1. General education core issues
Approval process for inclusion of new or existing courses to general education core
Alignment of competency-based core courses with state general education course categories
Existence of two sets of general education core curriculum requirements
Resolving questions of advisors and faculty for implementation of the new general education core
Ability to use multicultural courses to fulfill state general education requirements
Process for assessing core competencies
Approval process – Faculty Senate has only approved the process to “repopulate” the core with existing courses. We do not have any mechanism to add new courses to the general education core.
Alignment – the state requires 3 hours composition, 3 hours mathematics, 6 hours humanities, 6 hours social sciences and 6 hours natural sciences. Composition, mathematics and natural sciences are obvious. But alignment of competency-based courses into humanities or social sciences categories may not be obvious.
Two cores – the state only allows one general education core at a university at a given time. We have two – the previous general education core approved April 2005 and modified April 2008 for students that enrolled before Fall 2012, and the new general education core approved April 2011 for students that enroll during Fall 2012 or beyond.
Faculty / advisor questions - there is a lot of confusion about requirements of faculty that teach general education courses, and guidelines for advisors to follow when scheduling new students. Unfortunately we do not have all of the answers. In fact, we have very few answers!
Multicultural courses - we did not change our University core curriculum requirement for 6 hours of multicultural courses. Therefore our previous list of US diversity and non-western courses remains the same, and these courses do not need to follow the competency-based model. However, many of these courses do not meet the state general education requirements, especially those above the 2000 level. Furthermore, many multicultural courses previously approved to concurrently fulfill general education humanities or social sciences requirements (i.e., the “double-dip” option) are not included in the new competency-based general education core and therefore no longer satisfy the double-dip option.
Assessment – a largely unspecified assessment process was approved along with the competency-based general education core back in April All students are to maintain electronic portfolios to demonstrate proficiency in core competencies. These portfolios can include artifacts from general education courses and/or those required to satisfy degree program requirements. However, the process for the collection and review of these portfolios remains unspecified. Furthermore, instructors of competency-based general education courses should collect data relevant for the assessment of student proficiency in relevant core competencies. Course assessments are reviewed at the department level and course modifications are made as needed. Then departments and colleges use an unspecified process to aggregate results from multiple courses for each core competency and pass this aggregated assessment to an unspecified Faculty Senate committee charged with the assessment of core competencies.

2. What we need from you
Spread the word – instructors of general education courses should be collecting data on student performance with respect to selected competencies
Please use these data to improve student learning regardless of assessment process that is approved!
Your input – what are questions and issues you and your colleagues have? Suggestions?