Individualized Major Assessment Report

September 7, 2007

MISSION STATEMENT:

The mission of the Individualized Major is to provide students with the opportunity to construct their own program of study from the courses that Wells College offers. Inevitably interdisciplinary, the IM exists to assist the exceptional student in re-conceiving ways to utilize the existing curriculum in pursuit of new knowledge and new programs of study.

GOALS:

All students who devise an IM will:

--thoroughly study the current curriculum as a prerequisite to thinking beyond college, division, and major requirements;

--develop a senior project that requires interdisciplinary training for the execution;

--understand the differences between the ways in which different fields—from the humanities to the social sciences to the physical sciences—develop methods and approaches conducive to the study of the IM project;

--conduct research on well-defined questions pertaining to the new and traditional fields of knowledge that the project charts and become conversant with a wide range of canonical and less familiar primary and secondary sources relevant to the traditional--and newly emergent--field;

--develop and support their interpretations in oral and written arguments and other projects;

--plan off-campus study at sites involved with issues pertaining to the subject of the IM;

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students who complete the IM will demonstrate:

1. confident deployment of the critical discourse that informs the variety of theoretical and historical approaches used to analyze key issues in the IM project;

2. understanding of the differences between the ways in which different fields—from the humanities to social sciences to the physical sciences—have studied issues pertaining to their project;

3. ability to do meaningful research on well-defined questions pertaining to the field and a familiarity with a wide range of canonical and less familiar primary and secondary sources;

4. ability to support their interpretations in oral and written arguments and in one sustained research project;

5. ability to read critically and make discerning critical judgments based on an attention not only to content but also to the formal choices that shape the text in question;

6. clear organization, reasoning and writing in critical essays;

7. attention to the rhetorical and aesthetic effects of their own writing;

8. understanding of how theory and practice inform each other by working off-campus in a pragmatic context on issues pertaining to IM.

MEASURABLE LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Objectives 1 and 2:

1. By filling out an extensive and time-intensive form (see attached), students begin to deploy the critical discourses that inform the variety of theoretical and historical approaches that will be used to analyze key issues in the IM project. If persuasive, this application to undertake the IM—which must be sponsored by two professors in different fields and submitted to the Committee on Academic Standards and Advising (ASA)—will demonstrate the student’s understanding of the differences between the ways in which different field (from the humanities to social sciences to the physical science) have studied issues that are the focus of the IM.

Objectives 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7:

The individualized program that the student creates will partake of courses at Wells (and Cornell University) that develop the students’ ability: to do meaningful research on well-defined questions pertaining to the field and a familiarity with a wide range of canonical and less familiar primary and secondary sources; and to support their interpretations in oral and written arguments and in one sustained research project; to read critically and make discerning critical judgments based on an attention not only to content but also to the formal choices that shape the text in question; to produce clear organization, reasoning and writing in critical essays; and to attend to the rhetorical and aesthetic effects of their own writing;

Objective 8:

It is the expectation of ASA that students develop an understanding of how theory and practice inform each other by doing internships and other experiential work on issues pertaining to their IM.

Means of Assessment Outcomes:

Because students in the Individualized Major take courses across disciplines and institutions (with a variety of professors in a range of disciplines and divisions), they are exposed to a wide range of work assignments. These can include: peer comment on in-class presentations; journals; oral work; in-class quizzes; informal and formal writing assignments; in-class writing; examinations (take-home, closed, and open book); individual conferences; collaborative projects.

How Assessment Data will be Used:

This remains to be seen!