Successful study of history increases knowledge of human affairs but also skills in written/oral communication, logic, and critical thinking.  Such outcomes improve students' performance in their present employment, continued advanced studies toward other degrees, or moves into other historical fields, such as teaching, public history, or writing.

M. A. History students will demonstrate competence in applying research methodologies; qualitative and quantitative analysis; literature review; and use of traditional and digital resources.

All M.A. History graduates will demonstrate depth and breadth of knowledge by successfully completing written and oral exams in three field areas. This will be assessed by written oral examinations.

A panel of at least three graduate faculty will assess the quality of the written examinations to determine student mastery of the major historical themes and historiography within each of the three field areas. Students failing to demonstrate the required level of content mastery will be allowed, after consultation with the graduate committee and history chair, to retake the written exams. A second failure will result in termination from the program. Students successfully completing the written examinations will then take an oral examination before a panel of three graduate faculty members who will assess student mastery of the history and historiography in each of the three field areas. Students must pass or pass with distinction each content area. Students who fail to demonstrate sufficient competency in any of the three field areas will be allowed, after consultation with the examination committee and the departmental chair, to retake that portion of the oral examination that was not satisfactorily completed. A second failure will result in termination from the program.

In 2013-14, the department developed a common assessment document for each examining professor in the comprehensives. This document is attached.  

All M.A. graduates will achieve passing or passing with distinction ratings on a written and an oral examination covering three content areas.  The department will direct special attention to evaluating comprehensive exam preparation and performance among on-line students.

The department gave written and oral examinations to 15 finishing graduate students, 6 in the fall and 9 in the spring. Each exam had three components. In the fall, of 36 total component grades, 32 were Pass and 4 High Pass. In the spring, 47 were pass and 7 High Pass. There were no failures. The year's two predominantly on-campus students scored all passes. All of the High Passes came frompredominantly online students.

Modern-day historians must be prepared to work and publish in the digital environment. Historians assess and present evidence, and the body of evidence that is digital has grown recently by an enormous proportion. Therefore, we must, as disseminators of the historian's craft, see to it that our students are more than literate in digital history.

M. A. students indicating career interests in teaching and other positions emphasizing digital content will demonstrate enhanced abilities in this area.

Creation of a successfully faculty-reviewed historical website made available for the internet public will demonstrate successful digital historical skills.

History faculty will run seminar classes whose purpose is to populate a major historical website and smartphone app with appropriate graduate-level historical literature and resources. The MA students will prepare and deliver content for the site and app in concert with the other course requirements. The instructor will assess these products by means of an assessment document and either judge them acceptable or lead the student through a remediation/editorial process. The Graduate Committee will then review all the apps and all the assessments of the apps and report on the progress of the project.

100% student success will achieve this indicator.

In 2014-15, MA students produced 120 app entries for East Texas history, each of them evaluated by an asessment instrument and improved on the basis of that instrument. The graduate committee reveiwed a sample of of these assessments and reported that the quality and particularly the extent of the app is good. The app website may be found here: http://easttexashistory.org/
 

The East Texas History app exploded in extent in 2014-15. It was also successfully courted by Google to be part of its Field Trip function. In light of these changes, the Department shall no longer require the committee to review all the apps (this is too large a task), but a sample of 10% or 10 instruments, whichever is larger.

The department will also explore how to assess the app and the MA student work that went into it in light of the contract with Google.  

M.A. students will regard the graduate program in History as stimulating, rewarding, and useful.

M.A. students will be satisfied with their program and have confidence in the usefulness of their degree.

M.A. students will demonstrate satisfaction in the program and the usefulness of the degree as they exit the program, as determined by an interview scaled to a common form developed by the department.

The 15 students completing the comprehenisve exams rated the program on average 9.2 out of 10 points on the exit interview. The lowest score was 8. A sample of the range of reactions to the program is attached.