Think analytically about the past using the sources and methods of historical inquiry
All students must take History 100, Topics in Western Civilization, unless they fulfill that requirement through participation in the Humanities program. The numerous sections of History 100 do not have a uniform content, their subject matter reflecting the expertise of the faculty. They do, however, aim to achieve the goals of the competency statement above, and the faculty has further elaborated that goal. Specifically, students in History 100 are expected to:
1. Understand historically significant events or processes
2. Analyze and use primary and secondary sources of historical knowledge
3. Develop a historical argument
The assessment of these outcomes will be done when students sit for the final exam but will comprise only one component of that exam. Each instructor will provide a primary source of some kind as a stimulus and ask three or four questions that parallel the bullet points listed above. The primary source will be related to the subject of the course in some way. While the stimulus documents will vary across the courses, the format of the questions will be the same. The instructor will grade the entire final exam, and give only his or her students’ assessment component to another member of the department who will read the work blindly.
The second reader will make a judgment about the student’s competency on all three of the elements, but this summative judgment will not be entered as part of the student’s grade in the course. All readers will use a common set of criteria and scaling of the exam, criteria that the department will refine during the coming year. The department will report to the General Education Committee the aggregate results of those who took the assessment that semester.
Monitoring the patterns of student performance over time will allow the department to change its curriculum or pedagogy to improve students’ performance. In the Humanities program, the faculty will select one response paper dealing with a historical topic as the assessment instrument for the competency. They will read and judge the essay using the same three learning goals listed above and the scale or rubric that the faculty in history use in the 100 sections. The essay will be read blindly, the faculty exchanging the essays of the students in their sections. The results will be reported to the General Education Committee.
