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The Provost’s Institutional Effectiveness Excellence Award Department of Journalism & Creative Media Industries February 2021 ATTACHMENT A Academic Department Nomination Institutional Effectiveness Excellence Award Department: Journalism & Creative Media Industries Nominated by: David Perlmutter, Dean, College of Media & Communication Date of Submission: February 23, 2021__________________________________________ (Late submissions after February 19, 2021 will not be considered). Checklist of enclosed items in order of presentation: X Statement of support by college dean. X Brief narrative (less than 1000 words) from department chair describing continuous improvement efforts to strengthen student learning in department’s degree programs. X Relevant documents (i.e., meeting minutes, revised syllabi, revised curricula, conference attendance) that illustrate the department’s commitment to academic assessment. X Please scan the entirety of your application packet into a single PDF file. Email this file to Darryl James ([email protected]), Vice Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, by midnight on February 19, 2021. A confirmation email will be sent to you to verify receipt of your completed application. Winners will be notified on or before February 24, 2021. 3 The Provost’s Institutional Effectiveness Excellence Award Department of Journalism & Creative Media Industries DEAN’S LETTER OF SUPPORT The Provost’s Institutional Effectiveness Excellence Award Department of Journalism & Creative Media Industries DEPARTMENT NARRATIVE The Provost’s Institutional Effectiveness Excellence Award Department of Journalism & Creative Media Industries Robert Moses Peaslee, Associate Professor & Chair Continuous Improvement Narrative February 19, 2021 The Department of Journalism & Creative Media Industries oversees Bachelor’s degree programs in Journalism (JOUR) and Creative Media Industries (CMI). JCMI has a longstanding history of collecting and utilizing course- and program-level assessments, devoting the majority of the Assistant Chair’s administrative time since 2014 to the regular collecting, interpreting, and uploading assessment data. During this time, regularly collected and/or deployed assessment mechanisms such as faculty course reports, student evaluations, peer teaching observations, and student and alumni focus groups have led to several innovations in departmental curriculum. For example, student evaluations and focus groups in 2014 suggested that new students were eager to be trained in media production and post-production skills and that the scarcity of such opportunities in our lower division coursework was a significant threat to retention. In response, we created JCMI 2301 and 2302, two introductory media production and post-production “toolbox” classes required for both degree programs in our department. Students regularly begin this two-course sequence in their first or second semester at TTU, allowing them to begin producing content and building their portfolio and skillset as early as possible in their TTU career. As an added bonus, these courses provide students with an instant community of JOUR and CMI colleagues, as well as a common baseline of technical capabilities that allows instructors in upper division courses to focus on intermediate and advanced skills. The following year, student focus groups and course assessment data prompted considerations among JCMI faculty regarding recognition of student work. JCMIFest (formerly JEMFest) was subsequently established in the Spring 2016 to celebrate the work of students in the department over the previous year. This retention and marketing effort has been very popular, particularly once it moved to Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and we are now preparing for JCMIFest 2021, which will unfold online for the second time due to pandemic restraints in April. Feedback from current students, program alumni, and industry leaders (such as those who serve on the College of Media & Communication’s National Advisory Board) was instrumental in our decision in 2015 to rebrand the BA in Electronic Media & Communication. As “Creative Media Industries,” this degree program, through both a change in title and a concurrent and comprehensive change in curriculum that more fully emphasizes portfolio outcomes and commercial sensibilities, better prepares students to enter content production and distribution fields. At the same time, prospective students, parents, and employers have a much clearer understanding of what our CMI program provides. Assessment reports from JOUR courses led to our faculty scrutinizing the quality and efficacy of the Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation (GSP) test, coming to the conclusion that the test, the passing of which was a JOUR graduation requirement, was no longer performing its intended functions. Accordingly, a faculty committee was created to design a new test – the Basics of Writing exam – which was deployed in 2017 after an approximately 18-month development process. In addition, student assessments and focus group responses suggested that JOUR students were interested in developing skill sets beyond journalistic ones (essentially, a “beat”) ; this led the department in 2017 to adopt several interdisciplinary concentrations that provide students with an area of expertise (they must choose one of these concentrations, a minor, or a second major). In 2020, the Department Chair created four standing department committees: curriculum, hiring, marketing, and, finally, one to focus on assessment. This five-person committee has met virtually to review assessment procedures and make recommendations about improving the assessment process within the department. In the November 2020 faculty meeting, the committee shared its recommendations. During a November meeting of the department committee chairs and the department chair, an observation from the assessment committee chair generated a discussion about the kind and number of course and program assessments. The department chair suggested the terms “explicit” and “implicit” were apt descriptions of an on-going quandary. Faculty said they felt they accomplished more than one or two Student Learning Outcomes in their courses while the assessment person noted that having multiple SLOs listed in the course assessment created seemingly unnecessary complexity, as well as more opportunity for errors, to be unintentionally introduced into the process. The group agreed there are program SLOs that should be listed in the assessment process (explicit), as well as course SLOs that pertain to several courses in the department and are pursued through a process of productive redundancy (implicit), such as, for example, proper grammar, critical thinking, etc. Both could be included on a course syllabus. This idea was introduced at the December 2020 department faculty meeting and it was noted that the recommendations would be shared with the curriculum committee for review. Interested faculty were invited to request copies of any of the information presented. The department committee on assessment discussed and suggested that assessments should be available to department faculty. Such information could be helpful for faculty who are assigned a course for the first time in order to see what has been done in the class as taught by other faculty. Issues of confidentiality were discussed, as was software options for such a database. With the chair’s establishment of department committees, the engagement of a larger number of faculty in administration within the department is leading to more thorough, transparent, and useful discussion of aspects of department previously handled by the chair or one or two other individuals. The results are encouraging and have brought out strategically useful ideas for existing and new processes and programs in the department with regard to using assessment data toward continuous improvement of department curriculum and instruction. The Provost’s Institutional Effectiveness Excellence Award Department of Journalism & Creative Media Industries APPENDICES: EVIDENCE OF JCMI COMMITMENT TO ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT 1. DEPARTMENTAL MEMOS/MATERIALS, 2015-Present 2. DEPARTMENTAL MEETING MINUTES, 2015-Present Department of Journalism and Electronic Media SLO Improvement Narrative Robert Peaslee, Interim Chair February 18, 2015 Since 2010, the Department of Journalism (JOUR) and the Department of Electronic Media and Communication (EMC) have made several changes and alterations at both the structural and curricular level aimed at enhancing learning outcomes. In 2012 these departments merged into the Department of Journalism and Electronic Media (JEM), which now oversees distinct JOUR and EMC degree programs, embedded within which are courses in Photography (PHOT). DEPARTMENTAL STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES (AS OF 2010) • Storytelling. Demonstrate the ability to specify audience and purpose and make appropriate communication choices with a competence in storytelling. • Critical Thinking. Construct, present and defend critical and aesthetic judgments of works in the media by exhibiting critical thinking skills through written and verbal presentation. • Diversity. Exhibit knowledge and awareness of distinctive issues related to race, gender and ethnicity in domestic and international communication. • Technical Competency. Show understanding of how technology and applied science affects society and the environment, and demonstrate understanding of the relationship of ethics and technology with competence in the areas of multimedia

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