General Education

Note: The following information will be posted on the GEC website. Below is a preview.

COURSE CIM FORM QUESTIONS

Proposals for new GE courses and updates to current GE courses must answer new questions in the course CIM form, including the following:

• General Education Category and Program Learning Outcome
• Explain how the course aligns with the specified GE category and category description.
• Explain how course student learning outcome(s) align with the program learning outcome for the specified category.
• Explain how the course relates to "the broad education of the whole person and plays a vital role in preparing students for life beyond the university." (Undergraduate Catalog)

GEC COURSE REVIEW CRITERIA

The GEC reviews course proposals using the following criteria:

1. Proposal demonstrates course is useful for all students who may enroll, including non-majors with limited background knowledge or interest in the discipline. The course should be approachable, with accessible content and structure that encourages participation and engagement from a broad range of students. If a 300- or 400-level course is proposed to the GE program, it must justify how it focuses on broadly applicable skills and ensure that the level of prerequisite knowledge is appropriate for a wide range of learners.
2. All sections of the Course Proposal, including the course description and SLOs, reflect the purposes of GE.
3. Course clearly aligns with the specified GE category and category description.
4. Course student learning outcome(s) [SLO(s)] align with the program learning outcome (PLO) for the category;
5. Course explains how it relates to “the broad education of the whole person and plays a vital role in preparing students for life beyond the university” (Undergraduate Catalog);
6. Department/program agrees to work with the General Education Assessment Committee (GEAC) on assessment.

Full GEC Course Review Guidelines

Questions should be directed to Sam Cocks, GEC Chair.

NOTE: GEAC members will be sharing updates at Assessment Commons on January 22 from 3:00-4:30 in 3314 Union. The following information will be posted on the GEAC website. Below is a preview.

ASSESSMENT TIMELINE

• 2024-2025: First College Courses (First Year Seminar)
• 2025-2026: First College Courses (Written Literacy, Spoken Literacy, Quantitative Reasoning)
• 2026-2027: University Core (Ethnic Diversity, Arts and Aesthetics, Social and Behavioral Studies, Experiential Science, Mind & Body)
• 2027-2028: Integrative Perspectives (The Stories We Tell, The Pasts That Define Us, The Planet That Sustains Us, The Cultures of Our World)

NEW ASSESSMENT PROCESS

• The GEAC supports the assessment of GE program learning outcomes within specific GE categories on rotating basis. Each academic year, the GEAC reports results of GE assessment to the General Education Committee (GEC), which then uses these results to inform programmatic improvement efforts.  
• Following strong recommendations from UWL faculty participating in pilot assessments, GEAC has selected one row from each VALUE rubric to target per assessment cycle. Future assessment cycles may target different rows. View streamlined rubrics for each GE category.

A Five-Step Process 

Instructors who teach a course in a GE category that is being assessed during a given academic year will need to complete an assessment survey no later than December 15. Note: Courses offered only in the spring semester will be exempt from this requirement. Chairs and program directors will be notified prior to the assessment and sent reminders to distribute to their faculty. The overall process includes these steps:

1. INSTRUCTOR PREPARATION: Instructors who teach courses in a given GE category will download a scoring guide (view sample) and read the embedded instructions. 
2. INSTRUCTOR REVIEW: Instructors will review student work using the appropriate scoring guide and compile their results.
3. INSTRUCTOR REPORTING: Instructors will submit their assessment results using the appropriate assessment survey (survey questions are included in the scoring guide) no later than December 15.  
4. GEAC ANALYSIS & REPORTING: The GEAC will aggregate and analyze results and report them to the GEC no later than March 15. 
5. GEC REVIEW & RECOMMENDATIONS: The GEC will review aggregated results and make recommendations for action steps to improve the GE Program in its year-end report to Faculty Senate.

GE Assessment Rubrics (Selected Rows from VALUE Rubrics)

Sample Scoring Guide

Questions should be directed to Anthony Chergosky, GEAC Chair.