Exams will follow a 3-day (72 hour) take home model that takes place over a weekend from Noon on Fri. to Noon on Mon., or an alternative set of days like Noon on Mon. to Noon on Thurs.
Orals will take place within the required dissertation prospectus defense.
Exams include 3 essay questions for a secondary exam and 4 essay questions for a primary exam. All exams include a balance of questions that require both coverage and focus:
Online prototypes for web design, visual rhetoric, usability, and editing can also be responses to specific questions, particularly as such a question would prepare a student to pursue a digital dissertation.
Terms and figures can be used as the substitute for one essay where students write short answers about the history and significance of historical figures, specific methods or pedagogies. Such terms can also woven into the essay questions with the defined terms indicated in bold.
Bibliographies of foundational texts and sample exam reading lists for the specific primary and secondary areas are offered here as guidelines to assist students as they develop a reading list for each exam in consultation with their exam Chair and other committee members.
Exam Chairs will have the option of selecting another format for a particular student, including the on-site model, an oral exam, and so on. The director and the student must both sign an agreement that describes the exam format as a kind of contract to turn in with the reading list in the previous semester.
