General Education Assessment
There has been a lot of exciting “behind the scenes” work related to General Education this semester. The General Education Stewardship Committee has been working on a number of tasks related to Gen Ed reform, including redefining the Gen Ed mission, considering new ways to market the Gen Ed program to students and re-envisioning the categories and learning outcomes. OIRA has been leading the charge on Gen Ed Assessment.
The first year of our Gen Ed assessment pilot, funded by the Davis Educational Foundation, is wrapping up. We have worked with six faculty fellows who guided approximately 50 Gen Ed faculty in aligning their assessments with the common rubrics used for Gen Ed assessment. The fall faculty used the rubrics to assess student learning in their courses at the end of the semester and the spring faculty will do the same at the end of this semester. This pilot work, as well as feedback from a number of stakeholder groups, helped us craft and refine two faculty senate motions focused on formalizing this improved assessment process. Both motions passed at the April 2024 faculty senate meeting!
We have started the process of seeking new faculty fellows for the second year of the assessment pilot. Next year we will be focusing on the Gen Ed categories Artistic and Creative Expression, Quantitative Literacy and Laboratory Sciences. If you have experience teaching a course in any of these categories, and are interested in applying for a paid fellow position, please see this informational flyer and apply at the link on the bottom of the flyer. Notification emails to faculty teaching in these categories in fall 2024 have been sent out and we had two faculty information sessions on Apr 3 and Apr 17. If you would like to receive a video recording of the session, please register using this form.