Gen Ed Assessment
UMaine has been engaged with assessing our general education curriculum since 2018. In fall 2021, Faculty Senate passed a motion to reconsider our methods for assessing general education due to concerns about alignment and usability of data from the original process. Additionally, UMaine has been awarded a Davis Educational Foundation grant to pilot this new process over the next two years.
After reviewing assessment processes at other institutions, and considering the challenges associated with our process, OIRA, in consultation with the General Education Stewardship Committee, developed a strategy where assessment is conducted by faculty teaching general education courses and then incorporated into the three-year assessment process for the relevant academic unit. The figure below outlines the proposed process.
During the pilot period for this new process, a group of six faculty fellows will work closely with faculty teaching within a particular general education category to find an assignment that aligns with the general education learning outcomes, apply the appropriate assessment rubric, and submit data to OIRA. This semester the Writing and Ethics categories are being assessed.
We plan to share periodic updates about this new general education assessment process with the wider campus community over the next two years. We look forward to engaging discussions about the future of general education assessment and the overall evolution of our general education curriculum.