Accreditation and Learning Outcomes

Accreditation

Florida Gulf Coast University's History (MA) Program is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Learning Outcomes for Graduate Students

Students who complete the History (MA) Program will demonstrate significant progress towards the following learning outcomes

1. Demonstrate excellence in critical thinking, problem solving, analysis and strategic planning.
   1. To think systemically about society, politics, and culture. 
   2. To analyze and evaluate historical texts, including primary and secondary sources, in complex manner.
   3. To demonstrate knowledge of historical theories and philosophies through their own writing and research. 
   4. To perform advanced historical research that engages with interdisciplinary perspectives, adds to scholarly understanding, or provides challenging perspectives. 
2. Demonstrate effective use of a variety of communication skills and modalities. 
   1. To create sophisticated and professionally informed written works and to employ prose that is clear and effective.
   2. To advance research ideas and findings in an oral fashion. 
3. Exhibit professional and technical expertise consistent with discipline and/or content area accrediting or licensing bodies.
   1. To express a scholarship-based understanding of key historiographical theories and philosophies, and their application to a variety of historical subject matters. 
   2. To evaluate and deconstruct a range of  historical texts.
   3. To conduct advanced historical research and scholarship, using relevant resources and databases that will foster continuing enquiry. 
   4. To employ their knowledge of the conventions and methods of history to offer other students in their seminars useful advice about their research projects.
4. Be prepared for leadership roles in professional and occupational areas in communities in which they live and work.  
   1. To analyze various ethical and professional issues that emanate from historical scholarship. 
   2. To synthesize diverse perspectives and values that inform historical works and their reception and audiences.
5. Demonstrate the capacity for continuing learning, growth and scholarly activity in their respective disciplines and fields of study.   
   1. To engage in historical research and apply that research in writing. 
   2. To use the intellectual tools necessary for leadership and participation in global civic culture.