GeneralStudies
2012 Assessment of General Education
This report was written by Bill Fischer Jan 3, 2014
Overview:
This is a brief study that surveys students and other colleges in regards to likes, wants and offerings. It was submitted to the Chair of General Education and the Dean of the college in April 2011. at that time and through part of 2012 I was attending the General Education planning open meetings. It eventually became a Senate committee. I ran for a seat, but was not elected.
The general (and respectful) point of disagreement between myself and the General Education faculty was wether or not courses could or should be of the 'applied' type. I advocated for a blending... where 2-3 courses, of the 10 that most programs require, would be applied. And, those applied courses would need to 'speak' to students in at least 3 programs, similar to the current Basic Materials course.
Student Survey:
This study was performed as a dialogue with 33 DM senior students by Bill Fischer
Current courses students found valuable:
- Philosophy
- Jazz Dazzles Society
- Creative Writing
- Aesthetics
- Mythology
Most important factor in rating course satisfaction:
- Teacher
Most important in rating course dissatisfaction:
- Subject
Most important guiding course selection:
- schedule convenience
Students that took some courses at GRCC instead of Kendall (to cut costs):
- 30 %
Student Ideas for Courses:
- music appreciation
- Screenplay writing
- Media Studies
- More challenging courses in math, science, Literature
- Theatre Production
Faculty Survey:
Courses the DM Faculty have expressed interest in:
- Writing for Visual Narratives
- Animation and Culture
Courses Bill Fischer is interested in:
- Writing for Visual Narratives
- Social Research (data-driven sociology)
- Media and Culture
- Theatre/Acting/Improv
- Introduction to Commerce: Business Law, Marketing, Accounting, Economics
Survey of Applied Gen Ed Courses Offered by Other Colleges:
Ferris State University:
ACCT 201 - Principles of Accounting 1
Introduction to accounting principles with an external reporting emphasis on the preparation and use of financial statements. Includes recording and adjusting accounts, the accounting cycle, accounting for merchandising operations, internal control and cash, receivables, inventories, assets, liabilities, corporate organization, stock transactions, dividends, and retained earnings and investments. Pre-Requisites:MATH 110 with a grade of C- or better, or 19 on ACT or 460 on SAT or one of the following MATH courses 115, 116, 117, 118. 119, 120, 126, 130, 132, 135. Typically Offered Fall, Spring, Summer
3.000 Credit hours
3.000 Lecture hours
Levels:
Undergraduate Schedule Types:
Lecture, Structured Learning Workshop
Account, Finance, Info Systems Department
Course Attributes:
Big Rapids Campus, Big Rapids Tuition**
Radio and television writing techniques; theory and practice in writing of major continuity types. Students will learn to write a program treatment and narrations for film, video tape, and slide presentations. Legal and ethical issues will be stressed. Pre-Requisites:COMM 105 or COMH 121 or COMM 121 or COMM 200 or COMM 201; & ENGL 150 with a grade of C or better. Typically Offered Fall, Spring
3.000 Credit hours
3.000 Lecture hours
Levels:
Undergraduate Schedule Types:
Humanities Department
Course Attributes:
Big Rapids Campus, Big Rapids Tuition**
FILM 222 - Intro to Film:History-Analysis
Introduction to the invention of film technology and its early forms (documentary, experimental, narrative) and to the analysis and interpretation of film as a visual art form. This course meets the General Education requirements Cultural Enrichment. Prerequisites: ENGL 150. Typically Offered Fall Even Years.
3.000 Credit hours
2.000 Lecture hours
2.000 Lab hours
Levels:
Undergraduate Schedule Types:
Combination lecture/laboratory, Laboratory, Lecture
Humanities Department
Course Attributes:
Big Rapids Campus, Cultural Enrichment, Big Rapids Tuition**
Prerequisites:
The cultural aspects of the twentieth century that have been or are the foundations for social changes. The impact of pop art, film, TV, radio, advertising, comics, literature, fashions and fads, and unique areas of the arts. This course meets General Education requirement: Cultural Enrichment, Global Consciousness. Typically Offered On Demand
3.000 Credit hours
3.000 Lecture hours
Levels:
Undergraduate Schedule Types:
Lecture, Fully On Line, Web Based Mixed Delivery
Humanities Department
Course Attributes:
Big Rapids Campus, Cultural Enrichment, Global Consciousness, Big Rapids Tuition**
MKTG 321 - Principles of Marketing
Introduction to the basic functions of marketing. Included as topics of study are: consumer behavior, marketing research, marketing planning, physical distribution, selling, promotion, retailing, pricing, wholesaling, purchasing, international marketing, and e-commerce. Pre-Requisites:Sophomore status or higher. Typically Offered Fall, Spring, Summer
3.000 Credit hours
3.000 Lecture hours
Levels:
Undergraduate Schedule Types:
Lecture, Fully On Line, Web Based Mixed Delivery
Marketing Department
Course Attributes:
Big Rapids Campus, Big Rapids Tuition**
SSCI 310 - Applied Social Research Method
Social research design methodology, with emphasis on applied research in human service settings. Special emphasis on program evaluation, single subject designs, human service surveys, and ethical issues of research. Introduction to elementary statistics, including frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and beginning bivariate analysis. Students are prepared for critical use of research, evaluation of their own practice, and making contributions to the professional knowledge base. Pre-Requisites:Junior or Senior status. Typically Offered Fall Only
3.000 Credit hours
3.000 Lecture hours
Levels:
Undergraduate Schedule Types:
Lecture, Structured Learning Workshop
Social Sciences Dept Department
Course Attributes:
Big Rapids Campus, Big Rapids Tuition**
The basic physical and vocal skills required in acting on the stage are explored and developed through exercises, improvisation, and scenes. Includes acting theory, stage acting terminology, script and role analysis. This course meets General Education requirements: Cultural Enrichment. Typically Offered Fall Only
3.000 Credit hours
1.000 Lecture hours
3.000 Lab hours
Levels:
Undergraduate Schedule Types:
Combination lecture/laboratory, Laboratory, Lecture
Humanities Department
Course Attributes:
Big Rapids Campus, Cultural Enrichment, Big
College For Creative Studies - Detroit
Liberal Arts
Providing students with an understanding of the larger social and cultural context in which they live, work, and dream is the primary responsibility of the Liberal Arts Department. We offer a range of courses designed to inspire as well as inform. We share with students a body of knowledge and a variety of skills that will help them define and profit from their education and subsequent careers as artists.
Our subjects span the centuries and the globe, our students are the entire college, and our deepest concern is the whole person.
Liberal Arts courses cover the basics – from literature to math – in ways you can apply directly to your career and interests as an art or design student. You may also register for courses that give you hands-on experience writing and illustrating a children's book, scripting a film or reviewing gallery exhibits. In addition, the department offers minors in Art History and Art Therapy.
A well-rounded education:
Students in all majors will study Liberal Arts. Strong writing and math skills make for better jobs, promotions, assignments, and a more satisfying career. CCS offers 120 Liberal Arts courses.
HERE YOU LEARN:
- Art Historical Documentation
- Art Therapy
- Baroque and Rococo Art
- Books into Film
- Childhood and the Imagination
- Cultural Semiotics
- Contemporary Art History
- The Experience of Time
- The Fairy Tale
- History of Cities
- Imaging: Visual/Verbal Crossovers
- Math and the Imagination
- Theories of Personality
- The Pursuit of Meaning
- Psychology of Creativity
- Psychology of Perception
- Shakespeare
- Technoculture
Columbus College of Art & Design
Liberal Arts Overview
Art history, humanities, science; these courses are essential to your growth as an artist and as a well-rounded individual.
Liberal Arts courses encourage critical thought and an expanded world view, while building academic self-assurance and intellect. You need to build your portfolio of knowledge so you don't repeat the past, you create the future.
CCAD offers a range of liberal arts classes, many of which are developed to relate directly to the visual arts curriculum. A growing area of liberal arts curriculum is online classes, which offer students a flexible, independent option to traditional in-class study. Online courses are currently available in art history, history of design, human anatomy and physiology and cultural anthropology.
A strong Liberal Arts education has highly practical applications. This is true for a fashion designer who needs to research and understand market psychology when forecasting fashion trends, to the fine artist who needs writing skills when applying for a grant.
Cleveland College of Art and Design
Liberal Arts courses include:
- Avant Garde Film
- Avant Garde Film: Montaged “Talkies”
- Design and Craft in Modern Culture
- Film History and Theory: Documentary
- Folk Art, Minority Art, and Outsider Art
- Art Writing
- Graphic Narratives
- Issues in Design: Theory and Culture of Design
- Media Arts and Visual Culture: Interactive Zones
- Screenwriting
Grand Valley State University
ART 101 - Introduction to Art
Introduction to the visual arts. Examination of creative, social, historical, and aesthetic aspects of selected works of art. Fulfills Arts Foundation. Offered fall and winter semesters.
Credits: 3
CFV 225 - Film Culture
Introductory course on film as a significant cultural form. Examines the formal elements through which films tell stories, and the kind of stories they tell in response to audience needs and desires. Focuses on how audience interaction shapes narrative filmmaking. Fulfills Arts Foundation. Offered every semester.
Credits: 3
CTH 161 - Theatre Production
An introduction to the collaborative nature of the theatrical process, particularly the relationships between the performers, designers, and directors. The organization and functions of design, technology, materials, people, space, time, and money in a theatre production. Procedures in different theatrical organizations and situations will be examined. Students will participate in the production activities of the college. Fulfills Arts Foundations. Offered fall semester.
Credits: 3
Calvin College of Art and Design
In their core curriculum.. which appears to be the equivalent of our LAS/Gen Ed a student is allowed to take 2 courses from an extensive list that includes these:
145 Introduction to Film & Media (3)
. F and S. A study of film and other moving image media as art forms and cultural phenomena, including dramatic, visual, and sonic elements, theme and focus, acting, and directorial style. Topics covered include the materials and methods of media production, the major styles and genres of moving image media, and the relationship of film and television to American and world culture. Course work includes a mandatory weekly screening (lab) and readings in the history, theory, and criticism of film and television.
254 Media Criticism (3)
. F. The theory and practice of film and media criticism. This course develops a Reformed lens for consumers and producers of media to evaluate film and mass media on behalf of church and society. Students write audience-focused reviews and evaluate others’ criticism of media such as television, film, radio, popular music, and new media technologies (including the internet, digital music, video games, and blogs).
281 American Film (4)
. F. The study of American film as an art form, including technology, industry, and the system of representation and communication from the silent era to the present. This course investigates how Hollywood films work technically, artistically, and culturally to affirm and challenge images of America. Films considered represent major expressions of the classical Hollywood style and diversions from that style. Topics include film technique and style, narrative conventions and genres, the Hollywood studio and star systems, directors, and ideologies.
282 World Cinema
(4). An introduction to significant film movements outside the United States. Topics include the early history and development of basic cinematic principles, the differences between the “Hollywood style” and the narrative forms developed in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere, and the response of various film industries to the dominance of the American cinema.
320 History of Theatre and Drama I (3)
. F. Alternate years. A historical and analytical study of theatre and drama from its origins to the nineteenth century.
321 History of Theatre and Drama II (3)
. S. Alternate years. A continuation of CAS 320. A historical and analytical study of theatre and drama from the nineteenth century to the present.
330 Global Media, Global Culture (3). This course examines communication occurring across international borders, with special attention to the development of a global culture based in media flow. Topics include the history, use and regulation of international communications technologies, information and cultural impacts of media flow, international law, and the role of media in international politics, economics, culture, and religion. It includes significant attention to the development of global media organizations and their impacts on indigenous culture.