Action Review for Outcome (g) Communicate effectively
2004
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
•Report Rewriting (g) – The program faculty will redouble their efforts to require more effort in writing “perfect” reports.  This is expected to replace total report quantities submitted with higher quality.  The premise of this action is that students gain more writing skill by focused effort on a high-quality work rather than a more diffuse effort with less faculty feedback.  Dr. Kellar will periodically require faculty reports on progress on this action item from all program faculty members.
•Seminar Series – The faculty believe that students will gain a better understanding of professional behavior, the need for honed communication skills, and better interaction and assimilation skills through a more active seminar series offered by a combination of off-campus invited speakers and presentations by their peers.   Dr. Kellar will appoint a faculty member to complete this task.
Curriculum Review Summary
• Outcome (g) scores remained at a high performance level.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
N	No Action
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
•There was no specific Assessment Process Action specified at the end of 2003 for Outcome (g) during 2004
Assessment Process Review Summary
• there was a discussion on the need to develop new instruments to assess outcome (g) beyond course work but no action was deemed necessary.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No Action
2005
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
The curriculum review indicated that student performance was at a high level.
Curriculum Review Summary
•During this review cycle it was determined that the students communicate effectively, particularly orally.
•Attention should be given to student written communication skills. Using re-writing as a technique to improve written skills is a strategy that should be pursued.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
C	Rewriting as a method to imrpove written communication.	Faculty will utilize the re-writing technique to improve student skills.
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
•Better Metric matching
Assessment Process Review Summary
•The assessment process appears to be working well.
•There are enough and varied instruments to adequately review both the oral and written components to the communication outcome.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No action required.
2006
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
•No actions were identified, curriculum assessment process appears to be performing adequately.
Curriculum Review Summary
•The curriculum is performing adequately.  Generally lower scores were reported for the senior level instruments that were utilized compared to the Jr/Sr and Soph instruments that were used.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
N	No action required
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
• No action was required of the assessement process for this metric.
Assessment Process Review Summary
•This Outcome utilized six different instruments, and thus, is very robust in terms of the amount of data collected.  The data is consistent with previous years’ data for this outcome, and the assessment process is performing adequately.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No action required.
2007
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
•No Action needed.
Curriculum Review Summary
•There are little differences among instruments, performance criteria and instrument assessors.  Overall, it appears that the curriculum is performing very well.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
N	No action required.
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
•No previous actions were required from the previous review cycle.
Assessment Process Review Summary
•This Outcome utilized eight different instruments, and thus, is very robust in terms of the amount of data collected.  The data is consistent with previous years’ data for this outcome.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No action required.
2008
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
Watch to see if faculty change is yielding lower values by reduced writing emphasis (viz. exit Han and Stone) and/or through different faculty member’s scoring variation.
Curriculum Review Summary
•It appears that the curriculum is performing adequately.  Generally lower scores were reported for the design fair presentations than for the other instruments that were reported.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
N	No action required
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
•Watch to see if faculty change is yielding lower values by reduced writing emphasis (viz. exit Han and Stone) and/or through different faculty member’s scoring variation. Assure that metrics are reviewed for scoring communication.
Assessment Process Review Summary
This outcome utilized six different instruments, and thus, is very robust in terms of the amount of data collected.  Triagulation was possible because of the relatively large number of instruments that were used.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No action required
2009
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
•It appears that the curriculum is performing adequately.  Generally lower scores were reported for the design fair presentations than for the other instruments that were reported.
Curriculum Review Summary
• Overall quality of senior design reports appear to decrease from previous year’s quality. This finding bears watching into the next assessment cycle as the capstone report often serves as a bell weather for overall program communication skills.
W	Monitor Senior Design Communications	Monitor quality of communications, particularly Senior Design Report (note, in the current cycle Juniors are also participating in these reports).
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
• This outcome utilized six different instruments, and thus, is very robust in terms of the amount of data collected.  Triangulation was possible because of the relatively large number of instruments that were used.
Assessment Process Review Summary
The assessment instruments used were adequate and varied. Five different assessors were used and a total of seven instruments in total, making the assessment process very robust.
N	No action required.
2010
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
• Overall quality of senior design reports appear to decrease from previous year’s quality. This finding bears watching into the next assessment cycle as the capstone report often serves as a bell weather for overall program communication skills.
Curriculum Review Summary
The assessment instruments (7) ranged from an average of 3.53 to 4.76 with the lowest the metric involving slide presentation clarity and the highest metric for written content. The lowest metric was for slide clarity: the highest for written content.  The average performance remains unchanged considering uncertainty.   Watch for changes because of faculty turnover.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
W	Faculty Turnover Effect on Writing	Watch for changes in communication accomplishment because of faculty turnover.
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
The assessment instruments used were adequate and varied. Five different assessors were used and a total of seven instruments in total, making the assessment process very robust.
Assessment Process Review Summary
There are a total of seven assessment instruments.  They appear to be providing good feedback on student performance.  The oral design report should be remove from the assessment inventory since it is no longer presented.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
A	Remove Oral Design Report	Remove Oral Design Report from Inventory - no longer presented
2011
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
The assessment instruments (7) ranged from an average of 3.53 to 4.76 with the lowest the metric involving slide presentation clarity and the highest metric for written content. The lowest metric was for slide clarity: the highest for written content.  The average performance remains unchanged considering uncertainty.   Watch for changes because of faculty turnover.
Curriculum Review Summary
The performance on communication as measured by the overall average decreased significantly from 2010: 4.07 to 3.42.  The average for each metric decreased and were very consistent: 3.49, 3.32, and 3.44.  Clearly writing skills have declined fro some reason.  This requires some Action to determine the reason for the decline.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
A	Declining Communication Skills	Determine why communication skills are declining and remedy the decline
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
There are a total of seven assessment instruments.  They appear to be providing good feedback on student performance.  The oral design report should be remove from the assessment inventory since it is no longer presented.
Assessment Process Review Summary
The assessment instruments used were adequate and varied. Seven instruments were used, making the assessment process very robust.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No Action	No Action Needed
2012
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
The performance on communication as measured by the overall average decreased significantly from 2010: 4.07 to 3.42.  The average for each metric decreased and were very consistent: 3.49, 3.32, and 3.44.  Clearly writing skills have declined fro some reason.  This requires some Action to determine the reason for the decline.
Curriculum Review Summary
During 2012 the faculty met to discuss writing standards and communication standards in general.  The discussion has ranged from writing styles expected of engineering students, common syntax errors, and formatting requirements that should be adopted by the department.  Both junior and senior faculty made presentations to students attended by all faculty so the department can form cohesive standards.  This needs to continue as additional new faculty join the department.  Beginning with the next design sequence (F2012), students will be required to provide monthly oral reports.  This should improve their presentation skills- especially slide preparation.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
C	Declining Communication Skills	Determine why communication skills are declining and remedy the decline.
A	Monthly Design Oral Reports	Require design teams to provide monthly updates beginning F2012.
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
The assessment instruments used were adequate and varied. Seven instruments were used, making the assessment process very robust.
Assessment Process Review Summary
The assessment instruments used were adequate and varied. Seven instruments were used, making the assessment process very robust.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No Action	No Action Needed
2013
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
During 2012 the faculty met to discuss writing standards and communication standards in general.  The discussion has ranged from writing styles expected of engineering students, common syntax errors, and formatting requirements that should be adopted by the department.  Both junior and senior faculty made presentations to students attended by all faculty so the department can form cohesive standards.  This needs to continue as additional new faculty join the department.  Beginning with the next design sequence (F2012), students will be required to provide monthly oral reports.  This should improve their presentation skills- especially slide preparation.
Curriculum Review Summary
The student performance has improved from 3.35 to 3.57 under the curricular changes instituted.  Evidence shows as students adjust to new expectations that performance under those expectations will continue to rise.  Action item was implemented.  No further action needed.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
N	No Action
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
The assessment instruments used were adequate and varied. Seven instruments were used, making the assessment process very robust.
Assessment Process Review Summary
The seven  assessment instruments used were adequate and varied.  No  hanges are needed at the present time.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No Action
2014
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
The student performance has improved from 3.35 to 3.57 under the curricular changes instituted.  Evidence shows as students adjust to new expectations that performance under those expectations will continue to rise.  Action item was implemented.  No further action needed.
Curriculum Review Summary
Student performance continues to rise, from 3.57 to 3.83, under the more consistent communication curriculum implemented fully last year.  No action needed.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
N	No Action
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
The seven  assessment instruments used were adequate and varied.  No  hanges are needed at the present time.
Assessment Process Review Summary
No Changes needed.  The instruments perform well and incorporate a range of assessment methods.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No Action
2015
Previous Curriculum Action Review Summary
Student performance continues to rise, from 3.57 to 3.83, under the more consistent communication curriculum implemented fully last year.  No action needed.
Curriculum Review Summary
Student performance continues to rise, from 3.83 to 4.00, under the more consistent communication curriculum implemented fully last year. This is the second year in a row that an increase has occurred. Faculty noted that they had seen an increase in overall quality of student communication (lab reports, presentations etc.). No action needed.
Code	Curriculum Action Title	Curriculum Action Brief Description
N	No Action
Previous Assessment Process Action Review Summary
No Changes needed.  The instruments perform well and incorporate a range of assessment methods.
Assessment Process Review Summary
The instruments conti nue to perform well and encompass range of assessment methods. No Changes needed.
Code	Assessment Process Action Title	Assessment Process Action Brief Description
N	No Changes