“Surveying Majors in Developing a Capstone Course”

M. Paul Latiolais, Joyce O’Halloran, Amy Cakebread

Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Portland State University

 

Prospectus.   The design and implementation of courses in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Portland State University has traditionally been based on what other mathematics departments do and what faculty in the department think might be needed.  Removal of courses from the mathematics curriculum has been similarly based on what faculty believe is needed. Asking the students what they need in a controlled scientific manner has never been done before. 

 

 After lengthy discussions over several years the department agreed in June 2001 on a list of student performance outcomes. In mapping the department’s student performance outcomes to courses, the department discovered that many of our outcomes are not effectively addressed.  At the same time, while developing strategies to assess student performance outcomes, the department realized it needed new strategies to assess students at the senior level.  We have developed strategies to assess student skills as they begin abstract math courses, but we did not have a way to measure the value added between there first abstract math course and  completion of the undergraduate program.  A senior capstone experience seemed to be the answer to both problems.

 

Before offering the course, it seemed reasonable to ask the students what they thought was most needed and whether they would take such a course voluntarily.  The information would help us design the course and tell us whether we could pilot the course before requiring it of all majors.  With the help of a graduating senior (Amy Cakebread) we designed and piloted a senior survey.  The survey asks students how proficient they feel they are in the identified outcomes and how important they think each outcome is.  Lastly we describe a model for the capstone course and ask students for feedback on the course design and whether they would take such a course.  The pilot was administered winter term 2002.  It gave us valuable feedback on how students perceived the questions we asked and how to improve the survey to get the information we needed.  The survey was subsequently redesigned to be administered early Fall 2002.  The results of the survey and the impact on the design of the capstone course (To be offered Spring 2003) will be included in the Case Study.