Program Outcomes:Â Associate in Arts
Communication Competence
Learners will become effective communicators in their discipline.
Students will show that they can adapt their communication style as necessary and appropriate, to suit each unique situation.
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Goal 1: I will improve upon my ability to create effective informative tools to aid in my delivery of information to others.
Goal 2: I will work to become more adept at communicating my most important key points to my audience.
For my communication competence artifact, I chose a PowerPoint presentation that I designed to accompany a persuasive speech as a visual communication aid for my audience. I created this presentation in the summer of 2021 for Public Speaking, COM-231. This PowerPoint served as one of the major grades for this 8-week course, which was held asynchronously online. I was nervous to take this course because I am not a fan of speaking in public, but I also knew that it would be a valuable experience because it would allow me to hone and improve upon the already existing communication skills that I possess. In the presentation, I lay the foundation for communicating with my audience about my chosen topic, which was to persuade them to agree that uniforms should not be a part of high school dress codes at public schools. The goal of the project was to communicate the information to my audience clearly and in an organized manner, so that I might have a good chance of swaying them to my side of the fence on the issue at hand.
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In my presentation, I share how many of the perceived benefits of uniforms don’t actually exist. I shoot down ideas that uniforms create a level playing field and that they reduce distraction among students during instructional time. I also communicate the benefits of not having uniforms, by sharing key points with my audience like how they encourage individuality and reduce teacher involvement for write-ups. I also make sure that I give my audience information that is research-backed, with credible studies and sources, as well as inform them about thoughts from those who are directly affected like parents and students at the high school level.
I feel that a strength of this presentation is that I was able to communicate effectively with my audience, giving them clear reasons that supported my stance on my topic. As I fine-tuned my PowerPoint, I went back in and made some adjustments to images that I thought helped to communicate the key points that I was trying to convey. One area that I feel I would have liked to improve upon if time had permitted is to have added additional images of the actual students that I interviewed to share with my audience, perhaps even a video or a sound clip to accompany the information. This would have served to communicate the issues even better to the audience by really drawing them in.
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This artifact is an excellent demonstration of how I have improved upon my ability to create effective informative tools to aid in my delivery of information to my audience. I have met this goal by creating an eye-catching PowerPoint presentation to accompany my oral communication, making sure that everything was conveyed in an easy-to-read manner with no mistakes, and making sure that there weren’t areas that could benefit from some additional information to help the audience understand. The artifact also demonstrates my ability to be adept at communicating my most important key points to my audience. By making proper PowerPoint pages that only contain short, bulleted points, my audience was able to use that as their guide while I presented. So often, people use PowerPoints to just regurgitate the same information that they are speaking, and this only serves to confuse and distract the listener with big blocks of text. By analyzing my speech to discover my most important points, I was able to convey those specifically to my audience and limiting the occurrence of competing modes of communication.
Before this course, I was skilled at creating PPT presentations, but had never created one to accompany a structured speech before – only to accompany me when I had planned to speak casually on a topic, like reflecting on a project, or to serve as a stand-alone means of communication. After this experience, I can confidently say that I have learned how to effectively communicate with a visual aid like PowerPoint as a supplement to oral communication. Not only did I meet my goals, but I also was able to work on analyzing my work more critically, which can be useful in all areas of life, not just as a student.
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Understanding the Arts and Human Experience
The learner will apply the basic principles of interpretation and analysis to synthesize information.​
Students will show that they have the ability to not only understand but also analyze information presented to them.
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Goal 1: I will work to create a deeper appreciation for the why behind works of art, and the thought process behind those who create it.
Goal 2: I will learn to properly analyze work to determine the most important points in my bodies of work, so that I can emphasize those areas as key information.
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For my program artifact for understanding the arts and human experience, I chose a research paper that explores the life and work of a great American artist. I wrote this paper in Fall of 2020 for ART 111 – Art Appreciation. This research paper served as the final project for the 16-week course, which took place asynchronously online. I was excited to take this course because it was a low-stakes opportunity to really immerse myself into the art world and learn more about art history and design principles. In the paper, I chronicle the life of artist Georgia O’Keefe, particularly famous for her paintings of close-up flower blooms that resemble female genitalia.
When researching O’Keefe, I learned after digging deeper with my research that the commonly held belief that her floral pieces held vulgar intentions was a farce. O’Keefe herself has stated that that interpretation says more about the viewers of her art than it says about the artist. I found it interesting that even given her clarification people still insist on her intent, aiding in the notion that people will always interpret art differently no matter the circumstances, and that there’s no true right or wrong way. That’s part of what makes art great, and O’Keefe’s lack of explicit rebuttal to the interpretation shows that she likely agrees. I felt that a strength of this paper was my ability to recognize that just because someone’s interpretation of someone’s work is different from my own, doesn’t mean that it is wrong.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to hold a deeper appreciation for the “why” behind works of art. By researching and including O’Keefe’s personal background and upbringing, I was better able to analyze why her work changed as she progressed through life. I met this goal by not only understanding why she created her art, but by analyzing the contributing factors that were at play behind the scenes. The artifact also demonstrates my ability to properly analyze work to determine the most important points, so that they might be emphasized as key parts. Sharing where an artist grew up and basic influences of their art can be expected when creating a paper, but it takes more to really connect the two and actually show the connection. I met this goal by showing not only the places where the artist lived, but what the landscapes were like there and how even the smallest bit of beauty might be discovered and represented in the ugliest of places. Once this could be synthesized, the artist’s work become appreciated on an even deeper level. Much more so than if I were to simply share that the artist painted pictures of rocks because she lived in Arizona and that’s what she saw.
After this experience, I was left with a greater appreciation for an artist’s influences behind their art, even those we might not see at first glance. By looking with a more critical lens, I was able to interpret works of art differently and have a deeper understanding than I had before. Where in the past I might have overlooked a piece of art as I pass by, I am now more likely to try to look beneath its’ surface.
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Creative Problem Solving
Learners will apply appropriate techniques to solving problems within their discipline.
Students will show that they can think critically about issues and come up with appropriate solutions.
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ARTIFACT: This e-Portfolio (approved by T. Frailly on 8/16 via Teams meeting)
Goal 1: I will use my critical thinking and problem-solving skills to find a way to develop appropriate solutions for alternative artifacts for my ePortfolio, since my past experience at SPCC is not that of the typical student.
Goal 2: I will learn to create a cohesive finished product that demonstrates my skills and mastery of subjects.
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This artifact required me to get creative, which befitted the related program outcome perfectly. The ePortfolio serves as my artifact for the creative problem-solving program outcome. At the beginning of Humanities-115 (Critical Thinking), I realized very quickly that I did not have all of the necessary artifacts to complete my portfolio. As someone who was originally only enrolled at SPCC in order to take a few general education courses each semester to transfer back to a university as a way to save on tuition, I had no reason to save any of my work once the course had transferred. In January 2021, I made the decision to slightly shift gears and complete an Associate in Arts degree at the same time I was completing my Bachelor’s in Science at Appalachian State University. This allowed me to take easier courses at SPCC instead of the required GenEd workload at ASU, which in turn allowed me to juggle a much larger course load – to be specific, 24 hours per semester since the change was made.
This decision is what lead to the conundrum I was faced with in August of 2021, when my humanities professor and I realized that we’d have to get creative in our methods of showing mastery of some program outcomes. A few artifacts were simple to obtain, as any course I took after deciding to complete an AA now had saved work in my possession. Others were more difficult, like showing an understanding of the arts, or critical thinking. One artifact was still being used as an example for students in the course it was created in, so that was only a matter of tracking it down and getting a copy. Some just didn’t exist organically, like this one, no matter how creatively I tried to think – or so I thought.
This artifact is an excellent representation of my skills in solving problems creatively. Sometimes the desired solution is not available, and you cannot will it to appear if it is not. This ePortfolio demonstrates that I have utilized my critical thinking and problem-solving skills to find a way to develop an appropriate solution for alternative artifacts, since my experience at SPCC is far from that of the typical student. I feel that this is demonstrated by my ability to think outside the box to create viable solutions for all of my artifacts. I didn’t have it easy like the student that simply had to search through a folder and pick a favorite assignment from dozens of choices. Only by brainstorming and revisiting the problem multiple times was I able to create relevant artifacts for every area. This artifact also demonstrates my ability to create a cohesive finished product that demonstrates my skills and mastery of subjects. It does this by maintaining a clean interface that allows my work and my words to speak for themselves, highlighting the most important part of the ePortfolio: myself.
I knew going into this process that it was going to be a difficult one, not because of the work itself but because of the unique situation my circumstances put me in. I was forced to really analyze my options in order to find the best ways to show that I am adept at solving problems within my discipline. I am proud of the ePortfolio that I have created and know that it is an excellent testament to my skills.
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Social Scientific Literacy
Learners will demonstrate an understanding of social science methodologies in order to explain the consequences of human actions.
Students will show that they understand the nuances of society and the different groups that make up their world, and how our choices can affect not just the individual but also the future of our world.
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Goal 1: I will learn to recognize, understand, and demonstrate ways in which our society practices the functionalist theory of sociology.
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Goal 2: I will make myself more aware of the trickle-down effect of doing good (or bad) works as one person or a group, and how those decisions and actions can affect not just one's self but the entire world.
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For my social scientific literacy artifact, I chose a paper in the genre of musicology. I wrote this paper in the fall of 2019 for SOC 210 – Sociology. The paper served as the one of the major projects for the 16-week asynchronous online course. I was excited going into this course because I didn’t really have any concrete understanding of what sociology was other than that it dealt with people, and I was eager to learn more and broaden my understanding. In the paper, the goal was to research a song or artist that had left a significant impact on society.
I chose to focus on the multi-artist collaboration of “We are the World”, a project born of a desire to get food into the mouths of starving children and families across Africa. This is a song that has had a huge impact on society as a whole, affecting not only those who the proceeds went to, but the artists that created it, others involved, and even the general public. It has since been remade to address relief needs in Haiti, following a devastating earthquake that affected many impoverished people. While a consequence is often considered a negative thing, it simply means a result of one’s actions. In the case of “We are the World”, the consequences were vast, and in a very positive way.
This artifact demonstrates mastery of my goal of learning to recognize, understand, and demonstrate ways in which our society practices the functionalist theory of sociology. According to the theory of functionalism, we are all interdependent on each other, and group efforts like this piece of music can help us all to ensure that our society is something to be proud of. By Americans answering the call to give, they aren’t solving the issue of a lack of money in Africa. Rather, they’re doing what they can to address the societal issue of a lack of food. There are other, more complicated means to lead them towards self-reliance, but that isn’t a problem for the average American person to help with, so this was the solution. The artifact also demonstrates mastery of my goal to be more aware of the trickle-down effect of the things that we do. I achieve this by looking not only to the obvious result of the music, which is that money is raised to feed children. Without this song, who is to say that the next generation wouldn’t have created another version to help Haiti? The song also created awareness in the minds of millions of people, and even had a profound affect on those who volunteered their talents for the cause by reminding them that some things were more important than riches and fans.
This experience allowed me to reflect on my own life and consider ways in which my actions had effects that rippled out to others than those originally intended. For example, when I help place a dog at my rescue, I am helping not only the dog and the new family, but also a dog that has yet to be brought in, now that a space in the program has opened for them. These are things that we must take the time to realize, because while my given experiences with consequences of human action are good, they can also be bad, and realizing that can go a long way in improving things for future generations.
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