges in articulating their design rationale in relevant, substantive, and organized verbal, written, and visual forms.

As demonstrated through their work and Learning Portfolios, 100 percent of the students have a keener awareness of their natural and built environments informed by an expanded design language, and repetitive practice and reflection.

At least 50 percent of students continue to have time management issues that undermine their capacities to fully achieve project goals and deadlines. 15 percent have substantive issues that lessen their demonstrated capacities to meet SLO's.
Analysis SummaryThe breakdown of final team project assessments are correlated with two major factors: 1.) the degree of finalizing major design decisions in studio prior to moving to outdoor sites; and 2.) level of collaborative skills developed on site during construction. Those that excelled demonstrated high levels of both factors; and those who may have done better had issues in one or both areas.

Students who demonstrate successful critical thinking, marked improvement in design work, and communicate in an articulate, relevant, and organized manner generally are older and better prepared students who are both inspired and committed to their course studies. Students who produced excellent work always produced a greater quantity of work on a consistent basis. Again, quantity leads to quality through focused and repetitive practice informed through frequent feedback from the instructor and peers; and cycles of careful observation, analysis, self assessment, and concluding. Understanding the meaning and process behind the assigned tasks informs student learning. Achieving a level of technical efficacy in the use of design tools and methods in both analog and digital media provides more opportunities for students to find their successes in diverse ways.
Next Steps PlannedThe major issues impacting student learning outcome successes in this first semester design studio course are related to having too many competing conflicts during the semester that are academic, work, and personal in nature. During the first week of the semester, guidance and assessments will be given to create the greatest potential for each student to achieve learning outcome successes. Student values related to the course will be ascertained and redirected towards a more intrinsic need to achieve mastery, purpose, and autonomy rather than through the obtainment of external validations, e.g. grades. Throughout the course, guidance will continue to focus holistic and reductive meanings with instructor demonstrations and presentations meant to maintain and heighten inspiration.
Learning OutcomesALL.

Changes

DetailsSketchUp, a digital tool for exploring, analyzing, and envisioning conceptual design ideas was integrated into the curriculum.

The balance of responsibility between instructor and students was altered systematically throughout the semester with more instructor guidance in the beginning to more student responsibility towards the end of the semester. This initially introduced successful approaches to design problems through instructor demonstrations and presentations; and then allowed students to apply these and experience the impact of their decision making and actions.
Learning OutcomesALL

Tentative Future Plans

TermFall 2013
Activities
  • Assessment (measurement) of outcomes
  • Analysis and discussion of assessment data and next steps
  • Implementation of planned changes and reassessment
More DetailsDevelop and conduct surveys and assignments that measure both a student's assessment of learning preparedness (background, relevant history, frequency of practice and activities related to research, critical thinking and writing, academic discipline, level of reading and questioning, inspiration and commitment, creating and crafting products, etc.); and actual performance levels in these same areas.

Conduct survey at beginning of the semester and then at midterm and towards the end of the semester to observe change.

Increase practice opportunities with frequent constructive feedback in these areas to promote positive change through repetition.

Repeat these activities across multiple semesters to identify what works better as measured against student learning outcome successes.

SLO Details Storage Location

Additional Highlights

Intense participation in the SLO assessment process has heightened my curiosity and sensitivities related to student learning, promoting more research and exploration during each semester. Understanding each student better allows me to utilize strategies to guide them towards more effective and meaningful learning. Informing students of research results related to diverse facets of learning from neuroscience and cognitive psychology underscores the value of both frequent and sustained practice; and the constant development of language skills to enhance understanding, increase the number and rate of relevant design thinking connections, and build confidence based on a demonstrated and developing track record of academic successes.

The result of this is two-fold: 1.) the final projects of designed and constructed full-size environmental installations are better than ever; and 2.) the number of compelling student Learning Portfolios are increasing over past semesters. More students than not express in their written reflections the high level of their academic accomplishments accompanied by the joy of learning. Consequently, more students than ever are inspired and looking forward to the challenges of their next design studio course!

Underscoring all of this is the rise in retention rates. Traditionally, first semester design studio students have an attrition rate of fifty percent or greater. This semester with more students than ever before (twice as much as the usual fifteen students per course section), the attrition rate was 12.5 percent (out of a maximum number of 56 registered students, 49 remained; of the 49 remaining, 46 or 94 percent of the students are eligible to go on to ARCH 102, the next design studio course in a sequence of three).

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