General Education

Ohio Wesleyan has “in-house” assessment measures for a wide range of general academic skills and requirements. Most of these assessments are conducted on an annual basis and are reviewed by the Teaching and Assessment Committee (TAC) and others for whom they are relevant. These measures, in conjunction with those used by departments, programs, and individual faculty members, allow us to assess how well we meet our Mission & Aims.

The on-going assessment activities at the university level include:

• National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) administered every three years.
• Annual Senior Surveys asking students to report on various educational experiences.
• Senior Exit Interviews of a subset of seniors, which ask a wide range of questions related to students’ educational experiences.
• The Foreign Language Assessment, which is taken by students in Spanish, French and German before their first language course at OWU and at the end of each course through the fourth semester.

During summer 2022 and throughout the 2022-23 academic year, the Committee on Academic Programs (CAP) has worked with faculty to develop learning outcomes for each of the revised core competencies and reviewed courses submitted by faculty that would meet the learning outcomes for each competency. CAP has worked in collaboration with TAC and the Assessment Coordinator identified by Academic Affairs to oversee the development of the general education core competencies assessment. Rubrics have been created and the data collection workflow and systematization will occur during summer 2023. In fall 2023 OWU will pilot the assessment of the new general education core competencies and will use the 2023-24 academic year to collect and review data and make necessary adjustments. This assessment work will lead into OWU’s Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Quality Initiative.