SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2012 - 2013 : Educational Programs :
History BS
History BS
1 Goal 1 Objective 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 1 Action
| GOAL: Student Knowledge Development |
| Objective |
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| During the course of the semester, students enrolled in history courses will demonstrate significant improvement in their understanding of the historical content covered in their respective courses. |
| Indicator |
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| During the course of a semester, students enrolled in US history courses will demonstrate significant improvement in their understanding of American history by taking pre and post tests in that subject matter. The test instrument is not nationally normed, but was locally constructed with the aim of monitoring change over time in basic knowledge of the major themes covered in the world history survey curriculum. The State of Texas Core Curriculum Component Area guidelines were consulted before the creation of this testing instrument. |
| Criterion |
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| At least 20% of students enrolled in the US surveys will be given pre-post tests over content relevant to these courses. A statistical analysis of the results of this testing will demonstrate significant student improvement in knowledge of pertinent US history themes. Overall class improvement of at least 15% on the class average post-test score versus the class average pre-test score will indicate success. |
| Finding |
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During Fall 2012, US history survey classes that included 387 HIST 1301 students (representing 23% of the total number of students taking HIST 1301) and 234 HIST 1302 students (representing 32% of the total number of students taking HIST 1302) took pre- and post-tests on an instrument that was developed by the department. HIST 1301 students averaged 51% correct on the pretest and 60% correct on the post-test. HIST 1302 students averaged 44% correct on the pretest and 56% correct on the post-test. During Spring 2013, 287 HIST 1301 students (49% of the total) averaged 50% on the pre-test and 52% on the post-test. In HIST 1302, 314 students (29% of the total) averaged 47% on the pre-test and 53% on the post-test. |
| Indicator |
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| During the course of a semester, students enrolled in world history courses will demonstrate significant improvement in their understanding of world history. The test instrument is not nationally normed, but was locally constructed with the aim of monitoring change over time in basic knowledge of the major themes covered in the world history survey curriculum. The State of Texas Core Curriculum Component Area guidelines were consulted before the creation of this testing instrument. |
| Criterion |
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| At least 20% of students enrolled in world history surveys will be given pre-post tests over content relevant to these courses. A statistical analysis of the results of this testing will demonstrate significant student improvement in knowledge of pertinent world history themes. Overall class improvement of at least 15% on the class average post-test score versus the class average pre-test score will indicate success. |
| Finding |
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During Fall 2012, world history survey classes that included 85 HIST 2311 students (representing 32% of the total number of students taking HIST 2311) and 75 HIST 2312 students (representing 46% of the total number of students taking HIST 2312) took pre- and post-tests on an instrument that was developed by the department. HIST 2311 students averaged 43% correct on the pretest and 43% on the post-test. HIST 2312 students averaged 44% correct on the pre-test and 67% correct on the post-test. During Spring 2013, 61 HIST 2311 students (19% of the total) averaged 48% on the pre-test and 50% on the post-test. In HIST 2312, 38 students (31% of the total) averaged 63% on the pre-test and 62% on the post-test. |
| Indicator |
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| During the course of the semester, students enrolled in 400-level (senior level) courses will demonstrate significant improvement in their abilities in historical scholarship and writing, as determined by a panel of history faculty. |
| Criterion |
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| All students in senior level history courses will produce semester research papers. At least 20% of these papers from the total senior level course enrollment will undergo a quality and outcome assessment review by a panel of history faculty. The panel will not include faculty currently teaching senior level courses and will review the selected papers double-blind according to a 6-point rubric developed from norms promoted by the American Historical Association. |
| Finding |
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30 papers, or 22% of the total senior-level papers written in 2012-13, were evaluated by the panel of two evaluators. One evaluator gave scores averaging 21.8, and the other 20.8. The most common deficiency concerned the rigor of historical source research, followed by felicity of expression. Students did best with respect to framing historical questions. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| We remain pleased that students generally are performing better on the post- than the pre-tests. The phenomenon is more marked for United States than World History. New departmental faculty in US and World History are committeed to making our testing instruments more rigorous and more strongly normed. |
| Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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Undergraduate education is the heart and foundation of the Department mission. For that reason, the History Department has undertaken to enhance procedures and instruments for assessing and improving undergraduate learning outcomes. The department will continue to review and improve assessment testing. Perhaps more importantly, the department will increase emphasis on the critical thinking skills inherent to the discipline, making students aware of rubric objectives and strengthening their mastery of those objectives.
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| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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In 2012-13 we submitted, to the University Curriculum Committee, a modification of our senior-level "capstone" course that will make the critical thinking and learning-outcome objectives still more clear to the students. 4000-level courses will now fall in more subject areas and create enhanced opportunities for the departmental faculty to discern the real learning outcomes of our undergraduates. |
| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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Undergraduate education remains the princiapl realm of reform and enhancement in this Department. We are preparing to review our 3000-level curriculum, a review that will take place in fall 2013, so that specific tracks of upper-level courses will help our students excel in not only United States but World history. We will also implement the reformed capstone course so as to give our graduated majors full experience in the modes of critical thinking and research.
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