Art History Information Competence Project Proposal

Art History Information Competence Home

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract & Goal
Objectives
Budget
Timeline & Responsibilities
Participant Qualifications
Notes
Addendum: Proposed Student Learning Outcomes

Abstract and Overall Goal

Examine the present effectiveness of SJSU's Art History Program in providing students with visual, verbal, and information competency skills and remodel both courses and the B.A. and M.A. curricula in Art History so that they better prepare present and future groups of students. Specifically, ensure that BA and MA Art History graduates are information competent.

SJSU's Art History Program offers B.A. and M.A. majors. In addition to upper division and graduate courses taken by these majors and by other Art & Design students, a variety of General Education courses are provided to our own and to general campus students. [1] The Art History Information Competence Project will focus on developing and assessing the information skills of our majors in a discipline-specific context. Faculty will simultaneously be laying the groundwork for embedding information skills development in all of our courses.

Objectives

Objective #1: Examine Expected Student Learning in Present Courses and Curricula (Jan.-March 2002)
Study the teaching/learning objectives, assignments, and classroom activities in a range of current Art History courses in order to develop a Preliminary Matrix of expected student skills and content knowledge.

• Team I participants (Christy Junkerman, Pat Sanders, Anne Simonson) will familiarize themselves with some of the current writing about assessment [2] and consider strategies for assessing the skill levels of students enrolled in their Spring 2002 classes. We will also look for examples of discipline-based materials for developing information competence in art historians and humanists. [3]
• These faculty will meet regularly, in person and/or by email, with each other and with Library Faculty members Edith Crowe, Art & Design Librarian, and Judy Reynolds, Director of Library Education. [4] During Spring semester each Team I member will develop and implement a minimum of one assignment aimed at evaluating the information competence of our students. Together we will evaluate the effectiveness of these assignments. It is important for Library Faculty to see not only research and other information assignments but also the student work that results from them.
• By meeting regularly in person and/or by email, will begin to develop a matrix of visual and verbal skills that students bring to a class (as beginners, as Art/Design majors who have taken a couple of classes, as advanced Art History majors) and corresponding skill levels that are desired learning outcomes. We will need to distinguish between what is essential for students to understand and what it would be nice for them to know and to know how to do.

We might use something like the schema below, working together to develop preliminary values-assessable student skill levels-to fill in the table.

As we continue to develop this assessment tool, we anticipate developing types of assignments that can be used in any Art History class-beginning survey course or specialized upper division course, regardless of specific course content-so that students can continue to develop skills and understanding rather than complete similar, entry-level assignments in each course. It will be important for us to keep in mind this "bigger picture," even in preliminary form, as we begin to draft a statement of information competence for our B.A. and M.A. majors.

Objective #2: Develop Specific Information Competence Assignments and Assessments for Capstone Courses (August 2001-May 2002)
Identify and develop four "locations" in the B.A. and M.A. curricula to serve as capstone courses that will provide the most effective contexts for developing and assessing different information skills. We propose:

1. Art 100W: General Education Advanced Writing. Review of and further practice of the general information skills introduced in lower division courses, with possible emphasis on ACRL standards 1, 2, and 5. Please see: ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Christy Junkerman is the 100W Course Coordinator, coordinating the 4-5 sections (25+ students each) taught every semester.
2. Art H 175: Theories of Art History and Art Criticism. A course designed by Pat Sanders but rarely taught that could be revised slightly to meet a variety of needs, especially as: (a) advanced reading and writing course particularly designed to work with ACRL standards 3 and 4 as they apply to research in the discipline of Art History; (b) requirement for all B.A. and M.A. majors as a prerequisite to an Art History seminar.
3. Art H 271-295: Graduate Seminar. One seminar is offered each semester, and topics vary as to historical period and theme, but all B.A. majors take one seminar during their final year in the program, and M.A. students take four. Anne Simonson will teach the Fall 2001 seminar; Christy Junkerman will probably teach the Spring 2002 seminar. We will develop information competence rubrics applicable to first- time seminar students and to those already working on their theses. We will use the seminar as an evaluative capstone for our B.A. majors after first tracking their performance in 100W and 175.
4. Art H 297/299: Thesis or Written M.A. Project. The thesis or project is the ultimate demonstration of information competence skills for an SJSU Art History student, yet our M.A. students often flounder and procrastinate when they reach the thesis-writing stage because they have never practiced the thinking and planning and advanced research skills required for a complicated project. We will use the thesis/project as an evaluative capstone for our M.A. students and will presumably see speedier completion of the M.A. program after tracking their progress through the 175 + seminar sequence.

Specific Assignments:

• Junkerman: 100W; work with Reynolds; track Art History majors in 100W classes
• Sanders: 175 (to be revised during Fall 2001, then taught in Spring or Fall 2002)
• Simonson: Initial information competence rubrics for grad seminar taught during Fall 2001; work in collaboration with Crowe. Developing strategies for tracking information competence skills in B.A. and M.A. students. Link skills to advising records.

Objective #3: Develop Assignments and Rubrics for all Levels of Art History Courses (February through May 2002)
Involve the whole Art History Faculty and share our/their work.

We anticipate that all Art History faculty will eagerly embrace our information competence initiative and be interested in contributing ideas and testing assignments. At the same time, everyone is always busy and it is unfair to expect temporary faculty who are not compensated for their time to attend extra meetings.

• For these reasons, Junkerman, Sanders, and Simonson will present our work and invite other faculty (Team II) to join our efforts at two mini-retreats, to be held in conjunction with first-in-the-semester meetings (in late August 2001, late May 2002). Communication will continue via email.
• The statement of an Information Competence Requirement for B.A. and M.A. students will be readied by Team I members, in final draft form, for the May 2002 meeting.
• Team I members (who teach a variety of courses at all levels of our curricula) will continue to develop our Preliminary Matrix of skills and content knowledge and to refine the assignments that allow us to develop and then to measure those skills.
• Sample assignments, tested and planned, will be available for adoption and posted on a preliminary Project Website.
• Team I participants will be assisted by a graduate student in the collection of materials, keeping of assessment data, and continuing development of the Project Website.
• The Project Website will be linked to the existing website maintained by Stacy Barclay Moeller, Visual Resources Librarian, http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/art_design/frames.html, which is presently designed for student access to class materials (syllabi, images shown in classes, and the like).

Objective #4: Assessment Loop and Reporting
Design courses and assignments, assess student learning outcomes, revise courses and assignments, and make our work available to others.

Timeliness: SJSU's General Education Program has initiated a student learning outcomes assessment and reporting program for all GE courses. The addition of a Design History course to those GE courses and the pressures on the Art History Program better to serve the wide variety of Design majors within the School of Art & Design further challenge us to rethink our curricula and to become more effective in teaching Art History for a contemporary world.

• The statement of our Information Competence Requirement will be ready for "publication" to students by mid-Spring 2002 and incorporated in all program brochures and descriptions by Fall 2002.
• A minor curriculum change for Art H 175, and a partial shift of emphasis from criticism to methodology, will facilitate the use of this class as an information competence "checkpoint" prior to a student's taking a seminar.
• While incorporation of assignments and teaching strategies that lead to information competence is desirable, and a long-term goal for all courses, we will assess information competence in four courses: Art 100W, Art H 175, Art 271-295, and Art 297-299. Students who do not reach the expected level of competence will not pass the courses; students who do not complete the required seminar and thesis courses do not receive degrees. Instructors who do not understand or appreciate our Information Competence Requirement do not have to be assigned to teach these courses.
• We intend our work with student learning outcomes assessment, with developing and refining assignments, with adjusting the matrix and introducing the concept of "appropriate levels" to research assignments to be an ongoing project.

Budget

Personnel

Timeline/Responsibility Summary

By May 2001

• Team I faculty will review assessment and information competence materials and begin to develop a Matrix of discipline-based and information skills and understanding.
• Team I faculty will try out information assignments in their classes, will meet regularly with Library Faculty Edith Crowe and Judy Reynolds, and share the results (student work) generated by their assignments.

By December 2001

• Initial mini-retreat of Team I with Team II (other Art History faculty) and with Library faculty, if available. Continuing communication via email will encourage the sharing of assignments in all levels of Art History classes.
• Team I, working with Library Faculty, will develop a statement of an Information Competence Requirement for Art History B.A. and M.A. students
• Team I will continue to work on assignments and the Matrix and will focus their planning attention on four capstone courses to be used for assessing students's information competence. Junkerman and Simonson will teach two of those courses during the Fall.
• Commence a year-long study of B.A. and M.A. curricula, including redesign of comprehensive exams for the M.A. (work tangential to, but not part of, this project.)
• Assignments and other resources (ACRL site, etc.) posted to an initial Project Website by grad student

By May 2002

• Information Competence Requirement statement, presumably in near-final form after January 2002 mini-retreat of Team I and Team II, will be "published" for students.
• Capstone courses redesigned and minor curriculum changes submitted by Team I in order fully to incorporate the Information Competence Requirement for Fall 2002 classes.
• Reporting format for outcomes designed by Team I, possibly similar to that for Art 100W (GE class); also for reporting outcomes to Library Faculty and continuing collaboration.
• Proposal and description of activities, preliminary outcomes posted to Project Website as well as assignments, syllabi, and longer-term project goals and plans.

Participant Qualifications

Team 1 Faculty

Anne Simonson: Professor

Program Coordinator for Art History (also Program Coordinator for interdisciplinary B.A. Creative Arts Program since 1987). Extensive curriculum development experience and service at all levels of curriculum committees (departmental, college, university GE panels and Board of General Studies). Principal investigator (or co-PI with Professor Allison Heisch) for The Learning Project, 1998-present, funded by SJSU Learning Productivity Program Planning and Implementation grants and by CSU Academic Priorities Improvement grant. That project pairs teaching and library faculty partners in the redesign and teaching of General Education courses that develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills alongside contemporary library and computer-based research skills. Christy Junkerman, Edith Crowe, and Judy Reynolds are Learning Project participants. The proposed Art History Information Competence Project is a more comprehensive and discipline-based extension of our earlier work.

Christy Junkerman: Lecturer

Has taught at SJSU for several years. Involved in curriculum development: course proposals; GE courses and assessment plans. Teaches upper division and graduate research courses in Italian Renaissance. Advises Art History M.A. students on theses. Coordinates the Art 100W course. Participant in The Learning Project, co-teaching ArtH 70B with both Edith Crowe and Judy Reynolds. Publications in Art History.

Patricia Sanders: Full-time Lecturer

Has taught at SJSU since 1985. Involved in curriculum development: new course proposals; GE courses and assessment plans. Teaching experience in lower and upper division courses in Art History and graduate seminars in Art and Art History. Advises Art History M.A. students on theses. Regular member of departmental Graduate Committee. Developed a case study method for Art H 70B (published); other publications in Art History

Library Faculty

Edith Crowe: Art & Humanities Librarian

BA Art History; MLS; MA Humanities. Over twenty-five years' experience teaching information competence, both general and art-related. Participant in The Learning Project, co-teaching ArtH 70A and 70B. Currently a member of the College of Humanities & Arts Curriculum Committee. Interim Coordinator of the Library Education & Assistance Program 1982-83 and former member of the California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction. Has produced a number of publications and presentations on information competence. Curriculum Vitae available at http://library.sjsu.edu/staff/ecrowe/eccv.htm.

Judy Reynolds: Librarian and Head, Library Education and Assistance Program

LEAP is a program she established in 1979; workshops for SJSU faculty and students, also for the CSU. Selector for English and Foreign Language departments. Publications include "The MLA International Bibliography and Library Instruction in Literature and the Humanities," in Betty H. Day and William Wortman (eds.), Literature in English: A Guide for Librarians in the Digital Age, Chicago, ACRL, 2000, pp. 213-247.

Notes

[1] Five lower division introductory or survey courses (Art H 10, 70A, 70B, 70C, 72), two upper division "global civ" courses (Art H 193A, 193B), and the "junior level writing course" taken by all Art & Design majors (Art 100W).

[2] For example: Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Understanding by Design (1998); Pat Hutchings (ed), The Course Portfolio (1998); K Patricia Cross and Mimi Harris Steadman, Classroom Research (1996); Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques (1993); John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas (1996).

[3] See, for example, the Humanist Discussion Group's archives (www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist ) or materials associated with the College Art Association (www.collegeart.org ) or the Getty Foundation (www.getty.edu ). While we wish our students to become educated users of image databases (such as Dr. Kathleen Cohen's ), we are especially interested in their access to the written materials used in Art History.

[4] Simonson and Junkerman have already worked extensively with Library Faculty, Edith Crowe and with Judy Reynolds, on the SJSU + CSU-funded Learning Project (please see Qualifications section).

Art History Information Competence Home

Page maintained by Edith Crowe, Art & Humanities Librarian
Last updated 22 September 2003