1. Overview of Assessment Process

Because I recently became the department liaison to the Assessment Committee and because the History Department is undergoing a transition in which I will be the Chair of the Department beginning on July 2004, this Third Year Review is in draft form based on a sample report submitted in 2003 by the Department of Philosophy. Student portfolios are our main forms of assessment of the History Major. Students compile portfolios of papers and examinations (detailed below) which must be read and approved by two faculty members before a student can enter the Capstone, History J495, Proseminar in History. Students enter this course in their Junior or Senior year. Alumni Surveys are also used to assess the History Department. A final assessment technique which we use is an external peer review. Our last external review took place 1999. A self study, to be followed by an external review, will be undertaken in approximately a year.

2. Annual Assessment Reports are contained in Appendix.

3. Instrumentation and Documentation

Methods and techniques of assessing student learning outcomes

Portfolio: Students submit a portfolio of written work to the department chairperson at least 60 days before the seminar begins. At minimum, each portfolio must include:

-Six essay examinations (however constructed, each examination must consist entirely of written answers -

-Five essays (which may be book reviews, comments on documents, brief narratives, or interpretive essays

-Two longer papers that include systematic documentation

-A formal job resume

-A brief introduction in which the student evaluates his or her own work and indicates which items they consider best.

No more than three items in any portfolio come from any one course. The items need not all come from history courses.

Proseminar: The Proseminar for History majors (J495) is the culmination of our students' work and it also fulfills the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Second Level Writing Requirement. This course requires them to conceive, execute, and defend an original research paper and to demonstrate understanding of the criteria by which historians judge each others' work. More specifically, the course requires students to demonstrate: 1. knowledge of the library and its research tools 2. ability to gather and interpret information from both primary and secondary sources 3. knowledge of the bibliography of some historical topic and of current thinking about it 4. ability to write clear, well-organized, grammatical, and properly documented papers 5. ability to defend their own work 6. ability to criticize the work of others

The faculty member who teaches J495 grades the research papers which the students produce. History Majors' papers are then also read by a second faculty member to determine if the final papers pass with a grade of C or better which is required to receive the History degree. If the two faculty members disagree, a third faculty reviewer is called in to decide if the paper needs revision. Only the instructor's grade is recorded.

4. Documentation and record keeping

A file is kept on each History Major in the Department Office, DW 3248. When the student portfolio has been approved, e-mails or letters to that effect are sent to the Chair and hard copies are put in the students' file. A copy is also given to the Registrar of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Other documents and records pertaining to assessment are kept with departmental records (in the department chair's office for recent items, in a locked file cabinet located in DW3248). Copies of our original and revised assessment plan, of Annual and Third Year Reports to the Assessment Committee, of Evaluations of our reports from the Committee, and of our internal deliberations in regard to assessment are among the types of records kept.

5. Analysis of Data

The Department of History has begun the process of reviewing student portfolios and Proseminar performance in light of the following questions regarding student learning outcomes. (These questions were approved in spring 2004 so we do not yet have a formal analysis of the data found in student portfolios and J495 papers)

1. Is the student reflective and inquiring?

2. Is the student skilled in historical and critical thinking?

3. Does the student show knowledge of history in the three areas of: American history, modern western European history since 1500, and other areas such as Ancient, Medieval, Russian, or Asian history?

4. Does the student express herself (or himself) effectively in historical writing? Alumni Surveys have also given us feedback on changes we needed to make in the curriculum.

5. Summary of Actions Taken

Based on our past external review, alumni surveys and discussion in History Department meetings, we have taken a variety of actions: " We have made a significant curriculum change by adding HIST H217 The Nature of History as a requirement for all new history majors. This course which students take in the sophomore year (unless they change to a History major in their Junior year) provides a foundation for the study of History with instruction in the techniques of historical research, particularly the use of print and electronic sources in modern libraries, as well as an introduction to historiography, and practice in both oral presentations and written papers. Students are now better prepared for their subsequent upper level history courses and especially for the J495 Proseminar in which they can concentrate on researching and writing a potentially publishable paper of considerable depth. " We have made a significant change to the composition of our faculty by replacing a retiring American Historian with a new faculty member in Asian history. This change was undertaken in response to feedback in History Alumni Surveys as well as a request from the School of Education, whose Secondary Social Studies Majors are also served by our department. Student response has to our new faculty member has been favorable. " We have improved our advising. We require our majors to be advised every semester by a designated faculty advisor for each new history major. " We have added a formal job resume to our requirements for the portfolio. This requirement helps students reflect on their careers in relation to the major and prepares them for the job market following graduation. 6. Proposed Next Steps We shall continue to follow the assessment procedures described above. We shall soon be submitting our Annual Report for 2003-04 which will provide us with assessment of current History Majors in J495 and other helpful information. We will also hold a Department Retreat in the Fall of 2004 in which Assessment will be a major topic including review of the curriculum in our introductory courses, review of Portfolio requirements and collection of materials, and review of actual portfolios and J495 papers. The Department plans to fill in parts of this report which need further information. We also plan to prepare for an external review in the next year.

Submitted by: Monica M. Tetzlaff Liaison to the Assessment Committee and Chair Designate (Beginning July 2004) Department of History

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