Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
INTRODUCTION
The first component of the OSA contains questions for the Humanities core. The first questions
ask the participants about how they fulfilled their Humanities core requirement.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
The following table shows the number and percentage of participants who selected each
response to the first question regarding where students took their core curriculum course. The
number of participants selecting each response adds up to more than the 1,578 total
participants because participants were instructed to select all that apply.
How did you complete your core curriculum requirement in Humanities?
%
Response
n
I took a humanities core curriculum class through dual credit in
221
14.0%
high school.
I took an advanced placement humanities core curriculum class
147
9.3%
in high school.
I took a CLEP exam for humanities core curriculum credit.
I received transfer core curriculum humanities credit for a class
that I took at another institution.
I took my core curriculum class in humanities at Tech.
21
1.3%
706
44.7%
980
62.1%
For the analysis in this report the 1,578 participants will be divided into the “TTU” group and
the “ELSE” group. The TTU group represents the 980 participants (62.1% of the sample) who
selected “I took my core curriculum class in humanities at Tech.” The participants who selected
one or more of the other responses were asked if the class they took outside of Tech counted
for their core curriculum credit. The ELSE group will represent the 495 participants (31.4% of
the sample) who reported that a class taken outside of Tech did count for their Humanities core
curriculum credit. These 495 participants were also asked which course counted. The following
table shows the number and percentage of the sample who selected each response.
Which one?
Response
A dual credit class.
An advanced placement class.
A CLEP exam.
A class I took at another institution.
I don't know.
[did not answer]
Total
n
80
46
3
359
6
1
495
% of sample
5.1%
2.9%
0.2%
22.8%
0.4%
0.1%
31.4%
103 participants (6.5% of the sample) reported that they did not know if a course taken outside
of Tech counted for their Humanities core curriculum credit. These 103 participants will be
excluded from any TTU vs. ELSE group analyses.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
The system stores data for each of the participants which makes it possible to identify the
respondents who major in programs related to the Humanities core. The following majors were
identified and classified as Humanities majors: Classics, English, French, German, History,
Honors Arts and Letters, Philosophy, Russian Language and Area Studies, and Spanish. The
following table shows that there were a total of 77 Humanities majors in the OSA sample. It
also displays how many participants were in each of the Humanities majors.
Humanities Majors
Major
n
Classics
1
English
25
German
1
History
32
Honors Arts and Letters
1
Philosophy
9
Russian Language and Area Studies
2
Spanish
6
Total
77
% of sample
0.1%
1.6%
0.1%
2.0%
0.1%
0.6%
0.1%
0.4%
4.9%
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
RESULTS
The student learning outcomes for Humanities are:




Identify methodologies of historical, literary, philosophical, and/or aesthetic research
and recognize their applicability to everyday life.
Develop analytical arguments in written and/or oral form.
Evaluate events, ideas, and artistic expressions in terms of multiple cultural contexts and
value systems.
Recognize ways in which the humanities are fundamental to the health and survival of
any society.
The Humanities section of the OSA contains three self-assessment questions and four
knowledge questions. The first learning outcome does not seem to align with any of the
Humanities questions on the OSA. The second learning outcome aligns with the first selfassessment question. The third learning outcome aligns with the second self-assessment
question and all four knowledge questions. The fourth learning outcome aligns with the third
self-assessment question and the third knowledge question.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Humanities Questions 1-3:
The first three questions of the Humanities section of the OSA ask the students to assess their
own abilities. A screenshot of the questions and summary for each question is shown below
and on the following page.
The charts below show the distributions of answers for the three self-assessment questions for
participants who took their Humanities course at TTU (red) and participants who took their
Humanities course elsewhere (blue). It can be seen that the two groups chose similar answers
for each of the self-assessment questions. Both groups seem confident about their ability “to
think critically in written and verbal forms;” “to recognize the possibility of multiple
interpretations, cultural contexts, and values;” and “to discuss ways in which the humanities
shape or are shaped by cultures and societies.” Since the second self-assessment question
aligns with the third learning outcome and the third self-assessment question aligns with the
fourth learning outcome, this suggests that on average students who took their Humanities
course at TTU feel similarly confident in these learning outcomes to those who took their
Humanities course elsewhere.
Can you demonstrate your ability to think critically in written and verbal
forms?
80.0%
Percent of Sample
70.0%
69.4%
74.1%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
28.8%
30.0%
TTU
25.1%
ELSE
20.0%
10.0%
0.9% 0.6%
0.7% 0.2%
0.2% 0.0%
Not Sure
Somewhat No
Definitely No
0.0%
Definitely Yes
Somewhat Yes
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Can you demonstrate your ability to think critically in written and verbal
forms?
80.0%
Percent of Sample
70.0%
68.2% 69.3%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
TTU
27.4% 28.1%
30.0%
ELSE
20.0%
10.0%
3.6% 1.8%
0.5% 0.8%
0.3% 0.0%
Not Sure
Somewhat No
Definitely No
0.0%
Definitely Yes
Somewhat Yes
Can you demonstrate your ability to think critically in written and verbal
forms?
Percent of Sample
60.0%
50.0%
49.6%
54.3%
38.7% 36.6%
40.0%
TTU
30.0%
ELSE
20.0%
9.3% 7.3%
10.0%
1.9% 1.4%
0.5% 0.4%
Somewhat No
Definitely No
0.0%
Definitely Yes
Somewhat Yes
Not Sure
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Humanities Questions 4-7:
The second part of the Humanities section of the OSA consists of four knowledge questions. All
four questions are based on the following passage:
A screenshot and summary of responses for each question is shown on the following pages.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Humanities Question 4:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the first knowledge question for
participants who took their Humanities course at TTU (red) and participants who took their
Humanities course elsewhere (blue). Answer 3 is the correct choice. It can be seen that a
majority in both groups chose the correct answer. However, there are also quite a few
participants in both groups who chose one of the other answers. Overall, the same percent of
the ELSE group and the TTU group chose the correct answer (64.4%). This means that on
average students who took their Humanities course elsewhere do not do significantly better on
this question than students who took their course at TTU. Since the first question aligns with
the third learning outcome, this suggests that on average students who took their Humanities
course at TTU meet this learning outcome similar to students who took their course elsewhere.
The character identified as God is depicted as
letting a child die…
The mother beats the corpse of her own
daughter.
11.5%
13.5%
5.2%
6.5%
64.4%
64.4%
The story never mentions the girl's brother.
The narrator implies that a little girl deserves
to die for nothing more than disobedience.
The image of the girl's dead body raising its
arm is grotesque.
0.0%
TTU
12.2%
8.1%
ELSE
6.6%
7.5%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
Percent of Sample
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Humanities Question 5:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the second knowledge question for
participants who took their Humanities course at TTU (red) and participants who took their
Humanities course elsewhere (blue). Answer 5 is the correct choice. It can be seen that just
under half of both groups chose the correct answer. For this question a few more people in the
ELSE group chose the correct answer as compared to the TTU group (48.9% vs. 46.4%). This
difference is not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. This means that on average students
who took their Humanities course elsewhere do not do better with this question than students
who took their course at TTU. Since the second question aligns with the third learning
outcome, this suggests that on average students who took their Humanities course at TTU meet
this learning outcome similar to students who took their course elsewhere.
Assigning a gender to the child provides some
characterization…
12.9%
11.1%
Nineteenth-century readers would have
expected a girl to be obedient…
In the nineteenth-century, for a young female
character to be as dynamic…
As with Alice in Wonderland, nineteenthcentury children's literature…
21.4%
21.4%
8.3%
5.7%
TTU
11.0%
12.9%
ELSE
46.4%
48.9%
Hunt found out that the child was really a girl.
0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
Percent of Sample
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Humanities Question 6:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the third knowledge question for
participants who took their Humanities course at TTU (red) and participants who took their
Humanities course elsewhere (blue). Answer 1 is the correct choice. It can be seen that a large
majority in both groups chose the correct answer. There are only a few participants in both
groups who chose one of the other answers, which may mean that this question is not a good
discriminator of Humanities knowledge. Overall, a few more people in the ELSE group chose
the correct answer as compared to the TTU group (86.3% vs. 87.9%). This difference is not
statistically significant at the 0.05 level. This means that on average students who took their
Humanities course elsewhere do not do better with this question than students who took their
course at TTU. Since the third question aligns with the third learning outcome, this suggests
that on average students who took their Humanities course at TTU meet this learning outcome
similar to students who took their course elsewhere.
It was likely composed by an adult to teach
children obedience.
86.3%
87.9%
In the nineteenth century, medicine was less
advanced than it is today.
2.6%
2.6%
Nineteenth-century children often died young.
3.4%
2.6%
Many people fear being buried prematurely.
3.2%
3.6%
The story depicts death as rest.
4.6%
3.2%
0.0%
20.0%
TTU
ELSE
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
Percent of Sample
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Humanities Question 7:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the fourth knowledge question for
participants who took their Humanities course at TTU (red) and participants who took their
Humanities course elsewhere (blue). Answer 5 is the correct choice. It can be seen that a large
majority in both groups chose the correct answer. There are only a few participants in both
groups who chose one of the other answers, which may mean that this question is not a good
discriminator of Humanities knowledge. Overall, a few more people in the TTU group chose the
correct answer as compared to the ELSE group (79.8% vs. 79.0%). This difference is not
statistically significant at the 0.05 level. This suggests that on average students who took their
Humanities course at TTU do not do significantly better than students who took their course
elsewhere. Since the fourth question aligns with the third learning outcome, this suggests that
on average students who took their Humanities course elsewhere are meeting this learning
outcome similar to students who took their course elsewhere.
The girl's raising her hand even in death
exaggerates stubbornness for comic effect.
6.8%
4.8%
Although the expression "death-bed" implies
that the girl died…
5.1%
3.6%
The presence of God as a character may have
inclined the original readers…
3.8%
5.9%
The daughter's refusal to stay buried prepares
for the climax of the story…
4.5%
6.7%
TTU
ELSE
Vampires and other undead were an endemic
problem in Eastern Europe.
0.0%
79.8%
79.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
80.0%
100.0%
Percent of Sample
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
Humanities Average:
The table below compares the differences between TTU and ELSE when the results for all four
knowledge questions are averaged (e.g., if a student got 3 out of the 4 questions correct, his
score will be ¾ = .75). The mean score is slightly higher for students who took their core
requirement for Humanities elsewhere. However, this difference is not statistically significant
at the 0.05 level. This suggests that on average students who took their Humanities course at
TTU do not perform better on the Humanities knowledge questions than students who took
their Humanities course elsewhere.
n
Humanities
Overall
980
Core at TTU
Mean
SD
69.2%
n
29.4%
495
Core Elsewhere
Mean
SD
70.1%
29.4%
t-stat
p-value
-0.50
0.3075
The chart below shows the distributions of the average scores for participants who took their
class for Humanities core requirement at TTU (red) and participants who took their class for
Humanities core requirement elsewhere (blue). The distributions are fairly similar, but it looks
like there is a bigger group in TTU that got a top score. However, the TTU group also has more
people performing 50% or below.
Humanities Knowledge Questions: TTU vs. ELSE
40.0%
35.1% 35.8%
Percent of Sample
35.0%
29.9%
30.0%
27.2%
25.0%
21.7%
20.0%
17.4%
15.0%
11.3%
TTU
12.7%
ELSE
10.0%
5.0%
4.6% 4.2%
0.0%
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
Percent Correct
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
The table below shows a comparison of the average scores for the participants selecting each
course option within the ELSE group.
A dual credit class.
An advancement placement class.
A CLEP exam.
A class I took at another institution.
I don't know.
[did not answer]
Total
n
80
46
3
359
6
1
495
Mean
70.6%
78.3%
91.7%
68.8%
58.3%
100.0%
70.1%
SD
28.6%
28.2%
14.4%
29.7%
25.8%
29.4%
Based on the mean, students who took their Humanities course through CLEP exam are the
highest-performing group and students who took their course at another institution are the
lowest performing group, excluding the students that did not know which course counted.
The following table shows a summary of the correlations between the percentage of
Humanities questions answered correctly and the following variables of interest: gender, age,
SAT score, ACT score, transfer credit hours, total credit hours, cumulative GPA, Humanities
major, Mathematics major, Natural Sciences major, and Social and Behavioral Sciences major.
Gender
Age
SAT score
ACT score
Transfer hours
Total credit hours
Cumulative GPA
Humanities major
Mathematics major
Natural Sciences major
Social/Behavioral major
Correlation
0.05
-0.04
0.33
0.35
-0.08
0.02
0.18
0.04
0.00
0.02
-0.02
p-value
0.0420
0.1151
<.0001
<.0001
0.0021
0.3498
<.0001
0.0896
0.9817
0.4762
0.4581
n
1,575
1,578
897
743
1,578
1,578
1,576
1,578
1,578
1,578
1,578
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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Online Senior Assessment 2013: Humanities
The following tables summarize the regression model using these same variables of interest
with Humanities scores on the OSA as the outcome variable. Note that the variables SAT score
and ACT score were combined into one variable, SAT/ACT score, to include more students in
the one model. This variable was created by using a conversion table from the ACT website to
convert ACT scores to the SAT score range (see http://www.act.org/solutions/college-careerreadiness/compare-act-sat/).
Regression model predicting Humanities score
n
F-value
p-value
R2
1,183
18.61
< .0001
0.1370
Variable
B
SE
β
Intercept
-0.2987
0.1071
Gender
0.0468
0.0172
0.08**
Age
0.0061
0.0031
0.06
SAT/ACT score
0.0006
0.0001
0.35***
Transfer credit hours
-0.0005
0.0003
-0.05
Total credit hours
0.0006
0.0004
0.04
Cumulative GPA
0.0265
0.0147
0.06
Humanities major
-0.0028
0.0384
0.00
Mathematics major
-0.0320
0.0250
-0.04
Natural Sciences major
-0.0069
0.0271
-0.01
Social and Behavioral Sciences major
0.0142
0.0199
0.02
Note: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001; gender: 0 = male, 1 = female
The model overall is significant at the 0.05 level (R2 = 0.1370). For this model gender and
SAT/ACT score were significant predictors at the 0.05 level for Humanities scores on the OSA.
The model suggests that when controlling for the other variables in the model female students
and students with higher SAT/ACT scores, on average, score higher on the Humanities section
of the OSA.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Gail Alleyne Bayne, June 2013
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