*Republished and revised from the March 2017 issue of The Kayseean. For more current information about the OAK, contact your advisor or the registrar at King University.
By Catherine Walsh
The Outcomes Assessment at King (known as the OAK) is the “comprehensive assessment” for general education for all students. It is a test of knowledge and skills gained from general education courses. It does not matter whether you did the Core Curriculum at King or took your basic general courses at another institution.
According to Dr. Vande Brake, the OAK tests your general knowledge and evaluates your skills in writing, math, information literacy, and health and wellness. It also assesses critical thinking. These are the things you explore through the Core Curriculum and the required liberal arts courses at King. The Canvas course, KING 4020, assesses this information in two ways: directly, whereby the professor gives a grade, and indirectly, which is when the student gets the chance to complete a survey.
The test is made up of 75 questions drawn from a pool of 150, and at this time there is no score that needs to be reached. Furthermore, the test does not have a time limit. You can also stop the test, save it, and return to it later. “The test is solely for the self-assessment of the stated ‘Core Curriculum’ outcomes,” explained Dr. Katherine Vande Brake in a recent interview. All King bachelor-level students take the test, which is in module B of their graduation semester. It is also available in the Canvas Course, KING 4020. If you are graduating this spring and you do not see this course on your Canvas menu, contact the registrar immediately.
All students will have a different test because the questions are pulled randomly from pools of questions, which have been created by current professors of general education courses at King. The test covers all five of the broad areas identified as important foundational categories that are common to general education at U.S. colleges and universities:
- Citizenship
- Intellectual & Practical skills
- Human Culture
- Human Creative Products
- Natural Science
The first thing you will see when you enter KING 4020 is the 20-item survey that permits you to rate your attainment level for the Core Curriculum learning outcomes. You can find more information about the Core Curriculum and the many courses you can choose from in the different programs in the King University Catalog.
“This is the second year the test has been running and it is a great test to show us what students have learned,” said Vande Brake.
Former student Lindsay Curtis stated, “It helps us focus on core subjects that we previously have taken at King.” Curtis graduated in December 2017 and had to take the test to graduate. “It makes you think about classes that may have happened 5 or 6 semesters ago, and it was interesting to see what I learned over this period.”
Each student is required to take the OAK to graduate from King University.
Note: This is a republication of an article from 2017. For more current information about the OAK, contact your advisor or the registrar at King University.
