Program evaluation of an undergraduate program at a Midwestern university

The Psychology Department at the University of South Dakota is committed to providing its undergraduate students with a high quality education and is intent upon developing methods to evaluate the ways in which students benefit from their experience in this program. This study, which represents a new phase in the evolution of program evaluation in the Psychology Department at USD, surveyed psychology students at both the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University, as well as USD Alumni from the past five years and current USD Psychology Department Faculty. Several constructs were measured. First, the Expectations About Psychology Degree Scale was used to examine the different expectations held by students, alumni, and faculty. Findings suggest that students and alumni agree that the undergraduate degree should prepare graduates for a career at the BA/BS level while faculty are more uncertain. Conversely, faculty agree strongly that undergraduate courses such as statistics and research methods should be emphasized while students and alumni are less certain. The groups also differed on whether the psychology degree should emphasize personal growth and awareness. USD students reported being uncertain about whether this was an important part of the degree while SDSU students, USD alumni, and faculty disagreed with the need to emphasize this. Second, attitudes toward diversity, both personal attitudes and perceived attitudes of the psychology department, were measured using the Attitudes Toward Diversity Scale. The groups did not differ on the Personal Attitudes Factor. They did differ on the Perception of Department Climate About Diversity, however, the mean scores for all groups tended to fall in a fairly narrow range (between 3 and 4 on the Likert-type scale). The third and fourth constructs measured were accumulated general knowledge about psychology (Knowledge About Psychology Scale) and the ability to think critically (Critical Thinking Scale). These measures were only administered to USD students and results showed that students in the junior/senior group scored better in the Knowledge About Psychology than the group comprised of the freshmen and sophomores. The groups did not differ on the Critical Thinking Measure and possible explanations for this are offered. Finally, the Student Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness (SPTE) was used to compare students perceptions of the quality of courses at USD to the perceptions of students at Wichita State University. Results from this analysis did not support the hypothesis that USD would be rated at, or better, than the median scores of the normative group. Overall, this study provides evidence of a "value added" component to an undergraduate psychology degree at the University of South Dakota. Suggestions for improving the psychometrics of the new scales used in this study are provided as well as suggestions for future research.