School of Journalism Learning Outcomes Assessment Plan

This assessment plan provides direction for ongoing evaluation of student and program efficiency and effectiveness in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University. It complies with University and North Central Association requirements for ongoing assessment of curriculum. The plan’s goals are congruent with Standard 9 of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC), and the plan provides direct guidance for meeting the accreditation standards of that organization.

The Intent

The intent of this plan is to allow School of Journalism faculty to evaluate student performance outcomes of the core curriculum in journalism.

Assessing such outcomes is an ongoing process. As journalism curricular adjustments and ACEJMC revisions are made, this process may be further amended. Assessment efforts are intended to include faculty, students and professionals in journalism.

The Process

The following steps are defined in the assessment process:

  1. Establishing learning goals and outcomes;
  2. Selecting assessment methods and measures of student achievement of learning goals and outcomes;
  3. Development and/or modification of methods and measurements for assessment;
  4. Application of assessment methods and measurements in a timely manner;
  5. Review and analysis of collected information from methods and measurements;
  6. Dissemination of such reviews to the faculty for discussion;
  7. Adoption of any changes based on such reviews.

ACEJMC Professional Values and Competencies

ACEJMC standards are intended to promote student learning, enhance the student experience, and encourage innovation and proactive curricular development responsive to the ongoing changes in the media industry. Assessment is a key component to the Council’s accrediting standards on instruction (Standard 2) and learning outcomes (Standard 9).

The goal of assessment is to continually improve student expertise in a number of professional values and competencies. Professional values and competencies are assessed along two dimensions: one involves the depth of knowledge of particular skills and the second involves the types of specific skills students should have in journalism.

Depth of knowledge involves three basic outcomes:

  1. Knowledge: familiarity with specific information, including facts, ideas, theories and concepts.
  2. Comprehension: integration of facts, ideas, theories, concepts etc.
  3. Application: the ability to use skills and ideas, theories and concepts in practical ways. 

The breadth of knowledge involves the specific core values and competencies that are a part of the School’s Assessment Plan and that are emphasized by ACEJMC. Therefore, students are expected to:

  1. Understand and apply the principles and laws of free speech and press, summarized in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; 
  2. Demonstrate an understanding of the history and role of professionals and institutions in shaping communications;
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of gender, race ethnicity, sexual orientation and, as appropriate, other forms of diversity in domestic society in relation to mass communications;
  4. Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of peoples and cultures and the significance and impact of mass communications in a global society;
  5. Understand concepts and apply theories in the use and presentation of images and information;
  6. Demonstrate an understanding of professional ethical principles in professional work;
  7. Think critically, creatively and independently;
  8. Conduct research and evaluate information with methods appropriate to the communication professions;
  9. Write correctly and clearly, in forms and styles appropriate for the communications professions;
  10. Critically evaluate their own work and that of others;
  11. Apply basic numerical and statistical concepts;
  12. Apply tools and technologies appropriate for the communications professions in which they work.

Assessment Methods and Measurements

These assessment methods and measurements described below are applied to all courses in the School of Journalism, but are especially relevant to the core of courses that students must take. These core courses include JRN 108 (Introduction to Mass Media), JRN 200 (News Writing and Reporting I), JRN 203 (Visualizing Information), JRN 300 (News Writing and Reporting II), and JRN 430 (News Media Law and Ethics). Students also must take JRN 493, Professional Field Experience (internship).

Not every course taught in the School of Journalism is expected to engage all of the 12 professional competencies and values. But the aggregate of these courses, and especially the core courses, should give students the depth and breadth of education demanded for journalism in the 21st century.

Assessment methods and measurements include:

Direct Measures:

  1. An assessment exercise administered to students at the beginning and end of their programs that assesses their depth and breadth of knowledge in all the professional value and competency areas;
  2. A survey of employers of these interns taken every semester that includes their assessments of how well the students performed necessary professional skills;

Indirect Measures:

  1. A survey of journalism interns taken every semester that includes their assessments of how well they feel they were prepared professionally for their internships;
  2. A competencies exercise administered to faculty, asking them to identify value and competency areas engaged in their courses and the depth of that engagement;
  3. An annual survey of the job status of journalism school graduates undertaken by the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at MSU.
  4. A review of SIRS (student course evaluations) for improving student learning;
  5. Ongoing faculty presentations of their courses at faculty meetings;
  6. Review of the annual compilation of the awards and honors and recognition for outstanding journalism student work.

Procedure

The Director of the School of Journalism, or the Director’s designee, will be tasked with carrying out this assessment plan. Journalism School faculty will also be tasked with specific parts of this plan that require their involvement and cooperation.  Especially important roles in ongoing assessment will be played by the internship coordinator and the chair of the Undergraduate Affairs Committee. The Undergraduate Affairs Committee will annually review all information from the assessment plan methods and report such outcomes annually to the faculty for review and from that review will emerge directions for needed initiatives to enhance student learning and the student experience. 

The assessment timetable, in general, will be as follows:

Direct Measures:

  1. The incoming/graduating student assessment exercise will be administered to entering students at the beginning of fall semester and to graduating students toward the end of the spring semester;
  2. The survey of journalism interns will be conducted at the end of every semester; 

Indirect Measures:

  1. The survey of journalism internship employers will be conducted at the end of every semester;
  2. The analysis of job data collected by the college will take place annually;
  3. The competencies exercise for courses taught each year by faculty will be administered during summer;
  4. A review of SIRS will take place annually;
  5. Faculty presentations and discussions of their courses at faculty meetings is ongoing throughout the year;
  6. Review of student awards and honors will take place at the end of spring semester.

Approved by the Faculty of the School of Journalism, 2006. 

Revised in 2012.

Revised in 2019.