Tools for Transformation

Funded Proposals

Art History--Western Art

Department of Art History,
College of Arts and Sciences Curriculum Development Awards
(A competition jointly sponsored by the College and Tools for Transformation)

This project, jointly designed by three members of the faculty, will revise and coordinate the teaching of Art History's year-long series of undergraduate survey courses in Western Art (ArtH 201, 202, 203)*. These courses are projected to involve an enrollment of about 1140 students during the year 1999-2000, and the use of about 20 Art History teaching assistants. They therefore entail major methodological, pedagogical, logistical, and technical challenges on all levels. Two of the more innovative elements of the proposal may be singled out for mention here.

1. Our project aims to explore new and effective ways of developing and cordinating the discussion sections lead by teaching assistants. A series of interactive visual/written exercises will form the basis for discussion. These exercises will require students to work through a series of progressive tasks and questions designed to develop the skills necessary for the historical analysis of a work of art. Such skills include the basic principles and techniques of visual analysis (how to read an architectural plan or detect how specific works of art are created), and introduce the theoretical/interpretive concerns that inform some of the most interesting current art historical research (gender studies, reception theory, etc.).
2. The exercises that form the basis for discussion are to be made accessible to the students by means of custom designed websites, which can deliver high-quality visual images, including details and hypertext where applicable. By making them available via the web 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we will greatly increase students' access to this required material, allow students to prepare more effectively at home, and lighten the load of the overtaxed Media Center of the School of Art. The class websites will not only contain the exercises, but also the course syllabi, and all required visual material for daily review and exam preparation.

*Note: These courses are designated as surveys of western art. However, they include surveys of Ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Byzantine and Islamic art often designated as non-western.

PROGRESS REPORT  September, 2001
Professors C.H. Hallett, A. Kartsonis, J. Collins (principal investigators)

This collaborative project proposed substantial revisions to the Division of Art History's three part sequence of surveys introducing the History of Western Art (ArtH201: Ancient; ArtH202: Medieval; ArtH 203: Modem). The primary goals were (1) to establish websites for all three courses based on a single model; (2) to enhance the courses' active-learning component through a series of web-based visual exercises building fundamental analytical skills; (3) to prepare teaching assistants more thoroughly for their new instructional role as discussion leaders working through these visual exercises; (4) to co-ordinate the three parts of the survey sequence into a smoother and better integrated whole.

All of these goals were achieved. Compatible web-sites were established for all three courses, which included all organizational information, the required study images, and the weekly visual exercises. Small sections were transformed from (passive) review periods or supplementary lectures into active laboratory sessions where the techniques of visual and cultural/historical analysis were tested and practiced on a series of images prepared and studied outside the classroom. Special teaching seminars were established to train graduate student TAs from diverse specialties within Art History to be informed and effective teachers of the specific course content. Finally course format, expectations and resources were standardized wherever possible; for instance all three course adopted the same textbook for the first time in recent memory. Collectively these changes allowed us to instruct a larger number of students than ever before, and to offer a more active, effective, skill-based learning experience.

Three significant challenges remain if these innovations are to continue to bear fruit. First, websites developed for one specific quarter rapidly become obsolete. Permanent technical support has to be found to assist in the continual updating of websites, as textbook editions, staff, course content and instructional methods change. Second, in order to maintain the active-learning format for the TA-led sections, enrolments must be limited (to no more than 30 per section, 25 if the class is to serve as a w-course), and correlated with the availability of properly equipped classrooms. Third, since both lectures and small sections still rely on slide technology rather than digital imaging, the School of Art's Slide Collection and the Art History Media Center must receive better funding in order to keep pace with the increasing needs of these large courses.

Tools for Transformation Funded Proposals

The Provost's Office
provost@u.washington.edu
Modified: October 26, 2001