SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2013 - 2014 : Educational Programs :
Art BFA (Photography)
Art BFA (Photography)
2 Goals 3 Objectives 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 3 Actions
| GOAL: Prepare Students For Professional Practice As Photographic Artists |
| Objective |
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Students will be proficient in the creation, manipulation, and printing of digital images and demonstrate the ability to use these techniques to create photographic artworks that have a personal aesthetic and are conceptually sophisticated. |
| Indicator |
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Seniors in the BA Photography program will take ARTS 3369 Studio Practices 2 and ARTS 3376 Photographic Narratives. Portfolios by seniors in these classes will be assessed. The works in the portfolios will demonstrate • expression of concept through art • artistic development through the evolution of concept • use of medium and materials to express concept • evidence of personal voice • professional presentation |
| Criterion |
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The exhibitions will be evaluated by 2 members of the Photo faculty. The faculty will use a rubric that uses a scale of 0-100% to evaluate the abilities and proficiencies. It is expected that at least 70% of the students evaluated will score 85 or higher in each aspect of the evaluation. Last year was the first year that work from ARTS 3376 Photographic Narratives was evaluated to assess this objective. All of the students met the criteria for evaluation. This year, we are adding work from ARTS 3369, Studio Practices 2, and raising the expected score from 80 to 85. |
| Finding |
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82-100% of the students scored above 85 in each category.
Faculty observations indicate that technical ability seems improved from past evaluations. Content and artistic development are also improving, but still are overall weaknesses. Most students take pride in the presentation of work and overall print quality, but the area of framing and matt cutting could be improved. The Photography Program needs improvement in image editing (Photoshop) and expression of content. These areas are improving. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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Photo editing workshops will be added to ARTS 2375 Photographic Concepts to improve the students image editing skills using Photoshop early in the curriculum. Students will continue to hold public exhibitions of their work in ARTS 3376 and 3369 as well as ARTS 4315 the Business of Art. During these exhibitions, students will engage the community by giving public talks about heir work and presenting written descriptions of their photographic projects. |
| GOAL: Prepare Students For Professional Practice As Photographic Artists |
| Objective |
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| Students will demonstrate proficiency in the creation, manipulation, and printing of digital images. |
| Indicator |
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Students in ART 2370 will create portfolios of work for the final project using digital imaging techniques. A committee of Photography faculty will evaluate the samples of work from the portfolios to determine successful demonstration of: • Ability to evaluate and process Image color, white-balance, perspective, value, contrast and artifacts correction. • Ability to create and construct complex composite images that reflect a true photographic reality by image evaluation, color/tone matching, bitmap image construction, shadow construction and transformation, and multi-step processes. • Ability to create and maintain a photographic workflow, understand digital image global standards and prepare images for multiple formats, i.e. print, web, pdf, etc. • the student's ability to express and communicate ideas and concepts through the medium of photography. |
| Criterion |
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The exhibitions will be evaluated by 2 members of the Photo faculty. The faculty will use a rubric that uses a scale of 0-100% to evaluate the abilities and proficiencies. It is expected that at least 70% of the students evaluated will score 80 or higher in each aspect of the evaluation. Last year, works from an exhibition by students in ARTS 3376 was assessed and all of the students scored above 80 in the assessment. While the assessment was positive, faculty still feel strongly that there is need for improvement in teaching digital skills to students. This year the rubric was revised and work from ARTS 2370 Digital Photography 1 was used as the indicator. The same criteria of 70% scoring 80 or higher will be maintained. |
| Finding |
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50% scored above 80 on evaluation of color balance 8% scored above 80 on compositing 0% scored above 80 on photographic workflow (faculty were unable to assess this from the images provided) 50% scored above 80 on expression of concepts and ideas. The results indicate, and faculty agree that digital manipulation and concept development are weaknesses of the photography program. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Currently there is inconsistency in the way different sections of the ARTS 2370 Digital Photo 1 are taught by various faculty. This class also has online and face to face sections and there are also inconsistencies in the outcomes of these courses. The Photography Program Coordinator will meet with the photography faculty to address these issues. Learning objectives will be defined, reiterated, and clarified and a strategy will be developed to improve the teaching of digital techniques and the use of these techniques to express artistic concepts in ARTS 2370 Digital Photo 1 and ARTS 3370 Digital Photo 2. |
| GOAL: Knowledge Of The History Of Photography |
| Objective |
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| Students in the BA Photography program will have an understanding of the History of Photography. They will be familiar with contemporary theories, trends and practices in photography and be able to contextualize ideas in the continuum of this history and understand the relation of their own work to photography that has preceded it. |
| Indicator |
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Students in ARTS 3381, The History of Photography, will propose an exhibition of work by contemporary photographers of their choice. The will write an essay to that includes an analysis of the works and their historical significance. The essays will discuss the formal attributes of the photograph, the style, the social or political influences, the technology use, and the subject matter. The essays will: • provide a clear introduction and draw conclusions supported by visual and contextual evidence. • move from specific examples to general statements. • describe the works accurately and clearly. • use vocabulary introduced in classroom lectures and photography history textbooks. • convey a clear and convincing image of their perspective. • use external information about the cultural context and photographic techniques gathered from readings and presentations. • present an understanding of the works in a way that is convincing and supported by detailed evidence. • sum up major ideas and draw convincing conclusions grounded in visual evidence and contextual information. |
| Criterion |
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The essays will be evaluated by 2 members of the Photo faculty. The faculty will use a rubric that uses a scale of 0-100% to evaluate the abilities and proficiencies. It is expected that at least 70% of the students evaluated will score 85 or higher in each aspect of the evaluation. Last year, a new faculty member began teaching the History of Photography and 100% of the students scored above 80 in all categories. This year, the target score is raised to 85. The faculty would like to continue to assess this objective since the improvement last year was sudden. |
| Finding |
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This years results showed areas that need improvement. 30% scored above 85 in clarity of writing 50% scored above 85 in their abilty to describe works of art 40% scored above 85 in their ability to place the works in historical context 20% scored above 85 on their use of professional vocabulary 60% scored above 85 on demonstrating understanding of works 305 scored above 85 on their conclusion. Faculty observations indicate that the use of vocabulary is in need of improvement, that the students do a good job describing images, but that they show weakness in writing conclusion paragraphs and bringing everything together. They state that there needs to be art historical or scholarly context for some of the essays as well and that the students dont know much about the history of "art" photography. |
Actions for Objective:
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| Currently, ARTS 3381, The History of Photography is being taught by Photography faculty who does not have abackground in Art History. The Department will assign the History of Photography to an Art History faculty member who has a PhD in contemporary art history. |
| Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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The evaluation of work in ARTS 3376 "Photographic Narratives" shows satisfactory results in the evaluation of students abilities in crucial areas. The course, currently an elective, will become a required course in the BFA curriculum.
Areas that Photography faculty indicate need improvement and should be assessed in the next cycle are: • proficiency in darkroom printing techniques • proficiency in advanced image editing techniques using photoshop • continued emphasis on experimentation and development of content. |
| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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ARTS 3376 Photographic Narratives has been added as a required course in the BFA degree plan.We did not assess proficiency in Darkroom techniques in this cycle. The faculty have decided to emphasize and promote digital techniques. The facilities for darkroom printing are in need of renovation and the department is assessing the importance of this in the curriculum. Emphasis on the development of content is being emphasized across the curriculum.
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| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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Senior Photography students will continue to exhibit their work in pulbic exhibitions and engage the community with presentations and written explanations of their projects.
The Photography Faculty will meet to evaluate and revise the course content and learning objective or ARTS 2370 and 3370 Digital Photo 1 and 2 with the goal of improving technical expertise using digital tools as well as conceptual development and personal expression. The History of Photography course will be taught by a faculty who holds a PhD in Art History with the goal of improving students ability to use the language of the discipline to discuss Photography and to understand and describe Photographic works of art in their historical and cultural context. |