Greetings everyone,

As we approach the new 2021-2022 University year, the focus on our theme: General Education: Cultivating Tomorrow's Possibilities remains strong. This issue of the School of General Education (SoGE) Digest is full of new and exciting events including registration for our 13th annual General Education Conference (GEC), the official opening of the Alternative Credit Center (ACC) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) sites, among others.

We hope you enjoy this March edition.

The Alternative Credit Center: We’re Open!

The Purdue University Global (PG) Alternative Credit Center (ACC) officially “opened its doors” on February 25, 2021. The ACC is a School of General Education initiative that provides our students with the opportunity to evaluate their subject knowledge in several formats to receive college credit. The ACC will be a centralized repository for all the university course assessments (e.g., BSPr assessments [formerly PANeLs] and course assessments), open learning courses, and experiential credit-earning opportunities. Also, the ACC will provide information on credit for military training, open course partnerships, credit for professional training and certifications, and external exams and assessments. In essence, the ACC is the central location for all forms of alternative credit opportunities.

The ACC is now entering the second phase of construction. We will continue to update our portfolio development assessment system (PDAS) during this second phase and relocate students’ records and contact management systems. Please check out our site on the Purdue University Global public site and our new open learning courses entry website:

PG Alternative Credit Center PG Open Learning Courses

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The SoGE's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee has been working since January to launch several DEI initiatives. Committee members; Jody Dekorte, Russell Fail, Galia Fussell, Catherine Lopez-Gonzalez, Barbara Green, Peg Hohensee, Courtney McGinnis, and Julie Torres-Roman have several action items nearly ready to launch.

• Celine Hall graciously built the DEI webpage on the SoGE website. Faculty and staff members are encouraged to visit the site often as we continue to expand the page and add content.

• Barbara Green, Julie Torres-Roman, and Galia Fussell have begun working on the "5 minutes with..." videos to be housed on the site. Starting with the members of the DEI Committee, these short interviews will give school members an opportunity to get to know more about the background and culture of our various members. After the committee, the project will continue with other faculty and staff with the goal of adding a video interview of every interested member of the SoGE.

• A new Google Currents Community has been created by the DEI Group. All members of the SoGE are encouraged to join. There will be opportunities to share news, recipes, and more.

• Effective March 4th, Jessica Love will stand in as the DEI Committee Chair.

• Finally, Russell Fail volunteered to curate the reading corner of the DEI website. Very soon, you will be able to submit published articles for inclusion. Later, the reading corner may be expanded to include original works by members of the SoGE.

Rubrics are Moving into Courses!

Last year Purdue Global learned that D2L, our Learning Management System (LMS) provider, was enhancing the grading experience in Brightspace (BS). This change would affect the way grades report to the course gradebook, which required us to revise all rubrics (i.e., discussion, seminar, module assessment, and graded assignments) to fit the BS format. A university-wide rubric revision project was begun in the third quarter of 2020 to meet the July 1, 2021 launch date of the new grading experience.

After the seminar and discussion rubrics were implemented, the SoGE began revising all their assignment rubrics. The project was a collaboration between faculty, academic leadership, the assessment team, and Curriculum and Innovation (C&I). Over a four-month period these teams revised and reviewed over 200 rubrics. The review process included group norming sessions to ensure inter-rater reliability. Through the hard work and dedication of our colleagues, all SoGE assignment rubrics have been revised and handed off to C&I for implementation. Faculty will begin to see these new assignment rubrics beginning with 2102B (5/12/2021).