Quantitative Literacy Course

Drafting Your Proposal – Proposing a Quantitative Literacy Integrative Studies Course

After a thorough review of these guidelines, sponsors should log into the Curriculum Proposals web site. Use the Sponsor Tutorial to learn how to create, edit, and submit your proposal online.

When you create a proposal online, a Microsoft Word document will be provided to help you write your proposal. You will need to download this document, type your proposal, and upload the document back to the web site before submitting your proposal online. The Microsoft Word document, as provided, contains the following sections that must be completed:

Proposal Sponsor(s): Identify the department and the person who should be contacted regarding the proposal. Include phone number and e-mail address. This person is expected to attend divisional and Senate Curriculum Committee meetings to discuss the proposal.

Proposed Action: Select the type of action proposed.

Existing (Old) Data: There will be no old data as this will be a new course.

Proposed (New) Course: Provide the proposed course description in its entirety and as it would appear in the KSC Catalog. If this change affects other programs, please note all the places (page numbers in the current catalog) where this change must be made.

Quantitative Literacy IQL 101

Proposed (New) Course Title: Limit the course title to 30 characters, including spaces. If more characters are absolutely necessary for clarity, the sponsor should submit an abbreviated title to assure an intelligible abbreviated title of choice (for use in the student information system, on transcripts, etc.).

Proposed (New) Course Description: There will be a generic description for all QL courses as there is for the TW courses. Limit the Course Description to 50 words, not including prerequisites (there are no prerequisites for IQL courses). Prerequisites should be clear and specific, e.g., as courses (e.g., ENG 101) or number of credits required. Finally, specify semester(s) the course will be offered.

Course Objectives: Identify the knowledge and or skills the student will have an opportunity to gain as a result of completing this course or program.

Learning Outcomes: State knowledge and or skills students will be expected to demonstrate by completion of this course or program of study. The ISP Outcome Expectations (ISP Chart) document is located on the Integrative Studies Web Page (www.keene.edu/ISP ).

Quantitative Literacy Outcomes

Students will be able to:

Apply the basic methods of descriptive statistics, including both pictorial representations and numerical summary measures, to analyze data.
Use appropriate software to create spreadsheets, tables, graphs and charts.
Read and interpret visually represented data.
Distinguish among various types of growth models (e.g., linear, exponential) and the types of situations for which the models are appropriate.

· Critically read and interpret a quantitative problem.

· Pose a question in the form of a mathematical model in order to solve the problem.

· Apply prior knowledge to solve a new problem.

Skills Outcomes – identify those skills that will be given primacy (helping students further develop) in your course. Under each skill you identify, identify your expectations. Please refer to the document “Summary of Integrative Outcomes on the ISP web page (www.keene.edu/ISP ) for program expectations for the following skills.

Reading:
Writing
Information literacy
Critical Thinking
Critical Dialogue
Technological Fluency

7. Quantitative Reasoning

8. Creative Thinking

Integrative Outcomes – identify the one(s) that you will be addressing in your course. Please refer to the document “Summary of Integrative Outcomes on the ISP web page (www.keene.edu/ISP ) for program expectations for the following general outcomes.

Diversity

Ethics

Global Issues

Social and Environmental Engagement

Rationale: Explain why this change is being made. Address the connection with institutional mission, and/or department, program, and course objectives.

Resources: For course proposals, include the name of the faculty member(s) who will be teaching this course. Indicate whether additional staffing will be required. Review the adequacy of facilities, equipment and library resources. Consult your department's library liaison concerning library resources. Also, consider the long-term impact of adding a course or adding or altering a program. When a proposal has staffing, space, or monetary implications, the VPAA must be consulted and his or her comments should be included in this section.

Advisory Opinions: List the names of affected departments and include department responses. Advisory opinions are required whenever a proposal affects the curricula of other programs. A proposal must list all affected departments. An advisory opinion must be solicited at least two weeks prior to delivery of the proposal to the Divisional Curriculum Committee. Affected departments have two weeks to respond to the request for an advisory opinion. Responses should be attached to the proposal. In the event that affected departments do not respond, evidence of the request for an advisory opinion from non-respondents must be provided. If a proposal affects a curriculum in a division other than that of the sponsor, each relevant department and the DCC in that division must review and approve the proposal as well. (The electronic curriculum review process tracks votes and comments as required at each stage of the review.)

EXAMPLE

After a thorough review of these guidelines, sponsors should log into the Curriculum Proposals web site. Use the Sponsor Tutorial to learn how to create, edit, and submit your proposal online.

Proposed Action: Select the type of action proposed.

Existing (Old) Data: There will be no old data as this will be a new course.

Quantitative Literacy IQL 101

Proposed (New) Course Description: There will be a generic description for all QL courses. Limit the Course Description to 50 words, not including prerequisites (there are no prerequisites for IQL courses). Prerequisites should be clear and specific, e.g., as courses (e.g., ENG 101) or number of credits required. Finally, specify semester(s) the course will be offered.

Course Objectives: Identify the knowledge and or skills the student will have an opportunity to gain as a result of completing this course or program.

Quantitative Literacy Outcomes

Students will be able to:

Apply the basic methods of descriptive statistics, including both pictorial representations and numerical summary measures, to analyze data.
Use appropriate software to create spreadsheets, tables, graphs and charts.
Read and interpret visually represented data.
Distinguish among various types of growth models (e.g., linear, exponential) and the types of situations for which the models are appropriate.

· Critically read and interpret a quantitative problem.

· Pose a question in the form of a mathematical model in order to solve the problem.

· Apply prior knowledge to solve a new problem.

Disciplinary Outcomes

Students will:

develop an elementary conceptual understanding of fundamental ideas encountered in the study of descriptive and inferential statistics, including: populations and samples; random variables; data organization and description; regression and correlation; probability; sampling distributions; confidence intervals; and hypothesis testing; apply methods of statistical inference, including confidence intervals and hypothesis tests, to gain information about a population of interest.

Integrative Outcomes

Ethics

Students will be able to:

· identify the ethical issues within a discipline.

· solve an ethical problem associated with a discipline.

Social and Environmental Engagement

Students will be able to:

demonstrate a commitment to analyzing and/or solving social and/or environmental issues.

Skills Outcomes

Reading

In this course you will be expected to critically read and interpret quantitative-oriented problems and visually represented data. This will require that you

§ read with an awareness of purpose;

§ identify goals to focus attention;

§ select information relevant to a purpose.

Writing

§ A formal written paper is a required component of the QL course project. In addition, throughout this course you will be expected to use writing to clearly and precisely convey your conclusions and reasoning, as well as to put your conclusions into context. This will require you to

§ write with purpose;

§ organize, state, and develop ideas clearly.

Critical Dialogue

An oral presentation of the QL course project is required. In making this presentation you will be expected to

§ organize what you wish to convey;

§ avoid “fillers” (uh, you know, like), meet time guidelines, and project your voice;

§ demonstrate thoroughness of research and effective preparation.

§ You will also be expected to listen to and learn from other students’ project presentations. In doing so you should

§ demonstrate active listening by being attentive and engaged,

§ maintain focus on the content of the presentation regardless of the speaker’s style of delivery.

Critical Thinking

In this course you will be expected to interpret the results of various statistical procedures in the context of a given problem situation. In doing so, you will

§ analyze and interpret evidence, conjectures, and alternative strategies related to a given idea, problem, task, or goal;

§ analyze and interpret arguments made by oneself and by others to formulate and defend a conjecture or thesis.

Technological Fluency

In this course you will be expected to make appropriate use of technology in organizing and describing data as well as in carrying out computations and performing statistical tests. In particular, you will

§ use a database and/or spreadsheet to access and set up information;

§ employ computer media (visual images, graphical displays, etc.) as appropriate in academic work .

Information Literacy

This course focuses on the analysis of data. In working with data you will be expected to

§ evaluate its usefulness and reliability;

§ incorporate it into written work and oral presentations.

Quantitative Reasoning

As this course is designed to serve as a Quantitative Literacy experience within the college’s Integrative Studies Program, it makes considerable use of quantitative reasoning. In particular, you will

§ use an array of numerical manipulations to interpret basic information;

§ read and interpret graphs, charts and tables in common media;

§ analyze the relationships between two variables;

§ use the basic measurements of statistics;

§ use symbolic expressions to represent, convey, and interpret relationships among variables;

§ develop and apply appropriate quantitative-oriented problem-solving strategies;

§ read and interpret graphs, charts and tables in discipline specific media;

§ perform simple data analysis, both numerical and graphical;

§ draw conclusions and inferences supported by own data analysis;

critically evaluate conclusions and inferences drawn by others based on data presented as support.

Rationale: Explain why this change is being made. Address the connection with institutional mission, and/or department, program, and course objectives.