ASSESSMENT PLAN
Revised, 1999
All students are required to complete comprehensive oral and written examinations. These
exams not only determine the success of the student in terms of their completion of the
criteria for the Masters Thesis, but in addition, the oral exam process also incorporates
a component of discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the History Department
graduate program as well as inquiries with regard to infrastructure support from the
graduate office and from the general university system. In addition to the assessment dialogue incorporated into the oral
exam experience, the Chair of the Graduate Committee and the Chair of the Department
routinely interview the finishing and graduated graduate students about their perceptions
of the strengths and weakness of the program.
Information, opinion, and perspectives
about the graduate program which are garnered from the oral exams and the various
interviews are brought to the department as a whole by both the Chair of the Graduate
Committee and the Chair of the Department. In its regular meetings the Department
constantly reviews and discusses the assessment information and acts in whatever ways it
deems appropriate.
______________
All students are required to complete
comprehensive oral and written exams. |
1999-2000 ASSESSMENT
For the Fall semester 1999 through the Summer of 2000 the Department of History had three
students finish their defense of their thesis and graduate with a MA in History. The
Department also had one student pass the comprehensive exam and graduate with a Masters of
Arts in Education-Social Science degree. This latter graduate is the last of those
students finishing out the MAEd program, which has since been terminated. The success of the graduates indicated that they
learned a great deal, more than sufficient to successfully complete a graduate degree.
This is a clear indication that the program is successful and that the task of the
Department is to maintain, and when possible,to add to the this success with additional
resources. |
1998-99 ASSESSMENT
In this year the Department had one graduate take and pass the comprehensive exam and earn
the MA in History. Comments indicated continued excellence in course offerings, faculty,
institutional support for research, and professional support. Again, the only area of
concern focused on limited holdings of UNK library, but were offset by good interlibrary
loan services and emerging availability of on-line research materials. The department
continued its efforts to add to the library holdings and is working to expand information
for faculty and students on research resources on-line. |
1993-94
ASSESSMENT
From Spring 1993 through Summer 1994 the History Dept. had eight graduate students take
comprehensive examinations, some of them were exams in lieu of the thesis, others were
exams about the thesis. They split with five thesis comps and three non-thesis comps. The non-thesis comps are a bank of at least five
demanding essay questions built from seminar, colloquium, and class experiences. The
Thesis comps are built from some class experience but focus mostly on an in-depth analysis
and defense of the thesis.
The exams demonstrated that our students
are first rate. They handled demanding analysis and fundamental historiographical review
very well and were able to demonstrate an integration of their learning from the variety
of courses and other experiences they acquired in their program (such as working as GAs,
from informal discussion sessions, and independent reading outside of formal
requirements.) Their ability reflects to some degree the quality of training they received
from UNK faculty, but also their own individual talents. |
