Public Information

The Planning Accreditation Board requires this information to be posted for the BS in Community & Regional Planning program.

Student Achievement

The Community & Regional Planning program at the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment, East Carolina University, is designed to prepare professional planners for both the public and the private sectors, primarily serving the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern regions of the United States as well as other national and international communities.

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes, 2023-2024

Development and Impact of Human Settlements: Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the development and impact of human settlements as it relates to planning.

• Means of Assessments: PLAN 4099: Exit Exam with embedded questions regarding the development and impact of human settlements (2009; Revised 2/7/14)
• The Criterion for Success: 80% or more of the students will answer correctly 75% or more of the questions regarding development and impact of human settlements (revised 12/9/11).
• Result Status: Criterion Met
  • Actions take, results & analysis of results:
    • Actions taken:
      • The Community and Regional Planning program offered a Summer Study Abroad program, Sustainable Urbanism in South Korea, in the summer of 2023. Two major topics of this program were “environment and transportation innovations for sustainable urban environments.” Students met planners and citizen activists and learned how Seoul has dealt with the balance between development and sustainability and the impact on its citizens.
      • With a new faculty specialized in environmental planning, the program could offer three additional environmental, ecological, and coastal planning courses to students. Students in PLAN4305: Ecological Landscape Planning used CommunityViz, a GIS software that is used in various communities as a tool for scenario planning, suitability analysis, build-out potential, and impact analysis. It was our first time utilizing this highly practical software in a class; the instructor has developed various scenarios based on the eastern North Carolina environment and development features.
    • Result Status: Criterion met. 100.0% of students (all six) who took the exit exam scored 75% or more on this outcome; thus, the criterion 80% was met.
    • Analysis of results:
      • Development and Impact of Human Settlement were approached in multiple core classes. The importance of this learning outcome was introduced in three basic core classes (PLAN3030, PLAN3020, and PLAN3032) and then reinforced in an upper-level core class (PLAN4065).
      • The successful summer study abroad program (the third year, focusing on environmental sustainability in Seoul, one of the densest cities in the world) provided insights for participating students and lessons for class discussions.
      • The Development and Impact of Human Settlements were also assessed in the 2022-2023 academic year. The new faculty, diverse course offerings in the subject area with innovative approaches, and a successful study abroad program resulted in much improved student learning outcomes, which has shown the results (100.0% of students who took the exit exam scored 75% or more on this outcome in the 2023-2024 academic year while 83.3% of students scored in the 2022-2023 academic year).
      • Although the result of this outcome was satisfactory, it was observed that students scored relatively lower score for PLAN3032: Planning Legislation and Administration. One possible explanation is the mode of instruction—the class was offered asynchronously online with limited interactions between students and instructor.
  • Actions Planned Based on Analysis of Results:
    • The BS Community and Regional Planning program witnessed a powerful implementation and potential for scenario planning in 2023-2024. Instructors will introduce the method in a basic class(es) and reinforce and apply the tool in upper-level courses. This will ensure students utilize the method/tool to connect how development impacts human and natural settlements, which will help them address such situations in their careers.
    • The South Korea Summer Study Abroad program will include programs to showcase how waste is handled in Seoul (according to Statista, the average daily volume of waste in this 10-million city, Seoul, South Korea, was 12,235,000 tons between 2008 and 2021). Human settlements require effective management. After touring a waste resource recovery facility with a facility manager and visiting several re-generated sites of brownfields (former industrial waste treatment sites), students will be able to relate the impact of human settlements, construct how the tactics are used in the US, and, hopefully, change their behavior and ready to advocate/educate others in dealing with the waste.
    • The result of the exit exam will be shared with instructors to identify the weaknesses of student understanding and to reinforce their knowledge in such areas.
    • The program seeks to hire an instructor locally to teach PLAN3032. This will bring students excitement from engaging with the instructor in the classroom. The program values its planners-in-residence (PiR)—working professionals with real-life experiences. The program seeks a PiR who is in the public sector in the industry. He/she will connect students to the administrative aspects of public sector planning, which will greatly impact the development and impact of human settlements.

For the full 2023-2024 report made to the ECU Institutional Planning, Assessment, and Research (IPAR), click BS Assessment Report 2023-2024.