ERIE, Pa. — Penn State Behrend’s History baccalaureate program has implemented targeted course revisions and plans to pursue additional improvements informed by student learning evidence.
Through the program learning assessment process, the program has strengthened student learning related to this program learning objective (PLO): students’ ability to demonstrate historical and historiographic analysis, including evaluating multiple sources related to a historical event or issue. PLOs state what students should know and be able to do by the end of the program.
At Penn State, all undergraduate, graduate, and for-credit certificate programs are required to assess how well their students are achieving key PLOs. Each year, programs identify at least one PLO to assess. They collect and analyze data to determine how well students are meeting that objective and then use those findings to inform any changes — whether in pedagogy, curriculum, instruction, student support or assessment methods. This helps ensure that students are gaining the knowledge, skills and abilities they need to succeed both in and beyond the classroom.
Identifying a challenge in historiographic thinking
Assessment findings revealed a consistent area of difficulty for students, according to Glenn Kumhera, associate professor of history.
“Based on prior findings, there’s evidence that students struggle with understanding historiography and situating their own work within it," Kumhera said. "We did not find this too surprising as HIST 301W: Scope and Methods of History is their first experience learning the nuances and shifts in historical debates.”
In response, Kumhera explained, the program adjusted the course structure to provide students with earlier and more targeted support. Students are now required to meet with faculty experts in their field approximately one month into the course, while they are actively researching their papers. The program also emphasized the importance of selecting and refining topics early in the semester to allow sufficient time for deeper analysis.
Assessment shows progress and informs next steps
According to Kumhera, results from the 2024-25 assessment confirmed that historiography remains the most challenging concept for students. However, while the performance target was not fully met, the program saw overall improvement compared to the 2023-24 findings.
Students who selected their topics early in the semester performed well on their literature review papers and were more likely to earn satisfactory or higher ratings in this category.
“There is evidence that meeting with faculty earlier — an outcome of our previous action plan — did generally help,” noted Kumhera. “The main reason this category fell short of the target was that a few students who chose topics early avoided larger, more contested historical questions which limited the extent to which they could incorporate debatable angles.”
Additional course changes included requiring meetings with appropriate faculty by week four of the course and moving the bibliography exercise earlier in the semester. According to Kumhera, advancing the bibliography session was particularly successful.
“While it was sometimes a challenge to get students to meet with faculty, those who did benefited from the guidance,” Kumhera added. “Applying the assessment process has continued to incrementally improve student learning, and the changes made to the assignment in previous years are being retained because they had a positive effect. Moving forward, we see a need to spend more time helping students develop thesis statements that engage with active debates in the field. We plan to incorporate that focus into mid-semester coursework and individual meetings.”
About program learning assessment at Penn State
The assessment success stories featured in this series highlight how Penn State programs are using assessment findings to improve student learning. These stories typically involve a full cycle of assessment: identifying an area for change, implementing an action plan, and reassessing a program learning objective to see whether there’s evidence that the change or changes made a difference. This process plays a central role in Penn State’s commitment to continuous academic improvement and is commonly referred to as “closing the loop.”
Visit this link for more information about the program learning assessment process, or email assessment@psu.edu with any questions.