Measure
All majors in programs administered by the department of history must take a senior seminar capstone course (History 496), usually in their final year. The main product of that course is a twenty-page research paper based on both primary and secondary sources. That paper will provide one of the primary assessment tools for measuring the student learning outcomes. All senior seminar research papers will be evaluated for evidence of specific student learning outcomes relating to knowledge and skills at the end of each semester by a team of three history department faculty not including the course instructor.
Each semester all students in History 496 and students in one section of a 200 level survey class will take a 30-minute essay exam. The exam will consist of one question that seeks to assess certain specific student learning objectives. Over a period of five years, all student learning objectives will have been covered either in this exam or by other direct and indirect measures. The exam results will be evaluated for student learning outcomes in the areas of knowledge, skills, and values at the end of each semester by a team of three history department faculty not including the course instructors.
Objective
|
Participants
|
Evaluators
|
knowledge:
1, 2, 3, 4
skills: 3
values: 5, 8
|
all majors
|
team of three history faculty not including course instructor
using Assessment Exam Rubric
|
All students in History 496 will participate in a focus group discussion about their research in the class, as well as the more general goals and achievements of the Department of History. The questions asked at this discussion will seek to illuminate departmental successes and failures in achieving its stated goals. The focus groups will be organized and attended by at team of two history department faculty not including the course instructor. The focus groups will be used to assess student learning outcomes in the areas of knowledge, skills, and values.
Objective
|
Participants
|
Evaluators
|
skills: 4
values:
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
|
all majors
|
team of three history faculty not including course instructor
using Focus Group Questions
|
Every year the department will send out a survey to all history and social science majors who had graduated two years previously. The questions on this survey will seek to determine departmental successes and failures in achieving its stated goals. The results of the returned surveys will be tabulated and used to assess student learning outcomes in the area of values.