Students in the BA Photography program will become proficient in the creation and manipulation of digital images.

Students will demonstrate proficiency in the creation, manipulation, and printing of digital images.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Students in the BA Photography Program will know the history of photography and an understanding of contemporary photography and its relationship to the continuum of history.

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.

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.

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.

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
30% 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.

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.