Greetings everyone,

Welcome to our Fall edition of the GenEd Digest! We have already kicked into high gear for 2021-2022 and the SoGE has been very busy with different activities, planning events, and new initiatives. Take a look below and see what has been going on and what we have coming up. There are so many exciting events and opportunities on the horizon.

We hope you enjoy this latest issue...

Association for General and Liberal Studies (AGLS)

The Association for General and Liberal Studies (AGLS) met virtually for the 2021 Constitute from September 23rd to the 30th. This year’s theme, Change Leadership in General Education, encompassed live sessions on a variety of topics in general education. Several members of Purdue University Global from throughout the School of General Education attended and presented at the conference. Conference tracks included: Change Leadership in General Education, General Education Revision and Reform, Assessment in General Education, and Engaged Learning and Engaged Citizenship.

In addition to traditional learning sessions, AGLS included panel sessions, workshops, and interactive sessions where participant-driven engagement promoted discussions on topics in general education. Attendees from colleges and universities around the country contribute to discussions in the broad fields of general education, academic leadership, assessment, and curriculum. The virtual Constitute also provided the opportunity to review recorded sessions when attending live was not possible. AGLS plans to resume the 2022 Constitute in-person in St. Louis September 30 - October 1, 2022.

Welcome Stacy Mallory!

Below is an introduction to Stacy Mallory, our new Curriculum Specialist in General Education. In her own words she explains how her life experiences resulted in an unexpected career path. Much like our PG students, and many of us, Stacy’s contributions are richer for her experiences.

"On the wall above my desk is the quote: "Life is Weird!" although it should probably read, "Life is Ironic!" Afterall, it is solely the ironic and iconic steps in my life that have led me to Purdue Global as the new Curriculum Specialist in General Education.

As a child living on a 25,600-acre cattle ranch in rural Montana and going to a one-room country school of five with a teacher who lived in the backroom, I never dreamed that I would go to college to earn a BS and MS and become an instructional designer. In high school, in Wyoming, my mom told me that I couldn't become a doctor because "it is just too hard." And, I still remember the day that my family, including my grandparents, sat down in "The Big Cow" restaurant in Grand Junction, Colorado, to discuss whether continuing school for a Bachelor's degree was necessary. I did continue college, one class at a time for 10 years, not realizing I needed to apply for my college graduation to actually graduate.

Even my first job after my Master's degree started from a simple yellow post-it-note handed to a janitor. She was the only person around, during summer term. I simply expressed an interest in teaching to her and wondered who to contact at the local community college and she had me leave my name and number. In that first job, I ended up developing a state-wide online program for the State of Oregon and then was asked to project manage a 2.7 million dollar Department of Labor grant creating seven new asynchronous programs and their associated courses.

By overcoming obstacles, I became an Allied Health professional and educator with a specialty in Radiation Health Physics. I now have over 18 years of experience teaching science to students around the globe, developing curriculum, and training others in the "best practices" of ADA, UDL, and andragogy. And in all these roles I focused on removing educational barriers for learners. As I continue my professional journey here at PG, I am so thankful for the kindness and support that everyone has shown since I started. It has been a wonderful transition in my ironic career devoted to making quality education more accessible for adult learners and non-traditional students."

Celebrating our Diversity

The SOGE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee is looking for participants in their “Five Minutes With” video series. The goal of this series is to allow us to get to know everyone in the School of General Education. The videos consist of a series of questions followed by a round of rapid-fire questions. Videos can be done synchronously or asynchronously. You can see examples of these interviews at the SOGE DEI webpage here. The committee needs both interviewers and interviewees. If you are interested in participating, contact Galia Fussell at GFussell@purdueglobal.edu.

This summer, the committee collected data on our SOGE student population with the goal of getting to know our students on a deeper level. The data was compiled into a SOGE Student Data Report. The group would love your feedback on how this kind of data can be applied in teaching, research, and administrative processes. The DEI committee also created a course inventory examining DEI in SOGE course curriculum. This data was compiled into a Curriculum One-Sheet for faculty and administrators to use. You can read this report here.

The SOGE DEI webpage is gathering a wealth of resources for faculty and staff. Make sure to check out the reading corner for articles on DEI topics suggested by your fellow faculty and staff. We also have blog posts written by faculty and staff. The most recent is a blog “Diversity and Inclusion: A Short Philosophical Inquiry” by Dr. Elliott Crozat, and an article; “Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month” by Dr. Celine Hall. If you are interested in submitting a blog post to the website, or a scholarly article for the reading corner, please submit your work through the monthly interest form.

Jessica Love shared information about the committee, their goals, and how to participate in the recent SOGE All School meeting. Make sure to check out the recording of the meeting, if you have not already. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions or ideas for the committee, please contact the committee chair, Jessica Love at jelove@purdueglobal.edu.

Management and Course Issues

Many of our SoGE courses include publisher materials and labs to provide a richer learning and assessment experience. The faculty-SMEs choose these materials because they are essential in supporting learners’ mastery of the course outcomes.

However, these publisher materials also require multiple levels of expertise to appropriately function in our BS environment. This level of complexity requires that faculty and students who have course issues associated with publisher materials report those issues directly to the Technical Support Team. The Technical Support Team will ensure that all course issues are routed to the appropriate party to review and resolve.

Technical Support Team at 866-522-7747 (toll-free), Email: TechSupport@purdueglobal.edu

Thank you for communicating this information to your students so that we can streamline the course issues related to publisher materials. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to Kathy Ingram, the Assistant Dean of Curriculum (ADoC).