Motlow State Community College
Program Student Learning Outcomes
Use of Assessment Results
Fall Semester 2008
Program Title: General Education, University Parallel Major
Course: HIST 2010 – United States History I
This course covers the history of the United States from the beginning of the English settlement in North
America through the Revolution, early national period, and disruption of the Union, Civil War and
Reconstruction periods. This course ends with the events of 1876.
Expected Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Students will be able to describe the major tenets of Puritanism, including identification of John
Calvin and a definition of “predestination.”
2. Students will be able to describe the origin and development of the religious movement known
as the Great Awakening and indicate the different patterns of religion that emerged in the
colonies as a result.
3. Students will be able to describe the effects of the French and Indian War on colonial attitudes
toward Britain, and vice versa.
4. Students will be able to describe the political philosophy underlying colonial opposition to
parliamentary taxation by explaining John Locke’s theories, as well as the distinctive American
definition of “representative government” and the proper authority of Parliament over the
colonies.
5. Students will be able to describe the major provisions of the Articles of Confederation and their
weaknesses and discuss the inability of the government to resolve foreign and domestic
problems as they arose because of the Articles’ weaknesses.
6. Students will be able to describe the objections raised about the Constitution by its opponents
during the ratification process and the answers given by its defenders.
7. Students will be able to distinguish between the basic philosophies of Federalist, such as
Hamilton, and the Republicans, such as Jefferson and Madison, identifying the geographic,
economic, and political sources of their strength.
8. Students will be able to describe the factors leading to the sale of the Louisiana territory by
France and its purchase by the United States, indicating the objections Jefferson had to
overcome to conclude the purchase.
9. Students will be able to describe the ways in which Chief Justice John Marshall’s rulings
established precedents for national supremacy over state rights, defined the role of the Courts
and Congress, and defended property and contract rights.
10. Students will be able to describe the major characteristics of the two-party system during the
Jacksonian era, indicating both its similarities and dissimilarities to the first two-party system
established by the Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans.
11. Students will be able to define “Manifest Destiny” as Americans applied the term, and cite
examples to indicate the actual operation of this complex motivating force in American
expansion to the Pacific coast.
12. Students will be able to describe the arguments of those favoring and opposing the extension of
slavery into the territories, and indicate the role of popular sovereignty as a compromise.
13. Students will be able to cite the Supreme Court ruling in the Dred Scott case of 1856 and
indicate the broader implications of the court’s argument in limiting both popular sovereignty in
new territories and congressional power to legislate for these areas.
14. Students will be able to trace the major military battles of the Civil War and describe the military
problems plaguing the Union before the early years and the problems faced by the Confederacy
after General Grant secured the Mississippi Valley area at Vicksburg in 1863.
15. Students will be able to trace the contributions made to civil rights by the congressional
Reconstructionists, particularly in the provisions of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
Amendments to the Constitution, and the work of the Freeman’s Bureau.
16. Students will be able to cite the provisions of the Compromise of 1877 to settle the Hayes-Tilden
electoral dispute, indicating the significant concessions made by Hayes to Southern
conservatives to win support for his election.
Performance Measure: Pre-Test/Post-Test
Effectiveness Standard: At least 70% of the students will answer the questions that pertain to the
student learning outcome correctly.
Assessment Results:
Pre-Test Results:
Expected Student Learning
Outcomes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Question Number
Percent Correct
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
39.2
58.8
31.5
35.7
25.4
58.2
35.8
76.3
28.8
56.1
34.0
57.6
21.9
10.2
10.5
32.5
Pre-Test Grand Mean Percent
Correct = 38.28
Post-Test Results:
Expected Student
Learning Outcomes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Question Number
Percent Correct
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
43.6
75.0
42.0
54.8
45.7
70.3
73.2
87.0
52.4
54.7
43.1
79.2
41.4
22.0
43.4
44.5
Post-Test Grand Mean
Percent Correct = 54.52
Percent Incremental
Change
+11.22
+27.55
+33.33
+53.50
+79.92
+20.79
+104.46
+14.02
+81.94
-02.50
+26.76
+37.50
+89.04
+115.69
+313.33
+36.92
Grand Mean Percent
Incremental Change =
65.22
Use of Assessment Results:
In the fall 2008 semester, 30 sections of HIST 2101, comprising 870 students across four campuses were
tested. As the post-test results indicate 11 of the 16 expected student learning outcomes were not
attained. The reasons for this are not immediately clear. The inherent variance across instructors and
student populations certainly accounts for some portion of this finding.
Looking at the aggregate measures of central tendency (grand mean percent correct and grand mean
percent incremental change) reveals a 65.22 percent improvement of post-test scores over pre-test
scores despite falling short of the 70% pass rate benchmark.
Regular and adjunct faculty teaching HIST 2010 were made aware of these results. The following
corrective steps will be taken:




History faculty will reduce the number of SLOs to a more manageable and measureable number
of about five to seven.
The history faculty elected to abandon a pre-post test assessment approach in the future in
favor of an embedded-assessment approach. It was the majority opinion of the history faculty
that an embedded assessment methodology was more appropriate to history and would likely
be a more accurate measure of actual student learning.
History faculty will craft new SLOs and new embedded assessment questions to improve the
assessment process for future course assessment.
Possible pedagogical interventions include additional classroom time on the material covered by
the new SLOs, additional assignments, and alternate instructional approaches.