Art and Design—Art History Course Assessment Report—December 2013
Submitted by Kathleen Wentrack, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Art and Design
Introduction
Over the past several years, the Department of Art and Design has regularly performed an
assessment of Art History courses by focusing on AR310 Introductory Survey of Art which has
at least 12 sections each semester. While this is not the entire breadth of Art History courses
offered at Queensborough, it does include the largest number of students. In light of the regular
assessment of AR310, the Art and Design Department focused on the non-AR310 Art History
courses in the Fall 2013 semester as they represent the depth of Art History courses offered to
students both in the Fine and Performing Arts Academy and other Academies. These courses
included the following:
AR311 History of Art I
AR315 History of Modern Art
AR316 History of American Art
AR317 History of Photography
AR325 History of Graphic Design
AR326 Asian Art
Student Learning Outcomes and General Education Objectives
The following Student Learning Outcomes were the focus of the current assessment:
 Students will be able to conduct and write a formal analysis and evaluation of stylistic and
historical contexts of works of art using art historical terminology
 Students will demonstrate a critical use of sources by evaluating and synthesizing research to
support their thesis and analysis
 Students will demonstrate analytical thinking through the written expression of historical
facts and art historical concepts in order to derive meaning in works of art
 Students will demonstrate proper use of grammar, syntax, and spelling; logical compositional
structure (intro body conclusion); and proper use of citations and bibliographic reference
Each of these Student Learning Outcomes have been subdivided into specific, observable
elements not only for faculty to evaluate student work, but also for students to understand what is
expected of them. These are given below and delineated in Appendix A.

Students will be able to conduct and write a formal analysis and evaluation of stylistic and
historical contexts of works of art using art historical terminology
o Conducts a descriptive formal analysis of the visual aspects of an art object
o Proper use of art historical terminology
o Describes the stylistic elements of works of art
o Describes the historical and cultural contexts of works of art

Students will demonstrate a critical use of sources by evaluating and synthesizing research to
support their thesis and analysis
o Student has identified scholarly resources
o Student critically evaluated and synthesized the research information into the text
o Research supports thesis and analysis

Students will demonstrate analytical thinking through the written expression of historical
facts and art historical concepts in order to derive meaning in works of art
o Historical facts and art history concepts are used to present meaning in works of
art
o Analytical thinking is identifiable in the presentation of art historical facts and
concepts

Students will demonstrate proper use of grammar, syntax, and spelling; logical compositional
structure (intro body conclusion); and proper use of citations and bibliographic reference
o Logical compositional structure (intro, body, conclusion, etc.)
o Proper use of grammar, syntax, and spelling
o Proper citation and bibliographic reference
o Proper formatting and use of illustrations
These Student Learning Outcomes have been aligned with the following General Education
Objectives of the College:





Communicate effectively through reading, writing, listening, and speaking
Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to
make informed decisions
Use information management and technology skills effectively for academic research and
lifelong learning
Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human behavior,
social institutions, or social processes
Apply aesthetic and intellectual criteria in the evaluation or creation of works in the
humanities or the arts
Please see Appendix B for a specific alignment of General Education objectives with the
Curricular and Course Objectives as specifically connected with the Student Learning Outcomes.
Evidence of Student Achievement
Over several years, faculty in the Department of Art and Design have developed and fine tuned
rubrics to assess student learning both on examinations and research papers. Specifically, this
Course Assessment focused on the research paper, a common denominator across all Art History
courses independent of the course content, as the student evidence to be assessed. Thus, the
detailed rubric of Student Learning Outcomes and assessment elements discussed above were
used.
Student Assignment
The Student Assignment that was assessed across courses is the Art History research paper
which demands a rigorous visual analysis of art objects in conjunction with scholarly research
and writing. The most important elements of writing such a paper are included in the assessment
rubric which align with the Student Learning Outcomes for the Art History courses (see
Appendix A). Six different courses were assessed in the Fall 2013 semester that include AR311
History of Art I, AR315 History of Modern Art, AR316 History of American Art, AR317
History of Photography, AR325 History of Graphic Design, and AR326 Asian Art. The faculty
members teaching these six courses developed research papers to meet the needs of the
individual course content. However, all research papers require a formal visual analysis, a critical
use of research, and a demonstration of analytical thinking when deriving meaning in works of
art.
For the History of Art I, students chose two works of art or architecture from different time
periods to compare and contrast formally, conceptually, and contextually. The History of
Modern Art course paper is also a compare and contrast paper of objects from different
time/style periods periods but based on a visit to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in Manhattan where the students viewed the works in person. The History of American Art
research paper focuses on one work of art or architecture by an American artist placing it within
political, socio-economic, and ethnic contexts. In the History of Photography students visited a
special photography exhibition in New York City and wrote a research paper from the
perspective of an exhibition review that included a close formal analysis of several objects. In the
History of Graphic Design, the Digital Art and Design students selected a graphic designer to
research and study in detail, and then prepared a PowerPoint presentation to “teach” their
colleagues about their designer. They also submited a summary paper that included their
research. Finally, the students in Asian Art visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and selected
a work of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean art to visually analyze and research in a paper. To
facilitate proper research and citation skills, the students in all of these Art History courses
attended an Information Literacy course taught by library faculty. All assignments have been
included in Appendix C.
Evidence
The student papers in each Art History course are the pieces of evidence collected and evaluated
using the Student Learning Outcome rubric in Appendix A developed in the Assessment Institute
in Fall 2013. This rubric was the assessment instrument used to determine how well the students
were achieving the developed outcomes. Sample student artifacts are in Appendix D.
Analysis and Summary
The scoring of each of the art history course papers has been tallied in the rubric in Appendix E
and can be viewed below.
The first Student Learning Outcome: “Students will be able to conduct and write a formal
analysis and evaluation of stylistic and historical contexts of works of art using art historical
terminology” was subdivided into four distinct categories: conducts a descriptive formal analysis
of the visual aspects of an art object, proper use of art historical terminology, describes the
stylistic elements of works of art, and describes the historical and cultural contexts of works of
art. Under all of these subcategories, most students scored in the Excellent and Good categories
illustrating that most students learned to complete a formal visual analysis while using proper art
historical terminology and could define stylistic elements as well as the historical and cultural
contexts of works of art. Future improvements could focus on guiding students to describe the
stylistic elements of works of art. Under the second Student Learning Outcome: “Students will
demonstrate a critical use of sources by evaluating and synthesizing research to support their
thesis and analysis,” students performed less well in each of the three subcategories: student has
identified scholarly resources, student critically evaluated and synthesized the research
information into the text, and research supports thesis and analysis. Despite regular training on
matters of research in these Art History courses, students still struggle in this area.
Students in all sections of these art history courses performed reasonably well on the next
Student Learning Outcome: “Students will demonstrate analytical thinking through the written
expression of historical facts and art historical concepts in order to derive meaning in works of
art” which was divided into the categories: historical facts and art history concepts are used to
present meaning in works of art, and analytical thinking is identifiable in the presentation of art
historical facts and concepts. In demonstrating a command of factual knowledge, students at
Queensborough have generally needed support in this area. In the final Outcome: “Students will
demonstrate proper use of grammar, syntax, and spelling; logical compositional structure (intro
body conclusion); and proper use of citations and bibliographic reference” students show a
weakness in the area of proper citation and bibliographic reference while doing well in the two
other areas of logical compositional structure and proper use of grammar, syntax, and spelling.
The use of illustrations in research papers was not required across all courses.
Assessment Results
In regards to student performance in the selected subcategories of the Student Learning
Outcomes, students need extra support in the areas of research in general. These specifically
include identifying scholarly sources, critically evaluating and synthesizing information, and
using the research to support a thesis. Students at Queensborough are of the Internet age where
all information is literally available at their fingertips, and therefore students need more direction
in understanding the importance of proper academic research, citation, and bibliographic
reference. Faculty teaching Art History courses in the Department of Art and Design will be
meeting in January to discuss these results further and to devise a plan to help students improve
in these areas. For example, faculty could scaffold an additional research and citation assignment
before the main research paper, or include examples of proper citation format specific to art
historical sources as part of course assignments (students do receive a guide on citations from the
library). Art History faculty will also be discussing the effectiveness of the new Student Learning
Outcome rubric in efforts to further refine our assessment instrument.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Wentrack