Gen Ed/Core Assessment
The Office of Strategic Planning & Assessment supports educational programs in assessing learning outcomes at the course level, program level, and institutional level for continuous improvement.
Lone Star College Assessment Cycle - What's New?
Core Assessment: From Annual to Bi-Annual Cycle
After three consecutive years of assessing all 7 Gen. Ed. Competencies/Core Objectives annually, Lone Star College is ready to enter into a bi-annual cycle of assessment. This bi-annual cycle will allow faculty members to assess selected Gen. Ed. Competencies/Core Objectives for one year and then implement changes based on the assessment results for the subsequent year, thus providing more time for faculty to implement changes and engage in the "Review and Revise" phase of the assessment process and methodologies.
Specifically, in AY 2021-22, sampled faculty members will assess Oral Communication, Written Communication, and Critical Thinking Skills, whereas the other four Core Objectives will not be assessed, but rather be involved in the "Review and Revise" phase (implementing changes recommended from the previous year while revising the assessment assignments and rubrics based on faculty feedback).
In AY 2022-23, the assessed three core objectives will be rotated to the phase of ‘Review and Revise’; whereas the other four core objectives will be engaged in the ‘Assessment’ phase.
AY 2021-22 Core Assessment Support Documents:
1. AY 2023-2024 Core Assessment Activities
2. AY 2023-2024 Core Assessment: Faculty Selected for Collecting Student Artifacts
3. Core Assessment Committee Members' Contact List
4. LSC Core Assessment Rubrics
LSC Core Assessment (A Brief Guide)
I. LSC Core Assessment Cycle:
Lone Star College (LSC) follows a five-stage assessment process to gauge LSC students' mastery of the 7 Gen Ed competencies/Core Objectives. See the following chart for more details:
1 Faculty Training: In the fall, online training is provided to approximately 100 faculty randomly chosen from across the institution. The training reviews the core assessment process, the common rubric used to assess core objective learning, how the instructor can align his/her individual assignments to the rubric and submit the students’ work as a student artifact of learning.
2 Implementation: Faculty then give their core assignment to students to complete and implement any recommendations for improved learning they wish.
3 Data Collection: At the end of the fall term, faculty submit their students’ work to be “scored.”
4 Scoring: In the Spring, volunteer faculty participate a “Scoring Day” – assessing student artifacts using the common rubrics. Training concerning the overall core assessment process and rubrics is provided at the beginning of the session which also serves to calibrate scores. Each artifact is scored by two Scorers to determine students’ level of learning of the Core Objective. Data are collected and published in core assessment results reports by the office of Strategic Planning & Assessment (SPA).
5 Use of Data: Core Assessment results and a feedback survey are shared with faculty who participated in the assessment activities, either as a faculty submitting artifacts or as a Scorer. These faculty are then prompted to analyze the data, identify areas of potential improvement, and provide recommendations that other faculty can use in order to improve student learning of the core objectives. This information is collected and reviewed by the core assessment committee (there is a subcommittee for each core objective with a representative from each campus). Finalized recommendations are published on the GenEde website and shared with faculty and leadership, and imbedded within the faculty training for the next cycle of assessment.
II. Core Assessment Resources:
Please utilize the following resources to support your Core Assessment efforts:
1. Frequently Asked Questions about the Core Assessment Process
2. Rubrics, Assignment alignment checklists, Assignment examples, and Recommendations by Core Objectives:
Communication (Oral): Rubric, Assignment alignment checklist > Assignment Example
AY 2018-19 Recommendations
AY 2019-20 Recommendations
AY 2020-21 Recommendations
AY 2023-24 Recommendations and 2024-25 Recommendations
Communication (Written): Rubric, Assignment alignment checklist > Assignment Example
AY 2018-19 Recommendations
AY 2019-20 Recommendations
AY 2023-24 Recommendations and 2024-25 Recommendations
Critical Thinking: Rubric, Assignment alignment checklist > Assignment Example
AY 2018-19 Recommendations
AY 2019-20 Recommendations
AY 2023-24 and 2024-25 Recommendations
Empirical and Quantitative Skills: Rubric, Assignment alignment checklist > Assignment Example
AY 2018-19 Recommendations
AY 2019-20 Recommendations
AY 2024-2026 Implementations and Recommendations
Personal Responsibility: Rubric, Assignment alignment checklist > Assignment Example
AY 2018-19 Recommendations
AY 2019-20 Recommendations
AY 2024-2026 Implementations and Recommendations
Social Responsibility: Rubric, Assignment alignment checklist > Assignment Example
AY 2018-19 Recommendations
AY 2019-20 Recommendations
AY 2024-2026 Implementations and Recommendations
Teamwork: Rubric, Assignment alignment checklist > Assignment Example
AY 2018-19 Recommendations
AY 2019-20 Recommendations
AY 2024-2026 and Implementations and Recommendations
III. Directions on How to Submit Student Artifacts:
After you have collected student artifacts for Core Assessment, you can submit them to your campus Core Assessment email. Click on the following link to access specific instructions on how to prepare the submission files and what the campus email addresses are:
Directions on How to Submit Student Artifacts
IV. Campus Contact for Core Assessment:
Each campus has a Core Assessment faculty representative to support faculty's Core assessment efforts. These faculty representatives are also in charge of their campuses' Core Assessment emails. Please refer to the following chart for the campus Core Assessment emails:
| LSC Core Assessment Email by Campus | |
| Campus | Core Assessment Emails |
| CF | CF-CoreAssessment@lonestar.edu |
| HN | HN-CoreAssessment@lonestar.edu |
| KW | KW-CoreAssessment@lonestar.edu |
| MC | MC-CoreAssessment@lonestar.edu |
| NH | NH-CoreAssessment@lonestar.edu |
| OL | ol-coreassessment@lonestar.edu |
| TC | TC-CoreAssessment@lonestar.edu |