• Departmental Learning Goals
• Assessment of Student Learning: Outcomes and Measurements
• Departmental Assessment Practices

Departmental Learning Goals

Our goal is for students to develop skills in the following learning elements--problem, approach, theory, analysis, and application. These learning elements give them the ability to apply anthropology to societal issues:

1. Problem - problems are identified through reading texts, reviewing articles, writing synopses, freewriting, developing abstracts, journaling, observing behaviors, reviewing books and evaluating other research,
2. Approach - apply qualitative and quantitative methods to a problem, use ethnographic, oral tradition, linguistic, archaeological, human biology methods. The ethical issues associated with gathering data about humans and their social systems will be covered in classes and all students should review the ethical standards of the American Anthropological Association, Society for American Archaeology, American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and the Society for Applied Anthropology.
3. Theory - set the problem within a theoretical tradition such as materialism, cultural determinism, structuralism, feminism, postmodernism, processual archaeology, post-processualism. Relate research to issues of cultural identity and change, globalization, culture ecology, gender, caste, class, ethnicity
4. Analysis - be familiar with qualitative, statistical, systems, linguistic, human biology, archaeological, historical, cross-cultural analytical approaches
5. Application - apply research findings and analysis to real problems through collaboration with clients, teamwork, internships, projects, advocacy

The result will be graduates who can apply anthropological methods, theory, and analysis to contribute to society through their efforts, insights, and leadership skills.

Assessment of Student Learning: Outcomes and Measurements

1. We expect students to understand approaches and concepts appropriate to anthropology that are described above.
2. Students demonstrate their understanding through quizzes, exams, papers, essays, class discussions, collaborative projects, journals, portfolios, scrapbooks, annotated bibliographies, thesis and dissertation writing, applied projects.
   1. Where writing is an important element in the instructional process, Departmental syllabi will include statements about plagiarism. Faculty will teach methods of proper citation and explain the concept of plagiarism.
   2. All presentations and publications will identify the methods and sources used in developing information used.
3. In demonstrating learning outcomes students should show understanding, make comparisons and contrasts or provide examples of their own to illustrate knowledge of the material, and identify connections in their actions and communication.
4. We follow-up on professional achievements with the annual issue of Fragments.

Departmental Assessment Practices

Assessments have to be geared to each of the student clientele.BAC Core students, majors, masters, and PhD. Progress through each level requires a wider array and higher skill level for the learning elements of problem, approach, theory, analysis, and application.