Departmental Assessment Update - Arts and Humanities Report
Department: American Studies
Program: BA
Level: Undergraduate
1. Has your program developed learning outcomes? If
yes, please list.
AMST BA students acquire:
(1) Substantial knowledge of American history, society, and culture, as well as a basic appreciation of different scholarly approaches to American Studies
(2) Critical thinking skills necessary to analyze a variety of cultural artifacts (literature, primary documents, film, music, etc.), as well as historical and present-day sociopolitical issues
(3) Competence in scholarly writing and oral communication
(4) Basic research skills, including advanced research skills in one area of specialization (majors only).
2. If your program has learning outcomes, where are
they published (e.g., department web page)?
SLOs are published online on our department website http://www.hawaii.edu/amst, the undergraduate brochure, on handouts to prospective majors and minors, and on course syllabi.
3. Do your faculty list course learning outcomes on
their syllabi?
Yes.
4. Does your program have a curriculum map that
links course outcomes to program outcomes? If
so, please include.
No; the department will implement a curriculum map with the addition of our new Assessment Coordinator.
SLOs are currently evaluated through a number of means, including: the comparison of student essays collected at the lower division level (AMST 150) with written work collected generated in the senior seminar (AMST 481, required of all majors). The AMST department is currently developing tools to better capture how SLOs map onto the curriculum. The department faculty have recently created a new position for Assessment Coordinator, who insure that assessment reports are generated by the Undergraduate Chair, Graduate Chair, Museum Studies program director and Historic Preservation program director; gather sample work from 150 and 481; and to enlist two other faculty to review the essays in order to evaluate what progress is being made regarding SLO mapping. The department has also proposed changes for major requirements. Currently, majors and minors take a year-long junior seminar, AMST 381 and AMST 382, which introduces students to diverse approaches to American Studies and surveys a variety of cultural artifacts in examining major turns in American history from the eighteenth century forward. As advanced seminars, AMST 381 and 382 require students to engage in critical discussions, make oral presentations, and write regularly about the assigned readings, thus enhancing critical thinking, oral communication, and writing skills. Program SLOs are emphasized in four required upper-division AMST seminars, with an additional 9 units that may be taken in AMST or in allied humanities or social science courses (meeting the approval of the Undergraduate Chair). The department’s restructuring of the major involves the addition of AMST 480, a seminar that allows students to deepen their content-based learning in the previous courses by developing methodological tools (e.g., participant observation, ethnography, the long interview, literary and visual analysis, and so on) to aid in the construction of their own research or community-based project. The proposal also calls for the addition of another senior-level seminar, AMST 482. Students will choose either to demonstrate mastery of their content- and skills-based learning from prior courses in AMST 481 (where they will produce a thesis), or AMST 482 (where they will undertake a community-based work culminating in a documented portfolio).
5. Does your program benchmark or have goals for
student performance? (e.g. 70% students will
graduate within 5 years)
Not formally.
6. Other than GPA, what data/evidence is used to
determine that graduates have achieved stated
outcomes for the degree? (i.e. capstone project,
class assignment)
Assessment of student work completed in AMST 381, AMST382 (required of all majors and minors) and AMST 481 (for majors only). Assessment of qualitative and quantitative data collected in all CAFE evaluations.
7. Who interprets the evidence of student learning?
The Undergraduate Chair, the Department Chair, and instructors of 381, 382, 481.
8. How are the assessment data/results used to
inform decisions concerning the curriculum and
administration of the program?
Assessment data is presented during faculty meetings in the Fall and Spring semesters. Members of the curriculum committee, along with the Undergraduate Chair, the Graduate Chair, the program director for Museum Studies and the program director for Historic Preservation, propose changes in curriculum for the following year.