The Benefits of New Forms of Assessments for Historical Thinking

Considering trying ungrading? Assigning the unessay? What helps, and what hinders student progress? Today’s guest shares her own interrupted journey to her degree, and considers how different assignments and assessment methods helped her connect in the classroom.

Today’s article is: "The Benefits of Nontraditional Assessments for Historical Thinking ," by Haley Armogida, published in 2022 in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods (47)1. In it, Haley Armogida considers which types of assessments benefited her as a student, and why. You can read a pdf of the full article here or find it online in free open access.

Our guest is: Haley Armogida, who was a nontraditional undergrad at Ball State University. She recently graduated with a History Bachelor’s in Science. During her second go at academia from 2020 to 2022, she presented her work at such conferences as the Johns Hopkins Macksey Symposium for undergraduate research and the Student History Conference at Ball State. She was published in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods in an article which discussed the benefits of nontraditional forms of assessment in history classrooms, and hopes that her contributions to the field will be to make the study of history more accessible to people outside the realm of academia. She and her husband Nick (both Ball State alumni) and their dog Luna recently moved to Colorado, where she plans to start a podcast of her own, and search for the perfect grad program.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

• Assessment in the History Classroom, in Teaching History 44(2) Fall 2019 p. 51-56, by Richard Hughes and Natalie Mendoza
• Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning and What to do Instead, by Susan D. Blum
• This episode on teaching digital history
• This conversation with Dr. Dunbar about reclaiming voices and recovering history
• This conversation about researching and writing a book, with Polly E. Bugros McLean
• This conversation about the role of artifacts and archives in the writing of Selling Anti-slavery

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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