Outcomes Assessment

Student learning outcomes and assessment methods for the graduate program

Broad Program Learning Goals for this program:

  1. Advanced research competence, including theoretical, conceptual, and empirical skills in a subfield of psychology.
  2. Advanced teaching competence.

Student Learning Outcome

Assessment Methods

1.  Graduate students will demonstrate mastery in literature review skills within a subfield of psychology, demonstrating mastery in identifying and reviewing the appropriate literature, with a recognition of the difference between finding some literature and gaining mastery of the subfield.This outcome will be evaluated via PhD student master's and dissertation projects.  Student projects will be rated on a five point scale in relation to their mastery of this outcome (1=inferior, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent).  We expect 80% of students to get a 3 or better.
2.  Graduate students will demonstrate mastery in designing and conducting a study.This outcome will be evaluated via PhD student master's and dissertation projects.  Student projects will be rated on a five point scale in relation to their mastery of this outcome (1=inferior, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent).  We expect 80% of students to get a 3 or better.
3.  Graduate students will demonstrate mastery in data analyses and interpretation.

This outcome will be evaluated via PhD student master's and dissertation projects.  Student projects will be rated on a five point scale in relation to their mastery of this outcome (1=inferior, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent).  We expect 80% of students to get a 3 or better.

Additionally, this will be evaluated by student passing rates in a two course plus two lab sequence in graduate-level statistics and design. At least 80% will pass this course the first time they take it.

4.  Graduate students will demonstrate mastery in integrating study findings within a larger theoretical and empirical literature.This outcome will be evaluated via PhD student master's and dissertation projects.  Student projects will be rated on a five point scale in relation to their mastery of this outcome (1=inferior, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent).  We expect 80% of students to get a 3 or better.
5.  Graduate students will demonstrate mastery in critically evaluating and integrating major theoretical positions and empirical findings. They need to identify major theories and questions about those theories. They need to be able to explain why particular empirical studies support or do not support those theories. They need to be able to identify the missing pieces.This outcome will be evaluated via a written and oral comprehensive examination. Student exams will be rated on a five point scale in relation to their mastery of this outcome (1=inferior, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, 5=excellent). We expect 80% of students to get a 3 or better.  We also expect 80% of students to get 75% or better on the overall written and overall final (written and oral) scores (out of 100%).
6.  Graduate students will demonstrate mastery in professional activities of psychologists: writing up results that follow the writing conventions valued in Psychology; presenting research results; obtaining grants and awards; and conducting preliminary research work.Each PhD student completes an end-of-year evaluation that include a list of all research activities and is awarded a research productivity score based on year in program. At least 70% of students will obtain a research rating of satisfactory, good, or exemplary.
7.  Graduate students will demonstrate mastery in preparing and presenting course material for course lecture and discussion.

Each PhD student who teaches a course for the department is first required to complete a Teaching Seminar where they learn how to develop and teach a course; and are evaluated on a mock lecture. All graduate students will complete this seminar with a passing grade.

Each PhD Student who teaches a course is formally evaluated by a psychology faculty member for each course taught. A written evaluation of the student's performance is made during the student's lecture. At least 70% of students will obtain a mean rating across evaluation categories (course development, lecture organization, lecture content, lecture delivery, and classroom management or at least 3 on a 1-5 scale.

at least 70% of graduate student instructors will obtain Evaluation Kit ratings (indirect measure) of 3 or higher for course instructor (5 being the highest) and 3 or lower for overall course rating (1 being highest).