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 3379 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 The portfolios 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 3370 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. This year, work from ARTS 3379 was used as the indicator in order to get a better sense of knowledge from advanced students. 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.

This year a separate section of ARTS 2370 was added for Photography majors and minors only to address the inconsistency between sections. The goal of this class was to be more focused on advanced techniques for Photo majors. More image editing workshops will be offered in both ARTS 2370 and ARTS 2375 to improve student competency in Adobe Photoshop. The Photography Program Coordinator will continue to meet with the photography faculty to make sure learning objectives are being met and discuss ways to improve the quality of assignments.

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 with 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. This year The History of Photography, was taught by a professor who has a PhD in Art History. As a result of this change, the standards of scholarly research have been strengthened for the writing assignment.  Last year target score is raised to 85. The faculty would like to continue to assess and maintain this objective since the standards of the class have now been improved.

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 still in need of improvement. Students have shown great improvement in writing conclusion paragraphs and understanding historical context for the work they are studying. There has been a shift, with new faculty teaching in a more academic approach and student’s understanding of the history of art photography is greatly improving.

Currently, ARTS 3381, The History of Photography is being taught by an Art Historian. The Photo faculty will continue to work with the Art History faculty to develop curriculum and make sure the Photo students are continuing to improve their knowledge of photo history.