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Kent State University The Center for Peaceful Change uses two primary "student assessment methods" to determine the effectiveness of its curriculum 1) the CPC 35092 Field Study course; and 2) the CPC 35095 Peace and Conflict Studies Careers post-course interviews. All Peace and Conflict Studies majors are required to successfully complete the course CPC 35092 entitled "Field Study" in the final semester of their junior year or during their second year. This course involves the student in an internship experience consisting of 12-40 hours per week with an organization which seeks personnel having conflict management skills. The student intern is assigned both an on-campus instructor and on-site supervisor who are responsible for assessing their theoretical and applied skills in the real-world setting. The student keeps a journal which details the field study experience. In addition, he/she completes an overall analysis of the organization and its conflict management effectiveness in the form of a lengthy research paper. The journal and research paper serve to inform the on-campus instructor concerning student's overall academic skills as applied in a work setting, much like the kind of organizational settings he/she is likely to function in, in the future. Finally, the on-site supervisor provides the Center instructor with a critique of the student's preparation which evaluates his/her contribution to the organization's mission. Use of Results: The Center's curriculum has been adjusted during the past 20 years, to input from students, on-site supervisors, and Field Study instructors. Criteria for adjusting curriculum include: 1) fit between real-world work settings and academic program objectives; 2) validation of learning outcomes expectation through student-demonstrated theoretical and applied skills. Graduates of the Center's program are interviewed as soon after graduation as possible as part of the CPC course 35095, Peace and Conflict Studies Careers. The purpose of the interview is to determine the student's level of satisfaction with the academic program as they test learning outcomes against realities of on-the-job challenges. The course and interviews are intended to assist the program in establishing realistic learning objectives and pedagogy as well as to inform students in the course concerning career possibilities congruent with the goals of the Center's program. Documentation of the results of the above assessment mechanisms continues to accumulate (in the case of the Field Study, it spans over 20 years). |