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Department of Psychology
Undergraduate Program Outcome Assessment Report
Last updated 2/20/2004

Knowledge and skill goals for this undergraduate degree program are recorded in the most recent CU-Boulder catalog.

Outcome Assessment: History and Current Practice

In 1989-90 the department piloted a pre/post assessment process using a faculty-developed exam consisting of 50 multiple choice questions. The department Committee for Undergraduate Education (CUE) concluded that this approach was not satisfactory and between 1991 and 1997 asked graduating seniors to complete the Educational Testing Service's Major Field Achievement Test (MFAT) in psychology. CUE was disappointed in the utility of this means of judging program effectiveness and informing curriculum planning chiefly because of difficulties in obtaining a representative sample of seniors who would agree to take the test and doubts about the relevance of available norms. In 1998, annual MFAT assessment was replaced by a comprehensive assessment survey that asked graduating seniors to evaluate various aspects of our degree program. CUE has judged this approach as quite useful in providing guidance to curriculum planning. Beginning in spring 2004 we will administer the survey in a more efficient computer-based online form with the expectation that the response rate will increase beyond the 60-70% levels that we have obtained in the past. The survey includes questions asking graduating seniors to evaluate:

• The quality of courses, curriculum, faculty, advising, lab equipment
• The relative emphasis in the curriculum of various content areas
• Their self-judged levels of skills and knowledge in various areas

Key Senior Assessment Results over the Past Four Years

A number of refinements were made in the survey in the first two years of its use, and in spring 2000 a final version was adopted. There have been four annual administrations of this instrument. The results over this four year span have been highly consistent from year to year. The data from the 2003 administration are appended to this report.

According to these data, a large majority of graduating seniors was satisfied with central aspects of our psychology major program, i.e.:

• The department as a whole
• The content of the curriculum in general
• The quality of teaching in the department
• The expertise and knowledge of the faculty
• The availability of faculty outside the classroom
• The willingness and knowledge of the staff academic advisors in providing advising about the major requirements
• The relevance and fairness of the evaluation procedures used to assign grades
• The degree to which the major requirements provide a comprehensive understanding of the field of psychology
• The skill levels acquired as a psychology major

Within the context of this highly positive evaluation of our program the senior assessment data also revealed some specific program aspects that were evaluated negatively or as worthy of change by a sizable minority of seniors:

• Lower division course enrollments were seen as much too large
• Lower division courses were seen as too easy
• A greater emphasis needed on writing skills, especially scientific report writing and on critical thinking skills
• A greater emphasis needed on research design and experimental methodology
• A greater emphasis needed on developmental and especially clinical psychology
• A greater emphasis needed on the application of psychological principles to practical and social problems

Initiatives and Curriculum Changes in the Past Three Years Prompted in Part by Outcome Assessment Data

• A new upper division laboratory and methods course, Research Methods in Clinical Psychology, was added to the curriculum for majors and is now offered each semester
• Two new cognitive neuroscience courses were added to the curriculum
• The number of senior level critical thinking courses with a clinical psychology content was increased
• CUE developed and circulated to faculty a set of guidelines designed to strengthen the methodology component of the laboratory and methods courses
• The enrollment cap was lowered in the required statistics/research methods course from 150 to 110, effective in Fall 2004

Current Initiative of the Committee for Undergraduate Education

As part of the implementation of a five-year strategic plan for the department, CUE is performing a cost/benefit analysis and will arrive at an implementation recommendation for each of the following proposals designed to decrease the number of psychology majors and improve the quality of the students and their education:

• Set a GPA minimum requirement as a condition for becoming a psych major
• Require majors to take more science and math courses
• Require majors to take a separate statistics course and new methods course
• Expand our honors program
• Facilitate collaborative teaching endeavors
• Add developmentally focused courses to the required curriculum

SENIOR ASSESSMENT SURVEY, 2003
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER
DEPARTMENTAL EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRE

The following is a summary of items from the senior assessment survey in the spring of 2003. Please note that if response percentages do not add up to 100%, it is because some students responded in a manner that was not amenable to coding.

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Last revision 02/23/04