Call for Submissions

DEADLINE: December 4, 2020

Want to get your course assignments peer-reviewed by fellow history educators? Join us for the first Virtual Assignment Charrette, part of Virtual AHA. We welcome assignments for all levels of history education. Anyone with a valued teaching assignment (to include traditional assignments, educational activities, or assessments) or a brand new one that would benefit from in-depth review and discussion with faculty from other institutions should consider applying. Assignments in which students engage with primary sources are particularly welcome. 

Date and Time 

Thursday, January 7, 2021 2-5pm ET

Workshop Description

The 3-hour workshop will begin with a short orientation; the bulk of the time will be reserved for participants to work in small breakout groups with a facilitator and offer in-depth feedback on each other's assignments. Each participant will have a few minutes to introduce their submitted assignment(s) and request particular help with problems or aspects of designing or implementing it and/or with assessing students' work. The expectation is that participants will use feedback to revise their assignments for the future. Participants will reconvene at the end of the period to discuss the lessons from all groups. 

New this year! Ever wondered about the relationship between program outcomes and specific courses and assignments? Join us for "Fine Tuning Program Outcomes: A Curriculum Mapping Workshop" on Friday, January 15 at 2pm ET, as an optional second part to the charrette. The workshop will be facilitated by veteran participants of the AHA's Tuning initiative. You can find the full description and registration information at the bottom of this page.

Submission Process 

The deadline to submit an assignment has now passed.

Submissions must include one assignment, activity, or assessment that you have used in the classroom (including online courses), or one you have developed but have not yet used. The assignment should be linked to at least one learning outcome or proficiency that is important to your curriculum and/or history (or social studies) department. Assignments covering a range of innovative and creative activities are welcomed. Assignments of research papers or other individual writing assignments are included. To apply, complete the online application form, and at the bottom attach 1) a copy of the assignment - in the form that you present it to your students - that you propose to work on, along with 2) any rubric or set of criteria used to evaluate it. 

Applications must be received by Friday, December 4, 2020. Notifications will be made in mid-December. If you have trouble with the online form, which is run through the AirTable application, please let Megan Connor (mconnor@historians.org) know as soon as possible. 

Participant Responsibility 

Participants will be expected to read thoroughly and review around 4 other assignments, and to offer constructive feedback, including a written feedback form, during the workshop. 

Criteria for Selection 

We anticipate accepting all submissions. We seek participants who teach at a variety of institutions that serve different missions and student populations at different educational levels. In the event we are over-subscribed, program staff will evaluate applications based on the clarity of the assignment and instructions, the fit between the stated proficiencies and the assignment, and its appropriateness in the context of the course and its students. Selected participants will show a genuine interest in student learning.

Related Information 

For details on the AHA's Tuning project, which provides a context for faculty development of core competencies/proficiencies associated with undergraduate history teaching, go to historians.org/tuning. 

Please address all questions to Megan Connor, AHA Program Associate, at mconnor@historians.org. 

Fine Tuning Program Outcomes: A Curriculum Mapping Workshop

January 15, 2021 at 2:00PM ET - Fine Tuning Program Outcomes: A Curriculum Mapping Workshop

The AHA is closing in on a decade of work with history departments to create learning outcomes that foster the essential skills needed by 21st century students to effectively engage the history discipline in college and beyond. Fine Tuning Program Outcomes: A Curriculum Mapping Workshop, is a natural progression in the AHA Tuning initiative. Curriculum Mapping helps instructors identify how the assignments they create support the learning outcome they intend. The exercise of mapping helps instructors identify which learning outcomes are well addressed and which are absent or downplayed. It can also reveal the need for further discussion, collaboration, and revision of assignments and program learning outcomes so that both may better address what the instructor and the department want students to learn and do.

The workshop will begin with a review of the AHA Discipline Core and a discussion of the importance of transparent learning outcomes for student success. It will then provide a brief mapping demonstration of one classroom assignment. The majority of the time will be spent in small group sharing of program outcomes and individual mapping of the participants' own course assignment/assessment with the help of workshop facilitators. We will conclude with small group inferences and observations about their learning outcomes drawn from the process. If time permits we will do some general report-outs from breakout groups. 

After completing the workshop participants will:

• Better understand multiple elements of the AHA Tuning process, particularly the value in ascertaining the relationship between assignment, course, and program outcomes
• Be able to demonstrate how well their assignment outcomes are informed or relate to their program outcomes
• Have practice with curricular mapping that may be used in future mapping of their program outcomes

The workshop will be most useful if participants come prepared with a course assignment or assessment, course outcomes, and their history program outcomes. Teachers of history at all levels, including high school and college, are welcome to attend. Register here.