Greetings! Welcome to our first edition of the Gen Ed/OC Digest. Can you believe it has been almost a year since we became Purdue Global? Time flies when you are having fun, and in General Education and Open College, we have a lot of fun. Be sure to check out the Literary Festival February 26-27, and be sure to register for the General Education Conference April 23-25.

This year, we will have many opportunities to Explore Beyond… Our theme for 2019-2020. The idea behind the theme is to encourage learners to “explore beyond” their prior level of education, their current careers, and even their current beliefs about themselves. We look forward to helping you explore beyond as well and will share helpful information with each new edition highlighting faculty, conferences, events, best practices, and more.

Please take some time to read through the information in this first edition and share your feedback with your department leadership. See you all at the Literary Festival!

Jody Dekorte, Dean SoGE/OC

Pi Day 2019... The mathematics and science departments in the School of GenEd/OC hosted a Pi Day button design contest as a follow-up to last year’s successful Pi Day T-shirt design contest. After almost 100 votes on the 11 Pi Day button design contest entries submitted by faculty in the SoGE, the winning design was created by Matt Peeples, mathematics adjunct faculty member. On the inspiration for his design, Matt replied “I wanted to have a little something Purdue Global-oriented when I showed up for my weekly seminar online. So what could be more natural than to combine our new logo with Pi Day. Thus was born PG PI.” Congratulations on your winning button design, Matt!

In mathematics, Pi describes the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference (approximately 3.141592653; this number continues at random to infinity). Rounded to the nearest hundredth, Pi Day is celebrated annually on 3.14 (March 14). This day also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday.

Faculty and staff that ordered buttons can participate in the Pi Day Photo Contest. Once you receive your button, take a photo of yourself with your button and send it to mathematics@purdueglobal.edu before Friday, March 8th to enter the photo contest. One randomly selected photo will receive a gift certificate to the Purdue Global Store. Take a look at the PGNet article and check out both Matt and his winning design!

The 43^rd Annual National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) Conference will be held in Atlanta, GA on March 6-9, 2019. The conference theme, “Prepared for Takeoff!”, will focus on current trends and best practices to address the recommended reform changes. In addition to numerous sessions, conference participants may participate in study tours, donate books for a literacy project, and support students with NADE scholarships through the annual silent auction. Purdue Global will have 16 presentations presented by the following: Sheryl Bone (FT Comp/WAC); Galia Fussell (FT Comp/WAC); David Healey (FT Comp/WAC); Ashley Johnson (FT Comp/WAC); Leslie Johnson (Asst Chair, Math); Michael Keathley (Chair, Comp/WAC); Teresa Marie Kelly (FT Comp/WAC); Kirsten Meymaris (FT Math); Lea Rosenberry (PT Math); Kira Shank (FT Hum/SS); Tami Tacker (FT Math); Emily Thompson (FTA Comp/WAC); Stephanie Thompson (FT Comp/WAC); Jamie Thornton (FT Comp/WAC); Josef Vice (FT Comp/WAC); and Nikki Williams (Asst Chair, Science). Good luck to all!

Intelligent Agents are a great way to set-up outreach for students. The system monitors, and automatically sends out alerts to students – what you choose to monitor, how often, and what you say in an email are limitless. You can even alert students when their feedback is ready to review, or want to send out a congratulatory message detailing the great work they've done after having met all requirements for a unit week. You can find Intelligent Agents Under “More Tools” >> “Class Progress” in the classroom. Then select “Use Agents to Automate Feedback”. Listen to the CTL's presentation and/or review the Intelligent Agents Handbook for step-by-step instructions (found on the GenEd Faculty Resources site).

Do you have a best practice or tip you'd like to share? Feel free to email your department chair and let us know!

Welcome to the Curriculum & Innovation (C&I) update. C&I serves PG's students, faculty, chairs, deans, and executive leaders through the development of its courses and programs. Working collaboratively with faculty, we provide curriculum development and instructional design expertise to assist in creating new and revised courses and programs. We are committed to the following strategic goals:

1. Creating a career-focused curriculum which leads to measurable gains in graduate employment

2. Augmenting our distance learning approach to create a dynamic, competency-based open learning portfolio

3. Improving the nimbleness, accuracy and efficiency of the Curriculum & Innovation policies, processes, and team

4. Engaging in cutting-edge research on learning theory, and applying the outcomes of that research in an iterative cycle of improvement.

Each School at PG has a C&I team dedicated to provide curriculum expertise to the school’s leadership and faculty in the creation and maintenance of their curriculum. In GenEd/OC, your C&I team consists of Dr. Kathy Ingram, Asst Dean of Curriculum (ADoC), and Curriculum Specialists (CS) Patricia Faye Clackley and Tonya Scalise.

What is the "OC"?

When we invited you to help name our new school GenEd/OC newsletter, some were confused what "OC" stood for. Never fear - your answer is here!

Within the School of General Education, the Open College at Purdue University Global provides access to free and low-cost open resources to support students during every step of their educational journey. This unconventional approach to education removes traditional barriers to college credit by placing learners in an open environment, which encourages independent and critical thinking. Open College encourages learners to take control of their education in a supportive, online environment by allowing them to:

• Organize previous work and life experiences in an online portfolio that can be evaluated for college credit

• Enroll in free and low-cost open courses that align to the credit bearing course equivalent at Purdue Global.

• Complete an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in Professional Studies based on an individualized learning plan

All Open College activities are self-directed and may include interactions with advisors or live instructors, where appropriate. Our learning platform is designed to help students and faculty share information and knowledge in an exciting, interactive, and highly participatory manner that is aligned with best-in-class instructional practices. For more information about the Open College at Purdue Global or to get started, visit https://opencollege.purdueglobal.edu/.

Great question! Keep them coming and we'll gladly answer them!