Pushing the Boundaries While Easing the Boring: How to Assess Higher-Ordered Thinking in a US History Survey

One of the promises of learning outcomes for the history discipline is that it encourages faculty to incorporate active learning techniques. To effectively teach for outcomes that stress speaking, thinking, researching, and writing in the discipline, students must be given both the time and space to practice their abilities. But no one, both instructor and students, wants to listen to 35 individual lectures that dump massive, disconnected content into a Power Point or Prezi which is then read back to them. This presentation offers assignment and assessment examples of how students in a US history survey course can meet and go beyond course learning outcomes and still keep their peers, and instructor, engaged in the learning process.