History Department Assessment Plan:
To assess how well History students are in fact reaching deparmtental learning outcomes, the History Department will conduct a full curriculum review and revision process every five years, although portions of the curriculum will be reviewed more frequently. The review process will be conducted by a committee that includes the Undergraduate Director, the members of the Undergraduate Committee, and the Department Head. The committee will be chaired by the Department Head. The committee will meet at least once every semester, though it is expected that it will meet more frequently in year five as it prepares for the full curricular review. It is responsible for collecting and analyzing data for all reviews, and for coordinating the curricular review in year five.
The Assessment Process: The History Department requires its majors to take three specialized seminars over the course of the degree: the first in the freshman year, the second in the ‘middling’ years, and the third in the senior year. The intention of these seminars is to introduce students to the craft of history in year 1, and then to build on that introduction (as well as other coursework) so students are able to write a significant research paper by the end of the senior year. Because all majors must take these three seminars, and because the seminars are designed to speak to all of the Department’s desired learning outcomes, they are at the heart of the Department’s assessment program.
The following are the assessment measures that will be undertaken by the Department in relation to the three seminars:
1) Student surveys. Each year, students in the freshman, middling, and senior seminars will be given a survey to determine how well they are achieving the learning outcomes desired by the Department. The freshman survey will be used as a baseline, in which students will be asked about both general content knowledge and skills. The middling and senior surveys will come back to these questions in order to gauge change over time in both content knowledge and skill level. The senior survey will also ask students to list their concentration area and the History courses that were part of their major. These surveys will be composed by the curriculum committee, administered by the faculty in each seminar, and collected by the committee.
2) Focus group. The Department will create a student advisory council from among its majors. The council will meet with the curriculum committee at least once each semester to discuss issues and problems in the major as well as progress toward learning outcomes. In year 1, 2 members will be chosen from each of the History seminars, so that the council will have representatives from freshman to senior year. Beginning in year 2 faculty will select 2 members each year from the freshman seminar, with the idea that as many of these members as possible will continue on the council through senior year.
3) Portfolio of Written Work. As part of the requirements for completing the senior capstone seminar, students will assemble a portfolio that includes not only their senior research paper, but also written work from both the freshman and middling seminars and at least one other history class. It will also include a brief self-assessment, in which students discuss their development over time in the History major, especially in relation to the four learning outcomes of the Department. In year 1 of the 5 year review period, the portfolios will only include the senior paper and the Co-Op write-up. In years 2 and 3 they will include work from the middling seminar, and in year 4 they will include work from all of the seminars. Assembly of the portfolios will be verified by faculty members teaching the three seminars. Once collected, the curriculum committee will select portfolios to assess according to the Department’s four learning outcomes. These assessments will generally take place in the semester following the collection of the portfolios.
In addition to assessment measures focused on the History seminars, the Department will conduct one further type of assessment:
4) Alumni Survey. Every four years the Department will use the CSSH survey of alumni to determine where former students are employed, the degree to which they believe they attained the 4 learning outcomes of the Department, and how well they believe their degree prepared them for the challenges of the working world. The results of this survey will form part of the data for the 5th year curricular review.
The Five Year Review: In January of year five, the entire department will meet to examine the findings from the various measures collected and analyzed over the preceding four years and will use them along with information on advances in the discipline, about the strengths of our faculty, on the changing nature of the workplace where our students are employed, and analysis of the impact of prior curricular changes. The meeting is expected to result in the refinement or revision of some of the program outcomes, assessment measures, and course offerings.
After the January meeting of the faculty, the Undergraduate Director will be responsible for writing a detailed summary report for the Department Head that describes the main findings of the curricular committee and includes data used in the analysis. (In spring semester of years 1-4, the Undergraduate Director will also write a brief summary of the committee’s activities and findings for the Department Head, which will be used to provide some of the data for the 5th year review). The Department Head will ultimately be responsible for assuring that actions agreed upon by the faculty are implemented and the impact of the actions is assessed in subsequent processes. All documentation will be maintained on the department’s main server.