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Caldwell College Department of History and Political Science Outcomes Assessment – A Guide for Students
The Purpose of Outcomes Assessment:
Caldwell College has long required all graduates to complete a “capstone” senior project or experience as a final assessment of student performance. Over the years, the form that this experience has taken has changed – it has been a proctored examination, a thesis, a reflective essay, an oral presentation – but its goals have remained the same: to assess the extent to which the overall goals of our major programs (History, Social Studies, and Political Science) have been achieved by each individual student major. This objective – known as “outcomes assessment” in higher education – is a task that nationwide accrediting groups and reformers of higher education have long been advocating. Caldwell College has consistently received high marks for having such a system in place. You as students should regard this requirement as a sign of the quality of the education that you have received. You should also view the project you are to complete as valuable experience should you choose to enter graduate school. In the world of work, there will be many situations where you will have a similar task to complete: a project to research, investigate and describe in written form.
The Objectives of Outcomes Assessment:
Your outcomes assessment project is intended to measure the degree to which you have met the goals of our major programs. In general the goals of our programs, whether you major in History, Social Studies, or Political Science, are to teach you how to read and analyze relevant works in the discipline in order to reach meaningful conclusions, how to research and gather material, and how to present your ideas clearly, logically and well.
These general goals are laid out more specifically in the Outcomes Assessment Evaluation Sheet at the end of this document. These are the criteria which will be used to evaluate your performance in outcomes assessment.
Fulfilling the Outcomes Assessment Requirement
In order to fulfill the Department's outcomes assessment requirements you must enroll in two courses simultaneously, ideally in your senior year. One of these courses will be HI/PO 492 – Research Seminar, and the other will be one of the following senior seminars:
HI 407 Colonial and Revolutionary America
HI 430 The Contemporary World
HI 440 Recent America
PO 432 Contemporary Issues and Problems in World Politics
One of the department's four designated senior seminars, along with HI/PO 492, will be offered every semester (Fall and Spring) in both traditional and External Degree formats. Barring extreme circumstances, External Degree students will be expected to come to campus to present their research simultaneously with traditional students at the semester gathering scheduled for this purpose. While students are encouraged to begin their research in the summer prior to enrolling in the senior research course, HI/PO 492 will not be offered during the summer.
The senior seminar will provide you with content knowledge which will serve as vital background to your research project. Senior seminars will be taught like other upper-division courses in the Department, with various assignments including exams and short papers. Your research project, which must be on a topic related to the subject matter of the senior seminar, will be completed in HI/PO 492 Research Seminar.
All research projects will conform to the guidelines listed below and will proceed in stages that are uniform across the department. Exact dates for each submission will be determined by the individual course instructor and distributed to all students in writing at the beginning of each semester.
The stages of the project are:
1) Proposal
2) Working Outline and Bibliography
3) First Draft
4) Second Draft
5) Final Draft (minimum of 20 pages in length, demonstrating the use of at least 8 sources)
6) Oral Presentation (a 10-minute presentation of his/her work to a gathering of department faculty, other graduating seniors, and interested students)
Note about the oral presentations: Presentations of student research will usually take place on the second to last Friday of classes, and the specific times of these gatherings will be determined at the beginning of each semester. Students are expected to come to campus during the assigned time to make oral presentations of their work. Only in extreme or unusual circumstances will a student be excused from this requirement. Students enrolled in an outcomes assessment course in the Fall semester should also set aside the last Friday of classes in case of inclement weather the previous week. In cases where a student cannot appear at the scheduled department gathering, alternate arrangements will be made for oral presentation of student work (e.g. videotaping, etc.) As a courtesy to fellow students, all majors enrolled in outcomes assessment courses are expected to remain in attendance for the duration of the scheduled department gathering at which their presentations are being made. Participation in informal discussion following student presentations is expected of all students.
Evaluating the Oral Presentations
Oral presentations will be judged on how well they present the following topics concerning their written work.
A) The nature of the student's work
B) The research process
C) What the student learned from conducting the research
D) The value and importance of the topic
E) Further research and questions resulting from the student's work
Evaluating the Research Project:
Your outcomes assessment projects will be evaluated in two ways.
1. A grade will be assigned by the instructor of HI/PO 492, although the instructor may choose to take into account the feedback he/she receives from other members of the Department. Each stage of the research project has a specific grade value. The proposal will be worth 5% of the final grade. The outline/bibliography and first two drafts of the paper will each be worth 10% of the final grade. The final draft of the paper will be worth 50% of the grade, and the oral presentation will be worth 10%. All steps of the process are mandatory. Failure to complete any of the steps will result in failure of the course. The remaining 5% of the grade will be based on factors which are at the discretion of the instructor teaching the course (and may include such issues as the student's timeliness in meeting the deadline for the proposal, outline and draft stages of the project, and in keeping appointments).
In keeping with standard College policy, all majors must earn a final grade of "C" or better in both their senior seminar and in HI/PO 492. If a student receives a grade of C or better in HI/PO 492 but fails to achieve that grade in their senior seminar then the student will need to take another senior seminar in order to complete major requirements. Should a student receive a C or better in their senior seminar but fail to achieve that grade in HI/PO 492 the student may (at the discretion of the Department) be offered the opportunity to take an incomplete for the course so that they can continue to work on their research project until it is of sufficient quality.
2. Each research project will also be evaluated by a group of 3 faculty members from the Department, using the Outcomes Assessment Evaluation Sheet at the end of this document. The scores that will be assigned for each objective on the Evaluation Sheet will be determined by a consensus of all 3 faculty members.
In accordance with long-standing department policy, the Monsignor Joseph A. Brady Award will be given annually at Honors Convocation to the student who has completed the best senior research project during that academic year, and this award will be determined based on the Outcomes Assessment Evaluation Sheet completed by Department faculty.
Caldwell College – Department of History & Political Science Outcomes Assessment Evaluation Sheet
All outcomes assessment papers will be evaluated by 3 full-time members of Department faculty. Individual scores will be based on a consensus developed by department members.
Category A – Research
Objective 1: An outcomes assessment paper should demonstrate a clear and meaningful understanding of the nature and significance of the chosen topic.
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Objective 2: An outcomes assessment paper should be based on a wide variety of sources (a minimum of 8) that are relevant to the topic, scholarly in nature, and reasonably up to date.
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Objective 3: An outcomes assessment paper should make frequent and substantive use of most of its sources, and should not rely excessively on only one or two.
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Category B – Written Presentation (Explanation and Analysis)
Objective 4: An outcomes assessment paper should have a clearly stated thesis, goal or question (or series of questions) which inform the reader of the paper's major objectives.
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Objective 5: An outcomes assessment paper should clearly present information (historical background, evidence, examples, and explanation) which is directly related to the paper's topic and goals.
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Objective 6: An outcomes assessment paper should move beyond simple description (narrating how things occurred) to also consider issues of interpretation and analysis (examining the underlying factors which caused an event and/or its consequences and results).
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Objective 7: An outcomes assessment paper should provide a clear conclusion which restates the meaning and significance of the topic, reviews the major issues and questions of the paper, and discusses the main conclusions that have been drawn as a result of the research process.
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Category C – Written Presentation (Writing and Style)
Objective 8: An outcomes assessment paper should be logically organized, with all of its paragraphs clearly related to the main goals of the paper and with clear transitions between the issues discussed in the paper.
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Objective 9: An outcomes assessment paper should be free of errors in grammar, spelling, and style (paragraph and sentence construction).
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)
Objective 10: An outcomes assessment paper should include citations (footnotes, endnotes, internal citations) and a bibliography which are correctly formatted according to one of the standard acceptable formats (course instructors reserve the right to designate one specific format to be used by all students).
1 (unacceptable)
2 (needs improvement)
3 (successful)
4 (exemplary)