Office of the Provost

for the Faculty and Staff of Washington State University
from Provost Robert C. Bates

Number 5, part 2

October 2004

In the first part of my fall semester Progress Report distributed earlier this month, I discussed three of seven key topics I felt were important to our University community right now. These included Academic Plan development, organizational structure review, and implementation of Tenure and Promotion Task Force Recommendations. A Web link to Part 1 is provided at the end of this segment.

Here, I will provide updates on the four other topics that relate to progress toward our strategic goals:

Office of Undergraduate Education and President's Teaching Academy
Learning Outcomes and Assessment
Graduate Education
Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity

Office of Undergraduate Education and President's Teaching Academy

As we work on the goal of offering the best undergraduate experience at a research university, we are looking at national assessments of undergraduate education as well as at what our peers are accomplishing. Taking the lead in this work is our new Office of Undergraduate Education and faculty members of the President's Teaching Academy who come from each academic college and all four campuses.

One useful report is the National Survey of Student Engagement (2002) that provides comparative data on students at many universities including WSU. The NSSE report indicates that WSU's freshmen, on average, are less engaged in academic activities than students at peer institutions. Drawing on this data, plus current research on teaching and learning, and participation in retreats and national conferences that included student participation, the President's Teaching Academy has identified two initial focus areas to work on to improve undergraduate learning.

The first is establishing University-wide learning goals. An initial set of six goals are proposed, including:

Society and self
Critical thinking
Writing, listening and speaking
Information literacy
Quantitative and symbolic reasoning
Depth, breadth, and adaptability in the discipline

The second initial focus area is improving students' first-year experience at WSU.

The President's Teaching Academy has developed the six learning goals as a beginning point to identify expectations for students. It is hoped that this initial set of goals can be used to assess student learning across the university as well as be adapted by faculty in departments and programs to identify learning outcomes for their majors. Once identified, department goals can be used as the basis for measuring learning achievement, and outcomes can aid faculty in identifying ways to improve student learning as required by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.

The President's Teaching Academy (Carol Sheppard, Chair, and Tom Tripp, Vice Chair) along with the Office of Undergraduate Education (Doug Baker, Director) are resources for departments and programs as they work to improve teaching and learning. In addition, we are forming a President's Student Learning Academy so students can provide feedback on the teaching and learning improvement efforts.

Learning Outcomes and Assessment

While our interim fifth-year evaluation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities indicated we have made progress in identifying learning outcomes and assessment, the report stated that "there is variability in acceptance and implementation from unit to unit." For our ten-year accreditation, expected learning outcomes must be identified for each degree and certificate program, and systematic assessment must document that students have achieved these outcomes. Integral to this process is the use of evidence about the quality of the student learning as the basis for rethinking curriculum and/or improving teaching practices.

To assist our efforts, I am pleased to announce the Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Assessment Initiative. The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) invites departments and programs interested in collaborating with OUE professional staff to submit proposals designed to inform sustainable curriculum revisions and improvements in undergraduate instruction. These proposals should focus on assessment of student learning outcomes at the program or department level. Grants will be awarded from a funding pool of $200,000.

The deadline for proposal submissions is November 15. Information about the initiative and the proposal submission process can be found at http://provost.wsu.edu/undergraduate_grants/index.html

Dr. Tom Matthews, recently appointed Assistant Vice Provost for Educational Assessment, can answer questions about the proposal process and assist areas with efforts to identify and assess learning outcomes. Other resources within the OUE, including the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology and the Writing Programs, are available to assist and Dr. Matthews can facilitate their involvement. He can be contacted at tmatthews@wsu.eduor 335-4201.

Graduate Education

Our graduate programs are essential not only to achieving our goals as a research institution, but also critical to fulfilling our commitment to provide the best undergraduate experience at a research university. Two initiatives in graduate education will be particularly valuable to the accomplishment of our teaching and research goals.

First, the Graduate School has formed the Graduate Mentor Academy. This Academy of faculty represents an outstanding group of 47 graduate mentors who have three primary functions:

display outstanding skills in mentoring of graduate students that other faculty, especially new faculty, can observe and emulate,
represent the Graduate School in examinations or defenses where academic issues may arise, and
provide input to the Graduate School for improvement or modification of current practices and procedures that will lead to the advancement of graduate education at WSU.

Graduate School Dean Howard Grimes and I were delighted when 90 percent of the faculty invited to fill this important role agreed to serve, a very positive indicator of faculty commitment to graduate education. The participating faculty members come from across our colleges and campuses.

Second, as we have emphasized for the past two years, it is critical that we expand graduate education at WSU with a special focus on Ph.D. programs. The Graduate School reports that we have indeed grown the Ph.D. in many colleges. We averaged 852 Ph.D. students per year over the 1998-2002 period. In 2003, this number grew to 960 and for Fall 2004 to 967. While analysis indicates that there are areas where we need to focus to sustain and perhaps increase this trend, I am pleased that we are headed in the right direction.

Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities

In his recent State of the University address, President Rawlins listed the research and scholarship of our faculty as number one on his top ten list of accomplishments last year. I am extremely pleased with our progress in this area.

The scholarly reputation of the faculty of a land-grant research institution such as WSU is critical to all its activities. This reputation can be measured by peer recognition of faculty and their scholarly activities. During this year, new research awards increased by more than 16 percent, including a more than 21 percent increase in those awards that result from a proposal process.

Furthermore, members of our faculty received national recognition by their peers who awarded them highly prestigious honors such as National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards, Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and Beckman Young Investigators awards.

The CAREER program supports early career development of those teacher-scholars most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. From among the most meritorious new CAREER awardees, the NSF selects nominees for PECASE awards that recognize outstanding scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge. This Presidential Award is the highest honor the United States bestows on scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. The Beckman Young Investigators program provides research support to the most promising young faculty members in the chemical and life sciences. Each year, twenty young investigators are chosen for this prestigious program. In each of the past two years, WSU faculty have been among this select group.

Over the past year, WSU faculty also had opportunities to testify before Congress and to serve on prestigious committees in the sciences and social sciences, the latter including the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change and an NAS panel on the U.S. decennial census.

Research and scholarly activities also provide significant returns to the people of the state and nation. The extent to which WSU research is implemented in commerce is one measure of such impact. During the past year, the Office of Intellectual Property Administration received 29 new invention disclosures, and 55 technologies invented by WSU faculty were under license to commercial enterprises.

We have many key initiatives underway, each one aligned with our strategic goals and all involving members of our faculty in the important work we are doing as we move Washington State University toward its aspirations. We will keep your apprised of developments in each of these areas. Your thoughts and feedback are always welcome.

Bob Bates

Provost's Progress Report

Robert C. Bates is Provost and Academic Vice President at WSU.

Office of the Provost, PO Box 641046, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-1046, 509-335-5581, Contact Us