General Education Annual Course Assessment Form
(due September 1)
Course Number/Title _Bible History and Literature RELS/HUM/MDES/JS 90_ GE Area _C2_
Results reported for AY __2010-11______ # of sections ___4___ # of instructors___1___
Course Coordinator: __Jennifer RYCENGA____ email: ___jrycenga@earthlink.net_
Department Chair: __Chris Jochim________ College: ___Humanities and Arts____
Instructions: Each year, the department will prepare a brief (two page maximum) report that
documents the assessment of the course during the year. This report will be electronically
submitted by the department chair to the Office of Undergraduate Studies with an electronic
copy to the home college by September 1 of the following academic year.
Part 1
To be completed by the course coordinator:
(1) What SLO(s) were assessed for the course during the AY?
SLO 2: Respond to significant human accomplishments that illuminate enduring
concerns, by writing both research-based critical analyses and personal
responses.
(2) What were the results of the assessment of this course? What were the lessons learned
from the assessment?
The professor who teaches this course, Brent Walters, takes the difficult subject of understanding
the texts, contexts, and origins of the various strata of the Bible, and makes the subject
provocative, life-altering, and profoundly unsettling to his students. He requires that students
write both a tightly-monitored research paper, and produce a series of personal responses to the
challenges of the biblical texts. By inculcating some rigor alongside students’ raw reaction, he
reports that students met this SLO in his class, virtually across the board, albeit sometimes in
spite of their own resistance to the disconcerting nature of the material they were learning! Of
course, it should be stated that the content of the course – the scriptures of Judaism and
Christianity – represent a level of human achievement and significance that is unquestionable
(regardless of one’s attitude concerning the truth claims of these books). Thus, the assessment of
this SLO is a reflection of how effective the professor is in jarring students out of received (and
even complacent and self-satisfied) assertions about the text. Professor Walters encourages
students to be feisty in debate, but insists that their work be grounded in the vast body of
knowledge generated by Biblical scholars, believers and critics over the ages. The author of this
report cannot imagine a better methodology for achieving this SLO than having a professor like
Walters teaching the course.
(3) What modifications to the course, or its assessment activities or schedule, are planned
for the upcoming year? (If no modifications are planned, the course coordinator
should indicate this.)
There are no modifications planned for this year in terms of how the SLOs are taught,
assessed, or evaluated.
Part 2
To be completed by the department chair (with input from course coordinator as appropriate):
(4) Are all sections of the course still aligned with the area Goals, Student Learning
Objectives (SLOs), Content, Support, and Assessment? If they are not, what actions
are planned?
YES.