B.S. History graduates will be prepared for successful careers and productive citizenship through high quality instruction in all courses.
Objective
Student Learning Outcomes
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semester, students enrolled in history courses will demonstrate significant improvement in their understanding of the historical content covered in their respective courses.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
Pre/Post Testing US History Core Curriculum
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
US History Student Learning
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
US History Student Learning-Fall 2012
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
World History Student Learning
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
World History Student Learning
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
World History Learning-Fall 2012
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
Senior Level Student Learning Outcome Assessments
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
Senior Level Outcome Assessments
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
Senior-Level Outcome Assessments
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.
Action
Student Learning Outcomes
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.