US Survey 2.0: Gen Ed, Undergraduate Research, and Assessment

Common wisdom might have it that gen ed History students simply learn about the past while History majors learn how to produce historical knowledge.  At the University of Oklahoma, we are challenging this assumption with an ambitious overhaul of our U.S. Survey, one of two only three courses required of all undergraduates. The numbers are suggestive: Although we have 230 majors, nearly 1000 students take the Survey every semester. 

Our efforts have been concentrated in two areas:  First, we require every student to produce a research paper incorporating both primary and secondary sources.  Second, we have imposed standarized writing assignments in all sections of the Survey.  Classes that were once lecture-based have become research- and writing-intensive, with mandatory tutorials staffed by graduate TAs. We have partnered with OU’s Expository Writing Program; Writing Center; Center for Teaching Excellence; and the library to develop a battery of resources for research and writing (including websites, videos, in-class exercises, and written guides).

As we conclude a 4-semester pilot of Survey 2.0, we face a series of assessment challenges.  Most urgently, we need to carefully consider the research paper as an assessment tool in a gen ed setting: Which aspects of the standardized curriculum have worked (or not) and why? What types and levels of skills we can reasonably expect to teach to a large and diverse student population? How can we balance skills and content?  How can we reconcile differences over teaching philosophy among core faculty? What kinds of intra-departmental assessment will we need to maintain our successes and minimize problems?  We must also develop a vocabulary for communicating our progress and needs to multiple stakeholders, especially our assessment-sensitive Administration. How can we tune the University’s major-focused assessment rubrics toward our undergraduate teaching?