1) The document analyzes the effectiveness of using online discussion boards to build formal analysis skills in an art history course. 2) Data shows students who used discussion boards performed slightly better on multiple choice questions testing formal analysis compared to previous students. They also seemed more comfortable analyzing visual elements. 3) Reading other students' posts helped clarify ideas and the collective discussion drove home the complexity of formal analysis. However, essay questions showed no improvement, likely because they rely more on writing skills than multiple choice.

1. Assessing the Effectiveness of
Discussion Boards in Building Formal
Analysis Skills
Thomas Stubblefield, Ph.D.
Department of Art History
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
5/15/2013

2. Course Overview:
ARH 125 “Renaissance to Modern Art” is designed to give the student
a familiarity with the major artists and movements of the history of art
from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Along the way, students gain
an appreciation of the aesthetic values behind the art of Western
cultures as well as an understanding of the historical, sociopolitical
and religious context in which this work was produced. In
addition, the course introduces fundamental concepts of the discipline
of art history and looking at art in general.

3. Online Tools and Assessment Methods:
The targeted SLO for this project is: “analyze the formal elements of a
work of art using the proper vocabulary of the discipline.” In order to
build formal analysis skills, I integrated 4 discussion boards into the
first 6 weeks of the course. These discussion questions drew upon
concepts introduced from assigned readings and also asked students
to consider formal elements and their significance in a given set of
images. The requirements for this assignments specified that
students must respond to at least one other post in order to create a
dialogue between members of the class.

4. Examples
Online Discussion #2
Working in groups of 3-5, gather a handful of images from a
given period
(Renaissance, Romanticism, Mannerism, NeoClassicism, Abstra
ct Expressionism, Pop Art, etc.) and try to write your own “Canon
of Proportions” based on these images.
Online Discussion #4
Using a map, a Renaissance painting and a Chinese silk painting
describes the three different systems of spaces that each image
uses. What is gained and lost in the transcription of space to a
two-dimensional surface in each case? How does the
progressive or teleological narrative of Art History define these
differences?

5. At the end of week 6, students were given their first exam. In order to
measure the effect of the use of online discussion board on the
targeted learning outcome, I isolated those multiple choice questions
which pertained to formal analysis and compared the performance of
students to a previous semester when online discussion boards were
not utilized.
74
76
78
80
82
84
86
88
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3
Percentage Correct
Among Students Who Did
Not Work With Discussion
Boards (Fall 2011)
Percentage Correct
Among Students Who Did
Work With Discussion
Boards (Fall 2012)

6. In addition to multiple choice questions, I also analyzed performance on short
essay questions called “unknowns.” For these essays I show the students a
work of art that we have not seen in class and ask them to decide not only on
a date and period, but, more importantly, to justify their answer with
comparisons and formal analysis. The results from this exercise are as
follows:
86.6
86.8
87
87.2
87.4
87.6
87.8
88
"Unkowns" Exercise
Average Grade for
Students Who Did Not
Work With Discussion
Boards (Fall 2011)
Average Grade for
Students Who Did Work
With Discussion Boards
(Fall 2012)

7. Data Analysis / Conclusions
In terms of the multiple choice questions, the digital group shows a slight but
consistent improvement relative to their offline counterparts. This reflects a
larger dynamic that I observed in class whereby students seemed more
comfortable and adept in analyzing the visual elements of images than in
previous semesters. In addition, students indicated that they enjoyed doing the
online discussions and that reading the posts of other students helped clarify
their own ideas about the assigned essays. The collective nature of the
discussion board also helped to drive home the depth and complexity of this
mode of analysis as students began to bring together the ideas of their peers in
order to make larger interpretations beyond their own individual responses.
The fact that the “unknowns” do not show the same improvement may be
attributable to the fact that these questions rely upon writing and argumentative
skills which the multiple choice questions do not. Formal analysis is, in this
context, only part of the final computation. As the course is primarily comprised
of Freshmen, these skills vary widely and can influence a student’s performance
on this portion of the test.