Weber State University   

Bachelor of Integrated Studies

Results of Assessment

2007-2008 (submitted 05/21/08)

Submitted by Dr. Kathleen Sitzman, B.I.S. Coordinator

This annual program assessment begins May 10, 2007 and ends May 11, 2008.

Students in the program:

According to Crystal Report, 124 students are currently declared as BIS majors. In previous years, the B.I.S. program had the following numbers of students:

• 2006-2007 n=120
• 2005-2006 n= 114  
• 2004- 2005 n= 111

Incoming students:

From May 9th 2007 to May 14th 2008, 65 students were admitted to the B.I.S. program. (See attached list for names, date admitted to the program, and areas of emphasis.) In previous years, the B.I.S. program admitted the following numbers of students:

• 2006-2007 n=62
• 2005-2006 n= 65
• 2004-2005 n=51.

Distribution of academic disciplines:

The following information is attached to this report:

• Areas of concentration for incoming BIS students in 2007-2008.

• Areas of concentration for exiting BIS students in 2007-2008.

The departments are listed, in order of greatest to least number of participating BIS students.

Graduating students:

From May 8, 2007 to May 2, 2008, 35 students were cleared for graduation. (See the enclosed list for names and areas of emphases. In previous years, the B.I.S. program graduated the following numbers of students:

• 2006-2007 n= 35 
• 2005-2006 n= 30

Prospective students:

During academic year 2007-2008, 231 students attended a bi-weekly information session. In previous years, the following numbers of students attended an information session:

• 2006-2007 n=251
• 2005-2006 n= 259
• 2004-2005 n=204

About 1 in 4 students who investigate the BIS program by attending an information session actually follow through by applying to the program. There are many legitimate reasons why students don't become BIS students. For example:

• They have just started General Education requirements, so I encourage them to wait a year until they have a better sense of what they want to choose as a major.

• They want three areas in the same department; e.g. HPHP, in which case I send them to the HPHP advisor.

• They are hoping for a quick way to graduate and are disappointed to discover that the BIS program will not provide a short cut to their goal.

• They want a BIS-unfriendly area of emphasis such as Business (which requires 31 hours), so the program is not practical for them.

We advise students about WSU General Education requirements in each B.I.S. information session, and I view this as an advising service to the university rather than merely a recruiting opportunity for BIS.

Faculty honorarium:

Faculty committee members are offered a $100 honorarium for each capstone they work on ($300 for each capstone since there are three faculty members on each capstone committee) to show our appreciation for the extra work involved with mentoring a B.I.S. student through the capstone process. Faculty only receive the honorarium if they fulfill the requirements of the capstone contract (attending the prospectus meeting and oral defense, and giving timely feedback). The honorarium is awarded when the student completes the project and a grade is posted.

This year, with the generous help of Academic Affairs, 90 honorariums were awarded. 49 (54%) went to individual faculty members, and 41 (46%) were returned to the university in the form of contributions to a scholarship or other charitable fund.

In 2007-2008, 41of the honorariums were returned to the university in the form of donations to scholarships and other Weber funds, so the whole university benefits from the BIS honorariums.

Changes/Additions to the B.I.S. Program during the 2007-2008 Academic Year:

• In January 2008, Dr. Kathleen Sitzman replaced Dr. Judy Elsley as Coordinator of the B.I.S. program. Dr. Elsley went on to direct the Honor’s Program.

• In response to consistent student request, Dr. Sitzman created an EDUC3800 online course to be offered Summer, Fall, and Spring. This course went live this summer (Summer 2008) with 19 students enrolled. The cap on enrollment for this course is set at 18, but the cap was raised to 19 this one time to accommodate one additional student.

• In conjunction with the Continuing Education Department, a committee was formed to identify departments that would be able and willing to offer a B.I.S. area of emphasis totally online. The department consisted of Dr. Sitzman, Garry Belton, Lonnie Campbell, Julie Snowball, and Bettie Turman. Four emphasis areas were identified and then approved by Department Chairs through a series of meetings:

  • History

  • Health Sciences

  • Nutrition

  • Sales and Service Technology (SST)

• The B.I.S. WSU Homepage was augmented and updated:

  • All B.I.S. Departmental forms were updated and reformatted where necessary and then made available to students on the website.

  • A new tab outlining online B.I.S. emphasis areas was created.

• After polling faculty Capstone Committee members and finding that there was significant confusion related to precisely what a faculty member should do to appropriately support the Capstone process, I decided to send each identified Capstone committee member an introductory letter, Capstone Project Description handout, and a Faculty Responsibilities handout so that they would have a clearer idea of what to do when serving on Capstone committees.  Students are required to turn in a signed Capstone committee contract after the prospectus meeting so it is possible to identify faculty Capstone committee members relatively early in the process. As soon as the student turns in the prospectus contract, the B.I.S. Administrative Assistant sends the letter and handouts to every faculty committee member via campus mail.

Goals for 2008-2009

• Create and distribute a B.I.S. Student Handbook to each student who enters the B.I.S. Program.

• Continue to work with the Continuing Education Department to identify other online B.I.S. emphasis areas and seek approval from department chairs to offer online B.I.S. emphasis areas to prospective students.

• Create a B.I.S. Advisory Committee which will be in the form of a listserv (in response to faculty request).

Note: I'd like to thank Pam Jones, the BIS Administrative Assistant, who gathered most of the information in this report.

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