1. Revision of the General Education Curriculum DGE and Department Heads
12 April 2018

2. DGE Pamela Bedore Associate Professor CLAS CLAS C&CC Chair
Daniel Burkey
Associate Dean
Engineering
Engineering C&CC Chair
Robert Day
Business
Hedley Freake
Professor
CAHNR
SEC Chair
Jaci Van Heest
Neag
Jenna Henderson
Program Administrator
Pharmacy
Katrina Higgins
Director
University Advising
Thomas Long
Associate Professor in Residence
Nursing
Thomas Meacham
Fine Arts
Fine Arts C&CC Chair
Michael Morrell
GEOC member
David Ouimette
Executive Program Director
1st Y Programs & Learning Comms
Senate C&CC member
Lauren Schlesselman
Executive Director of Faculty Development
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Eric Schultz
GEOC Chair
Laura Yahn
Research Analyst
OIRE
Julia Yakovich
Program Manager
Office of Public Engagement
Director of Service Learning Initiatives
DGE

3. Why do we think the curriculum could improve?
The 2016 Report of the General Education Assessment Task Force found that:
the goals of the General Education curriculum are not clear to students and faculty;
too many students do not know why they are being asked to fulfill the general education requirements;
too many students, advisors and faculty regard fulfillment of the General Education curriculum as a ‘box-checking’ chore to be ‘gotten out of the way’ rather than a valued contribution to learning and growth.

4. Why do we think the curriculum could improve?
Our study of curricular initiatives at comparable US institution suggest positive changes we could make.
The University Senate recently approved a motion to add a new environmental literacy component to the curriculum, indicating interest in broad university-wide discussions on the goals and content of General Education at UConn.

5. How could the curriculum improve?
Better integration: It could be designed to promote connections among disciplines and between coursework and life outside the classroom.
Clearer outcomes: It could be more grounded in what we want students to learn and be able to do.
Greater flexibility: It could be less rigid so as to foster intentionality, rather than arbitrary enrollment.

6. What are we proposing to do?
Our goals are to get the community more invested in General Education and design a more coherent system that is better suited to our students and the world they inhabit.
We will NOT suggest increasing the number of required General Education credits.

7. What are we proposing to do?
Better integration:
We aim to identify sequences of Gen Ed courses that examine a common theme in different disciplines
(e.g., Environmental Literacy; Innovation & Invention; Diversity & Multiculturalism)
These could be incorporated as “strands” (required components) or “pathways” (optional components).
Which best fits UConn’s goals?
Should first-year seminars and final capstones be incorporated?

8. What are we proposing to do?
Clearer outcomes:
Where needed, we aim to replace vague guidance of what constitutes a General Education course with thoughtful objectives and specific learning outcomes.
What are the goals on which we should build this framework?

9. What are we proposing to do?
Clearer outcomes, for example:
CREATIVITY AND IDEATION
Students will:
develop skills in creating novel intellectual output both as an individual and as a member of a creative team, to produce novel literary, performance, visual, entrepreneurial, and/or technical design output;
gain experience in receiving and responding to criticism and other external review to generate meaningful, defensible revisions;
understand aesthetic production as a way of knowing and representing lived experience;
learn to ideate within a conceptual framework, within a set of externally defined constraints, and/or within a creative process methodology.

10. What are we proposing to do?
Greater flexibility:
We aim to give students more choice.
For example, a breadth and depth model that spans disciplines while encouraging deeper engagement in a particular area.

11. Example: Breadth and Depth Model
Students complete a set of courses that cover each of 6 topics of inquiry and focus on one topic by completing three courses (note: courses may cover multiple topics).
TOPICS OF INQUIRY
Creativity and Ideation
Sustainability and the Environment
Collaborative and Integrative Learning
Culture, Diversity, and Beliefs
Social and Economic Systems
Science, Inquiry, and Theory
COMPETENCIES
Writing (W Courses)
Quantitative Reasoning (Q Courses)

12. Examples of alternative approaches (Harvard model)

13. Examples of alternative approaches (Harvard model)

14. Examples of alternative approaches (Harvard model)

15. Examples of alternative approaches (American U.)