Welcome Our New Associate Dean of Programs and Alternative Credit Center

Michele Riley, Ph.D., joined the university in 2005 as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Social Sciences. Most recently, she served as the Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Open College in the SoGE here at PG. Michele is active with the military community and serves as the faculty co-advisor for Salute. The recipient of various teaching, curriculum design, leadership, and service-learning awards, Michele has also been a recipient of several fellowships and grants for her scholarship. She has published both her historical and educational research. Michele lives with her husband and son in Madison, Alabama, just outside of Huntsville. She is a loyal fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and enjoys attending their games across the country. Michele shared "I am honored and excited to serve as the Associate Dean of Programs and Alternative Credit Center for the SoGE. The school has some incredible opportunities with our new term-based degrees (BSPr and the ASPr). I know 2020-2021 will be an amazing year for the SoGE. I look forward to continuing to collaborate with everyone to bring these initiatives to fruition." Congratulations on your promotion, Michele!

Welcome Our New Humanities & Social Sciences Chair

Kate Scarpena, EdD., started as an adjunct faculty member in the Humanities Dept. in 2009 and then served as Asst. Chair HU/SS here in the SoGE for the past 8 years. As demonstrated in her active service in school (GEC Steering chair) and university committees, Kate is deeply committed to her work here at PG. Additionally, she is focused on scholarship and has published across the fields of history and education. Kate's experience includes teaching, course design and implementation, curriculum development, program development, professional portfolio development, and educational administration in both K-12 and Higher Education settings. Presently she resides in Buffalo, NY, with her husband and teenage sons. She spends the summer months enjoying the outdoors via hiking and kayaking and the winter months curled up by the fire with a good book. Congratulations on your promotion, Kate!

The results of our SoGE Theme Contest are in! 2020-2021 marks the next phase of the SoGE with the implementation of the GenEd C plan and the launch of the first two programs completely unique to the SoGE. Keeping this in mind and the core themes that comprise our mission statement, our overarching theme will be: General Education: Cultivating Tomorrow's Possibilities. This is something that leadership worked hard to develop, using a concept submitted by Peg Hohensee, Math Department Chair.

In keeping with this theme and in recognizing that in many ways, there is hope that 2021 will be a symbolic reshaping, a Renaissance after a year with a number of challenges, our theme for the 2021 General Education Conference will be: General Education Transformed: A Renaissance of Equity, Achievement, and Diversity. The core concept for this year’s theme was submitted by Jacob Kaltenbach, an FTA in the Composition Department.

Many thanks to everyone who participated, and we want to make an honorable mention of the following faculty members and administrators who submitted concepts that were strongly considered:

Leslie Johnson Michelle Lis Julie McNamara

Nikki Williams Nathan Nicol Carolyn Stevenson

Google Voice Productivity Tip - I use Google Voice to message my students but not always through the mobile app. You can also use Google Voice messaging with a keyboard and the Google Voice website! Its very handy as some students love to message LONG texts. I can be more professional and provide a more detailed response to them when I have my keyboard to write the texts (and copy/paste). Furthermore, I have it set up as a pinned tab in my browser so when I check my email each morning, I can also respond to any texts. Messaging is my new email!

Do you have a best practice or tip you'd like to share? Feel free to email your department chair or fill out the GenEd/OC Digest Spotlight Form found on the homepage!

Overview of the new PG Rubric Project

Purdue University Global (PG) is undertaking a project to improve, through faculty review and application of an approved standard model, rubrics across the university. Although we must update the rubrics to meet D2L’s new rubric experience, updating rubrics to the new experience will provide us with a great opportunity to improve the quality of the assessments. This will provide a consistent experience for faculty and students across the curriculum. It will also provide further analytic data so we can make data-driven decisions about student learning.

Currently, we are using the BrightSpace rubric tool for Course Level Assessments (CLA, GEL, and PC). The new standard rubric for the Seminar, Discussions (DB), and Assignments will be embedded in the courses, similar to CLA rubrics both in look and functionality (see images below). Each department in the SoGE created a standard DB rubric through a faculty-driven process. The Curriculum and Innovation (C&I) team is scheduled to begin uploading the Seminar and DB rubrics for the 2005C term start.

The next phase of the PG rubric project involves Assignment rubrics. Each School is managing the creation of these rubrics for their courses. While the deadline for completing all PG rubrics is February 1, 2021, each department will have specific dates for completing their rubrics. Under the guidance of Celine Hall, Science Department Chair, a team of faculty created a model rubric to help guide the SoGE in creating assignment rubrics. The first training on the new rubric included all Course Leads (CLs) and was held September 29, 2020. In addition to training, the CLs will have access to support from their Chairs, designated faculty, and the ADoC. Please contact your department leadership with any questions about the PG rubric project.

APA 7th Update

All PG Writing Center, Academic Writer, and Hawkes resources were updated to the APA 7th edition a month ago, so beginning with the -04 terms, the focus should be on following APA 7th. There are still some APA 6th resources available for reference as needed (e.g., If a student started a large project in APA 6th, it’s okay for them to finish in the 6th edition). Students should be informed but not penalized if they accidentally use APA 6th format rather than 7th (e.g., including the unnecessary running head). The official change to APA 7th for PG is on January 1, 2021.

There is more information with resources on our WAC page or by contacting the WAC Advisory Committee at: WAConcierge@purdueglobal.edu