ALIGNMENT OF A GEOLOGY PROGRAM CURRICULUM TO INDUSTRY SKILLS AT ARKANSAS TECH UNIVERSITY

In geology programs throughout the United States, a noticeable lack of standardized content and skillsets has led to evaluating curricula through a variety of approaches, some of which are so varied as to make comparisons between institutions arduous. In this study, a two-step process to both (1) evaluate the extent to which industry skills are being taught and (2) to establish a basis for continuous assessment of those skills is introduced. For both steps, the Task Analysis Survey from the National Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG) Fundamentals of Geology (FG) exam served as a source of industry defined skillsets. A method for ranking the importance of task objectives to gauge the extent of coverage for each task in the program was used to determine coverage gaps, strengths, and ultimately to provide program evaluation recommendations. In addition to analyzing coverage depth, the FG tasks became the basis for establishing program learning outcomes and objectives. All courses were examined to identify assessment measures for each learning objective. Improvement of the program is ongoing with the expectation that additional external skills can be added to the model as industry skills evolve.