Direct Measures
All majors in programs administered by the department of history must take one WI survey (History 210, 211, 212, 215, 250 or 251). At some point during that course they will write a 5 page paper based on primary sources. That paper will provide one of the primary assessment tools for measuring the student learning outcomes. 33% of those papers will be evaluated for specific evidence of student learning outcomes relating to knowledge and skills at the end of each semester or year by a team of three history department faculty not including the course instructor.
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. 33% of 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.
Indirect Measures
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
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Participants
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Evaluators
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skills: 4
values:
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
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all majors
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team of three history faculty not including course instructor
using Focus Group Questions
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Every five years 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.
Previous Plan, Replaced Fall 2007