Assessment of Student Learning

Geography B.A. Program Outcomes

Geography Assessment Plan

Department of Geography Mission Statement

The mission of the Department of Geography is the preparation of future professional geographers and academics, as well as the generation of locally, regionally and nationally relevant geographical and interdisciplinary spatial research. The department strives to provide high‐quality teaching, ambitious research, and dedicated service. In order to assist students with professional training in our discipline, the department offers both a major and a minor in geography. As an academic field built on the integration of interdisciplinary thought, the geography program also makes significant contributions to liberal arts education. In particular our program provides a vital international perspective on many cultural, environmental, political and social issues of the day, and trains students in the reflective evaluation of globalization processes.

Learning Outcomes

The Geography department has identified the following nine learning outcomes for students in its undergraduate program. These outcomes outline cognitive outcomes for our students, and thus explain what we expect them to know when they have completed our program. Furthermore, we have identified behavioral outcomes, and determined what we would like our students to be able to demonstrate once they leave the department. Finally, we have agreed on a set of professional values that are essential for any geographer, and these are listed under the affective outcomes below.

Cognitive Outcomes
Students completing a Bachelor of Arts in Geography will have:

1. Knowledge of Key Concepts. Graduates will have the ability to demonstrate and use key concepts constituting a geographic perspective, such as (but not limited to) context, scale, map, landscape, environment, process, and flow. Also, they will be able to describe the holistic and integrative character of the spatial perspective offered by the discipline of geography.

2. Knowledge of Spatial Variability. Students will have the ability to illustrate the patterns, causes and implications of spatial variability.

3. Knowledge of Spatial Interaction. Students will have the ability to understand the causes and implications of spatial interaction and patterns of movement.

Behavioral Outcomes
Students completing a Bachelor of Arts in Geography will demonstrate the following skills:

4. Written analysis of geographic problems. Graduates will have the ability to demonstrate how spatial scale is put into practice. They will be able to provide a detailed and organized written analysis of ways in which localized,
regional, national, and global processes interact.

5. Visual Representation of Geographic Information. Students will have the ability to demonstrate basic geographic skills such as map reading and analysis; map making; landscape analysis via use of multiple analytical methods (such as Computer Cartography, Geographic Information Systems, and Remote Sensing,).

6. Development of Independent Geographic Research Skills. Student will have the ability to independently develop important geographic research questions, appreciate what makes those questions important, and design
reasonable research approaches to them.

Affective Outcomes
Students completing a Bachelor of Arts in Geography will value:

7. Global Connectivity. Graduates will demonstrate the ability to think relationally about such key concepts as community and economy, society and environment, and citizenship and globalization.

8. The Historical Roots of Geographic Issues. Students will show the ability to seek relationships among historical development, economic development,& globalization.

9. Sustainability. Student will have the ability to understand the relationship among regional economy, health, and well‐being in regards to sustainability.