Although the academic programs of the School have been in existence for many years, the School, as an organizational unit is five years old. The School continues to seek both internal and external feedback that will improve the overall efforts to prepare graduates for the future.

The School of Recreation and Sport Sciences, the largest of the six schools of the College, offers a wide variety of programs at the undergraduate and masters degree levels.

The School submitted its UCC Seven Year UCC review during the fall of 1997 and received a favorable review of its programs. See Appendix A.

Undergraduate Programs:

Athletic Training-Athletic Training/Exercise Physiology, Physical Education, Sport Sciences-

Exercise Physiology, Sport Industry, Youth Sports, Aquatics Management, Sports for Special Populations, Coaching and Teaching, Recreation Studies-Adventure Recreation, Outdoor Education and Camping, Recreation Management, Special Interests, Therapeutic Recreation

Graduate Programs:

Master of Science in Physiology of Exercise, Master of Sport Administration, Master of Science in Physical Education-Athletic Administration, Athletic Training, Foundations of Teaching and Coaching, Physical Education, Recreation Studies, Sport Physiology and Adult Fitness

Two undergraduate programs have external accrediting bodies. The undergraduate athletic training program is accredited by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA). Graduates of the program are eligible to take the Board of Certification national examination. The undergraduate program submitted its re-accreditation materials at the end of fall quarter and a site visit by the accrediting body is expected during the fall of 1998. The physical education program received its re-accreditation notice during the fall by the National Council on Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE). These students must also pass the National Teachers Exam (NTE) before they can obtain Ohio teaching certification. The State of Ohio, Department of Education initiated a plan in 1998 requiring state licensure for all public school teachers effective 2002. This will apply to the 1998 freshman class. The School submitted its curricular plan for compliance in February of 1997 but at this reporting has not received feedback from the State.

Three majors; Aquatic Management, Sport for Special Populations, Youth Sports are being eliminated for entering students Fall 1998 due to a history of low demand and the need to redistribute resources where enrollment demands were increasing. A fourth major, Coaching will be submitted to UCC was moved to a minor.

During this past year of assessment activities, the faculty engaged in constructive dialogue about student learning, courses, curriculum, and expected student outcomes. This proved to be a valuable process as faculty work collectively to offer programs that prepare students to be competitive in the job market and to pursue further study.

Some of the assessment measures were already in place and appeared to be effective. Others needed modification or revision and for some objectives, new measures or indicators needed to be identified and developed. This work took place throughout the year.

Over the course of the year available data were reviewed and some of the revised and new measures were implemented. In some areas, follow-up data collectioned will take place over the summer. Some aspects of ongoing outcomes assessment were discussed monthly at faculty meetings held by the director or program coordinators. Each program identified earlier in this report submitted individual reports by program addressing areas requested for this year’s outcomes assessment report. The following is a narrative summary of this year’s assessment activities from these sources.

Goals identified in the first year were not modified for this year’s report. Given some data were gathered over the summer and that there was only one year’s worth of data to work with, it was believed to be in the best interest of the process not to make a change after just one year. The following report utilizes examples of current assessment practices within degree programs used across the School

Each end of program objective will be introduced in this next section. The discussion will include the (1) objective; (2) how student learning was assessed, test instruments, and modifications from last year; (3) accomplishments; and (4) improvements/enhancements/ developments implemented, as appropriate. The conclusion of the report will discuss the School’s recommendations for the future.

All undergraduate and graduate programs require some level of experiential field based learning through practica, internship, coaching and student teaching opportunities. Forms used to solicit feedback from preceptors were developed, where none had existed, or updated to evaluate specific knowledge of the field, decision making, communication, interpersonal skills and professional behavior competencies. Responses from these forms were compiled to establish positive or negative trends that may have programmatic or educational implications.

Further evidence of meeting program competencies can be measured by the result of external certification requiring a national standardized exam. Although not required for all jobs, many students seeking employment in their respective professions take one of the following exams. Student teachers must take the National Teachers Exam (NTE) to be certified to teach in the public schools. All students who took the test were certified. Students going into therapeutic recreation can take the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC) Exam in November of each year. At the graduate level the Master of Science in Physical Education- Sport Physiology and Adult Fitness Program have a required School comprehensive exam to complete their degree. The exam required both written and skill evaluation of expected end of program competencies of student learning. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) administers a national certification exam for exercise physiologists that enhances graduates job placement opportunities. Most students take this exam after completion of their master’s degree and report the results to their advisor. Our school also served as a new test site, and will continue to do so, for the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). This certification is desired by employers of exercise physiologist, coaches and athletic trainers. Undergraduate students in athletic training must pass the board of certification exam administered by the National Athletic Trainer’s Association to be employed in the profession.

Accomplishments:

Of the 14 Sport Physiology and Adult Fitness graduates completing the School based comprehensive exam for their degree, two were required to complete some remedial work and take a make up exam on one of the two sections. Some modifications of the exam were made for this year’s class, but the plan is to continue with this type of assessment for these students.

This pilot project has been encouraging, with other masters programs considering adoption of a similar capstone requirement with modifications for handling larger numbers. This would be added to the next graduate catalog.

The NCTRC scores reporting summary always includes the average of the last three years so the exact results of last years class cannot be identified within the three year average, but the test scores were slightly above the national average which is ten points above the cut-off score to be certified. This shows little difference in the results from the previous years. Because this is self reported a pass rate is not available and some students may take the exam a year post graduation.

All graduate exercise physiology students (15) who took the Exercise Leader Certification Exam through the American College of Sports Medicine passed, comparison data against a national norm is not provided.

All 14 graduating seniors passed the National Board Exam for Athletic Trainers by National Athletic Trainers’ Association within one year of graduation at or slightly above the national norm. Specific results are reported in accomplishments under objective two.

Two athletic training students were awarded academic scholarships by the National Athletic Trainers Association for academic excellent; of 50 awarded nationally only one other institution had two recipients.

The exam results for the national strength and conditioning exam for exercise physiology students indicated all 44 OU students who sat for the exam were certified. Last years data presented summary results by test site. Since students from other institutions took the test, no comparison data of OU’s group performance could be made. We did contact NSCA to see if a special code number could be used for this year’s class that could present that type of comparison in the future.

The competency based evaluation implemented last year for all practica experiences has shown to be a big improvement over the previous pass/fail assessment from preceptors in providing specific feedback regarding specific professional behaviors expected at the placement site. No area of concern was identified. The best outcomes was the direct feedback to the students about their performance by each supervisor and a record of their performance for their school file that can be used to assist in writing letters of recommendation.

In athletic training, undergraduate students will pilot keeping "journals" to document their clinical experiences over the quarter to objectively evaluate and provide programmatic feedback . New courses in Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Gross Anatomy will be investigated. Many of the recently NATA-accredited programs have such courses and the NATA is "encouraging" these curriculum additions.

In recreation studies exit interviews and curriculum surveys conducted in REC 449, 472, and 675 indicated that students generally feel that they received a quality education. All recreation students also complete a self assessment of themselves during each field experience and internship placement. These self assessments indicate that students are well prepared for these endeavors and that they gain valuable practical experiences within the curriculum that was required at the internship site. To date, most of our assessment data have been qualitative. This data was analyzed looking for emergent themes and other professional trends and issues. Students did specify concerns of overlapping of content and some duplication of undergraduate and graduate curriculum for those in the master’s program who had also received their bachelor’s degree in recreation studies from OU. This year REC 475 (Adventure Programming) and the graduate 675 (Adventure Progamming) were taught by two different faculty. Other concerns of duplicate content were addressed as part of the accreditation self-study. As a result of this feedback, the following changes will be made in the existing recreation studies curriculum to submit for the next catalog.

-REC 403 (History of Recreation) will be incorporated into REC 200 (Introduction to Leisure) and credit hours will be increased from a two hour to four hour course in REC 200 to reflect this change.

-REC 345 (Camp Leadership) will be incorporated into REC 250 (Recreation Leadership)

-The Therapeutic Recreation concentration will be realigned and sequenced to be more compatible with NRPA accreditation guidelines.

-Pre-internship workshops will be held regularly for all students planning internships during the summer and academic year.

This is an area that continues to need attention. Faculty have identified courses that have intensive writing components in the course requirements but have not effectively identified tools for measuring written or verbal skills for each program area. Other than the NATA exam that has specific verbal and written components, and feedback from preceptors who were asked to evaluate written and oral communication skills as a part of the evaluation forms submitted at the conclusion of internship experiences discussed below in Accomplishments, little more has been implemented for assessing writing skills.

Athletic Training utilizes quarterly evaluations modeled after the NATA exam that requires oral and skill assessment. This reinforces critical areas of injury management and care and provides immediate feedback to the faculty evaluators that relate to course content and lectures on the specific anatomical areas being treated.

Practitioners supervising student practica and internships continue to be the best means of feedback. Questions specifically requesting assessment of written and verbal skills, professional conduct, attire, working relations and interaction with customers, clients, or public are included in the evaluation forms for each student.

In Athletic Training, summaries from the NATA Board of Certification reported passing percentage for the written section has dropped slightly to 4.5% below the national average in 1997. The passing percentage for the oral section maintained its higher than national average status by remaining 7.0% above in 1997. The written simulation section results increased from 9.23% above the national average last year to 41% above the national average with a 100% passing rate for first time exams. We hypothesze that the change we made last year in the Senior level evaluation time, increasing from 30 minutes to 60 minutes, has provided the opportunity to explore more problem based learning experiences as well as useful feedback.

Preceptor feedback for the year indicated most students satisfactorily meet communication expectations at the placement site. On a scale of 1-4, with 4 being desirable, preceptors rated 84% of the students at 3 or above which is a slight improvement over last year.

Annual feedback has been positive and complimentary of students in every program. Much of the success of this may actually be due to mentorship through the advisement process with faculty.

Last year the school raised the TOFEL score, from 550 to 580, required of international students to be admitted to any program in the School. This has appeared to have been a positive change in facilitating international students through the curriculum. Only one student who was a carryover from the previous year, when the test score was lower, was placed on suspension, and none are on probation. Continued articulation needs to take place with OPIE regarding the perception international students have, that if they complete their OPIE requirement they are ready to be admitted to any academic program.

In at least one course at both the undergraduate and graduate level students are required to complete case studies that they are likely to encounter in their career. Often these are group discussions facilitated by the instructor that helps students to formulate and articulate their views as they role play professional decisions and gain insights of the ramifications of their actions. Examples include gender equity issues in athletics, rehab and drug use in athletic training, safety and environmental issues in recreation studies and budgeting and hiring issues in all programs.

Use of case studies was cited as positives in the courses they were used from written comments in the student evaluations.

There are several questions regarding professional behavior that preceptors are required to respond to on evaluation forms for practica and internships regarding professional behaviors. A summary of last year’s responses are listed below in Accomplishments.

Student responses to case studies can be evaluated by comparing their answer or solution to stated professional ethical standards that exist in therapeutic recreation, athletic training and other professional disciplines for example. In other programs use of case studies assesses the students’ ability to deal within the parameter of applied or imposed rules or policies that exist in some organizations that must guide decisions such as the NCAA for those going into athletic administration in intercollegiate athletics.

Feedback from preceptors is also used to measure professional behavior in practica or internship experiences. Preceptors are asked to respond to: ability to work with others, dependability, cooperativeness and professional attitude. The response of preceptors on a scale of 1-4, with 4 being desirable, rated 89% at 3 or better for professional behaviors during practica or internship experiences. This is down 2% from last year but not significant considering the number of majors.

None to report in this area.

Use of case studies has also proven to be an excellent vehicle for developing and practicing skills

in this area. Students in the graduate Sports Administration program are put in administrative teams and required to identify an special event for which they must develop a marketing plan and budget. They then must present their proposal to their peers as perspective clients for funding or sponsoring of this project.

All graduate students take practica hours as a part of their course work. Questions addressing the competencies identified in objective four are included in the new evaluation form completed by the supervisor. This allows for a review to identify strengths or weaknesses. No significant notable concerns were identified from the first year sample of responses.

In addition to traditional methods, Athletic Training formally utilizes daily contact with students in the clinical setting to work on problem based learning using injury case studies. This requires an oral evaluation to be conducted two times per quarter for juniors and seniors to monitor their progress in critical decision making situations. A clinical form was introduced last year to assess 60 different skills and behaviors expected at the sophomore, junior and senior levels. Again these seem to have paid some dividend in the national exam scores.

The School still needs to broaden its assessment of the competencies in objective four into all the program disciplines in the unit.

Two new skill teaching models "Skill Theme Instruction" and "Authentic Assessment" were being considered for instructional application for students taking skill methodology courses. This has temporarily taken a lower priority due to other curricular development priorities, but will be considered in discussion and plans of new curriculum delivery.

In Athletic Training a clinical skills check sheet is used on a quarterly basis to evaluate diagnostic strengths and weakness and chart progress of these skills that establishes a base line of competency for each of hundreds of injury assessments students will encounter as future trainers. Several other institutions have contacted us to implement a similar system for their students using our assessment tools as a model.

The additional focus on clinical instruction and evaluation in Athletic Training has likely contributed to the increase scores on the NATA exam.

Improvements/Enhancements/Implementation:

The graduate orientation and the new GA application materials did help in selection and advisement of graduate students in the first week of the year. Orientation evaluations feedback from last years class have been modified for this coming fall. In light of discussions regarding procedures for selecting GA candidates across campus, the school is putting in place a selection process for a GA or tuition scholarship award to be included with the letter of acceptance for graduate school.

An exit interview or written survey was administered to all graduate students asking them to respond in retrospect to their educational experience.

Athletic Trainers are still conducting research projects that are submitted to NATA for presentation or publication. The result of last year’s effort follows in Accomplishments.

Sports Administration students were provided opportunity to enhance their knowledge through quasi-clinical experiences. Current students solicited alumni and friends in the first SAFM fundraising campaign, applying their theoretical knowledge through practical application. Students also put in a total of 1000 hours filling a range of responsibilities at the five home football games. Additional special event activities included: Halloween Hoopla, OU Men’s and Women’s Basketball tip-off classic, Mid American Conference Swimming Championships, and new this year, the Sports Leadership Speaker Series hosting Dick Schultz, Executive Director of the United States Olympic Committee. All of these were opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge through practical application.

During the winter break these students participated in cooperative learning experiences with organizations like the National Association for Professional Baseball Leagues, the Raleigh Civic Center, the Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl, NCAA Division II National Football Championships, and the Federal Express Orange Bowl.

Raising the admissions GPA and adding the GRE score to our admission requirements from the previous year, in an effort in raise the quality of student we attract and admit, did not significantly impact the number of admissions for the fall 1998 graduate class. Moving admissions deadline up one month was a problem because of conflicting deadlines in collateral print material that will be resolved next year. Campus recreation and athletics GA’s are still going to be late admits due to differences in conference schedules when candidates are considered for positions.

The addition of the two-page biography to the graduate admissions did assist faculty in admitting and advising student to guide them to accomplish their projected career goals.

Over 60% of the Sports Administration graduate class were hired by their employers at the conclusion of their internship. The remaining 40% found positions in another sport related organization largely due to the experience they gained in their initial internship.

Two graduate students had articles published in the NATA Journal, one of which received third place as Outstanding Non-manuscript (case study) Award for the year.

Moving the Athletic Training program from a nine to twelve month program has proven to be a good decision. Students have been positive about the summer addition and the new sequence of courses has been received favorably.

In Athletic Training three new labs were added to the graduate curriculum to address weaknesses identified in the exit interviews. These include two-hour labs for Orthopedic Assessment, Therapeutic Exercise and Therapeutic Modalities. The implementation of an Academic Advisement Profile helped to identify student interest areas to better guide them to elective courses and required projects that will help them meet their goals.

In Sports Administration, two courses offered experimentally last year, Sports Licensing and Sports Promotions, will be submitted to curriculum as permanent additions to the program curriculum.

Recommendations from alumni and the advisory board lead to re-tooling SAFM 691, Research Design to focus on applied research skills required in the sports management industry.

Moving both PESS 691, Research Methods and PESS 609, Statistics to a summer-fall or fall-winter sequence to give students the course and tools to start research projects at the beginning of their studies in an effort to enable them to be able to complete more research projects for publication or presentations has appeared to have been a good decision. Faculty have noted an improvement in the quality of written work and consistency in format (APA) that was inconsistent in previous years.

Students who were admitted into the graduate program with baccalaureate degrees from OU identified a lack of new content in some graduate level courses that they had as undergraduates (i.e., dual listed courses or the same instructor teaching similar courses at both undergraduate and graduate level). Some teaching assignments were changed so the same faculty member teaching the undergraduate course was not also teaching the graduate level course and/or syllabi were revised to address this concern. There has been improvement in this area, but still enough feedback that it needs an additional review. The addition of replacement faculty in the next year is likely to have some positive impact on this concern.

Develop more definitive alumni survey that could yield some data for curriculum or program changes and improvements.

Implement an internship evaluation tool, separate from the student internship evaluation, that would be given one month after students have completed their assignments. The tool would be completed by the internship preceptor in an attempt to gain program assessment of how well students were prepared for the internship responsibilities and to separate it from the student’s individual evaluation.

Develop a tracking system that will indicate how many (%) seniors go on to graduate school and survey them after they complete their masters program to assess how effective their undergraduate degree was in preparing them for graduate school. It has been difficult to get alumni to complete the needed follow-up one year post graduation to discuss their graduate experience with respect to their undergraduate education.

For several years feedback from student course evaluations and faculty discussions had raised concerns that sports industry and exercise physiology programs required too many courses in physical education pedagogy that were inappropriate for students seeking employment in these professional fields. Faculty expertise was a primary obstacle to change, however, several retirements this past year has provided the opportunity for new faculty expertise to development specific curriculums to meet content needs in each area. With the deletion of Youth Sports, Aquatics Management, Sport for Special Populations and Coaching majors, resources can be devoted to strengthening three specific major areas of study in sport sciences; physical education/teacher education, sports industry, and exercise physiology. There will be some classes that will be appropriate for more than one major area but as a whole, curriculum will be specific to physical education pre K-12, sports industry that will primarily have a sport management focus, and exercise physiology that will primarily have fitness/wellness focus.

To comply with new state licensure requirements for teacher education, physical education will require new strategies designed to better deliver content, and better reflect the needs of pre-K through 12th grade school programs in physical education. This will involve a program overhaul which will reveal new and repackaged courses, new and improved delivery systems, and new assessment methodologies.

For Sports Industry, the new curriculum will be developed based on an existing NASSM/NASPE sport management program accreditation model. New faculty members will assist in the development of the sports industry curriculum in the fall 1998.

The faculty are also recommending for the next catalog that minimum standards be established for physical education, sports industry, and exercise physiology. These standards include students achieving a C (75%) or better in all required classes within the major.

In recreation studies the program faculty are involved in completing a comprehensive program self-study as the first phase of national Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) accreditation. In completing this study, course content is evaluated against competency guidelines for the curriculum. This self-study is an ongoing two year project preparing for a site visit by NRPA.

Develop an alumni survey to provide additional feedback for all programs, after the student has been employed.

Complete the establishment of program advisory committees comprised of current practioners, this process is well underway with a few committees still to be completely filled. Due to scheduling conflicts the first meeting had to be delayed till fall 1998.

Complete an additional assessment tool for internship supervisors, to complete in addition to the intern evaluations. This will provide additional program feedback that will be separate from student evaluations.

The School is preparing for significant changes in the coming year, some of those are due to external forces, including a move out of Grover Center over the winter break and delivering it’s curriculum in the Ping Center and other temporary space during renovations, acceditation, state licensure, and new curriculum programs. These are all expected to have some impact on the ongoing outcomes assessment process in the school, much of it expected to be positive.

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