Asian Studies (15BA-AIST)

Department of German Studies

McMicken

College of Arts & Sciences

2017

Primary Faculty: Miki Hirayama 556-0265 miki.hirayama@uc.edu

Faculty Committee: Gergana Ivanova 556-2722 Gergana.ivanova@uc.edu

Dinshaw Mistry 556-3317 mistrydj@ucmail.uc.edu

I. Program Overview

The Asian Studies major is an interdisciplinary area studies program (20 majors, 28 minors, and 37 certificate students) that explores the cultures, economies, history, languages, literatures, politics, and visual arts of Asian countries. Students in the program achieve breadth and depth through satisfying four major requirements. First is the completion of second year of an Asian language (Chinese, Japanese or Arabic). Second is the completion of seven elective major courses from a list of over 50 courses (3 must be from social sciences, 3 from humanities and one may be a “non-core” course that deals with global issues outside Asia). These courses are offered by affiliate faculty from associated disciplines such as Political Science, Geography, History, Literature, Musicology, while the language courses are offered by Asian Studies faculty. The third component is a methodology course: Methods in Asian Studies (AIST3050). The course surveys disciplines used in an area study, and covers interdisciplinary techniques and research methods that prepare students to write a senior thesis. The final component is the capstone which consists of a three-credit course in which students write a senior thesis (AIST5091).

Many students in the program take advantage of study-abroad opportunities and spend a semester or an entire year taking courses in Japan, China, Korea or Singapore. In addition to further language study, they take courses in the social sciences and humanities dealing with the country in which they are studying. These courses satisfy the requirements for the program. In some cases, students return to these countries after graduation in various employments. A number of students pursue graduate studies and some obtain employment which uses the skills acquired in the program.

Because Asian Studies courses often satisfy requirements for a degree in a different discipline (college distribution, general education, etc.), some Asian Studies majors pursue a second major or a minor in another discipline, such as international affairs, political science, history, journalism, business, music, and the natural sciences. Further, majors in these other disciplines pursue a minor in Asian Studies and/or a certificate in an Asian language.

II. Program Outcomes

Please include in this section your program learning outcomes as they are listed in the P‐1 form in eCurriculum. If you are already planning to revise those program learning outcomes, indicate in this section which ones might be changed, and what the new program learning outcomes are likely to be. In general, learning outcomes should be measurable, assessable, or observable in some way and aligned with national standards.

Original Program Learning Outcomes

1. Speak, comprehend, read, and write an Asian language at the second-year level.

2. Acquire information about an Asian country/region and use the information to

develop a logical argument or conclusion.

3. Analyze Asian issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.

4. Evaluate conflicting arguments about an Asian issue or topic.

5. Research an issue or topic which transcends disciplines and/or countries

resulting in a formal written paper (Senior Thesis).

Proposed new Program Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this degree program, students will be able to:

1. Speak, comprehend, read, and write an Asian language at the second-year level.

2. Use primary and secondary sources, including current scholarly publications and databases, to design and execute independent research.

3. Analyze contemporary and historical issues relevant to Asia from a multidisciplinary and transcultural perspective.

4. Identify and evaluate different ethical perspectives and concepts in various

scholarly and non-scholarly outlets.

5. Formulate well‐organized and well‐supported arguments in writing and in verbal communication.

III. Curriculum/Program Map

Please include in this section a grid that identifies connections that exist between required courses in this program and the corresponding program‐level learning outcomes. In other words: how will program outcomes be met? This grid should further indicate the expected levels of learning at each level (whether emerging, strengthening, or achieved). The CET&L web site includes templates that you might find useful in completed this grid.

See below.

Curriculum Mapping Matrix: Linking Program Outcomes to Curriculum;

E = Emerging, D= Developing, A = Achieved

Outcome 1001* 1002* 2001* 2002* AIST

3050

AIST

5091

Speak, comprehend, read, and write an Asian language at the second-year level

I/E D D A

Use primary and secondary sources to design and execute independent research

I/E A

Analyze cultural, social, economic, and political issues in Asia and infer those issues from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives

D A

Identify and evaluate different ethical perspectives and concepts in various scholarly

and non-scholarly outlets.

D A

Formulate well‐organized and supported

arguments in writing and speech.

I/E

D

D

D

D

A

*CHIN, JAPN and ARAB

IV. Methods and Measures

Please include in this section a description of the assessment methods that your program plans to use in assessing each of its program learning outcomes. These methods ideally include both direct and indirect examples of student learning, with authentic, performance‐based assessment performed at all levels. You may find it helpful to include the “Assessment Measures Alignment Matrix” from Activity 5.

Direct assessment measures include students’ exams in the 2nd‐year language

courses as well as their written works in the Methods and Capstone courses. Indirect assessment measures include exit polls of graduating seniors using

SurveyMonkey, which ask questions about the effectiveness of language courses, relevance of elective and required courses, and job placement.

Instructors of language courses will assess the Program Learning Outcome 1 by

reviewing exams and other written and oral assignments. Instructors of the methods and capstone courses will assess the rest of the

program learning outcomes by reviewing the written assignments by students in AIST3050: Methods in Asian Studies and AIST5091: Senior Project

The faculty will use the attached rubric in their assessment of program learning outcomes in their respective courses.

Outcome Course Professor Year Curriculum

Speak, comprehend, read, and write an Asian language at the second-year level

CHIN2002

JAPN2002

ARAB2002

Lin

Markovic

Fujioka

Thome

1st & 2nd In class exams and oral presentations

Use primary and secondary sources to design and execute independent research on Asia

AIST3050

AIST5091

Hirayama

Mistry 3rd & 4th

Senior Project and other written assignments

Analyze cultural, social, economic, and political issues in Asian countries from

interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives

AIST3050

AIST5091

Hirayama

Mistry 3th & 4th

Senior Project and other written assignments

Identify and evaluate different ethical perspectives and concepts in various

scholarly and non-scholarly outlets.

AIST3050

AIST5091

Hirayama

Mistry 3rd & 4th

Senior Project and other written assignments

Formulate well-organized and well-supported arguments in writing and speech

AIST3050

AIST5091

Hirayama

Mistry

3rd & 4th

Senior Project and other written assignments

IV. Assessment Infrastructure

Please include in this section a description of the process by which your program intends to assess its learning outcomes.

Describe which program faculty will be charged with overseeing the execution of the

assessment plan as well as the ways in which they will carry out that charge, including a

description of the planned timeline for assessment.

Identify what kinds of administrative support will be available for those faculty

Please note that assessment plans should be capable of producing reports annually based on their review of the relevant data from their programs. The work of your faculty might also be coordinated and aligned with similar assessment efforts at the college and institutional levels.

Assessment Personnel

Members of the Program Curriculum/Assessment Committee (Director and three full-

time faculty) will review assessment information annually. Assessment information

can be uploaded onto the existing Asian Studies Blackboard site, where faculty can

upload information from their courses. The faculty teaching the second-year language

courses will collect data that will be used for assessing Program Outcome 1. The

instructors of AIST3050 and AIST5091 will collect data that will be used for assessing

the rest of the program outcomes.

Assessment Schedule

At the beginning of each semester, the Director will contact all the faculty teaching the

required courses and remind them that they need to collect the assessment data for each

required course. At the conclusion of the semester, the faculty will be asked to submit the

relevant data electronically to the Blackboard site. The Director will organize these data

according to the PO that they address. He/she will produce summaries of these

assessments. Once summarized, these data will be provided to the curriculum committee

(i.e. committee on the whole) for review. The curriculum committee will meet annually

at the conclusion of the spring semester to review assessment data for each required

course and determine if actual level of achievement for each program outcome matches

the expected levels (n.b., initially these reviews will be used to generate baseline datasets

on student achievement. After 2-3 years of data collection the curriculum committee will

use these baseline data to define expected levels of achievement for each program

outcome). A report will be produced and disseminated to the faculty at the beginning of

the fall semester for their review and comment. While these annual reports and meetings

allow for small-scale changes of courses, it is anticipated that every 4-5 years the

curriculum committee will conduct larger-scale analyses of assessment data, with the end

goal of identifying and recommending any major programmatic changes that may be

needed.

V. Findings

Here you will describe and explain in this section any multi‐year patterns and trends that your assessment efforts have identified, including a description of any relevant relationships to national standards.

The current director, who was appointed in fall 2015, will start gathering a new set of data

starting in 2018 to generate baseline datasets. After 2-3 years of data collection the curriculum

committee will use these baseline data to define expected levels of achievement for each

program outcome.

In the meantime, we will continue to have discussions about what assignments would lend

themselves to effective analysis, how we could better assess the efficacies of language

instruction as reflected in the student performance in culture courses and vice versa, and how we

could improve the line of communication with the colleges in which many of our majors pursue

a dual major.

VI. Use of Findings

In this final section, you will describe how your program intends to make use of the program‐level assessment data it has gathered.

How will this information be presented to and discussed among the faculty?

How might this data or these discussions result in review and possible revision of course or

program learning outcomes and pedagogical strategies?

If changes or modifications appear to be needed as a result of annual assessments, the

director will explore the issue with relevant faculty, and the Curriculum Committee will

discuss what kind of adjustments are necessary. The director and the committee may

make recommendations to the relevant faculty such as enrolling in a summer CET&L

class in course design, re-examination of course SLOs, etc. Annual reports of the

curriculum committee and associated data and proposed recommendations (if any) will

be stored and maintained by the director.