May 2022
CAPC and the Gen Ed Council are pleased to roll out a new Gen Ed website. The website provides the most up-to-date information about all of the General Education components, including FAQs, handbooks, criteria, sample annotated syllabi, Gen Ed Goal rubrics, etc. it is intended to provide information that is useful to faculty as they prepare their courses and proposals for CAPC, as well as to proposal reviewers. If there's information you'd like to see included on the Gen Ed site, please contact the Gen Ed Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu).
Beginning May 31, 2022, CAPC will temporarily suspend accepting Interdisciplinary (I) proposals. This includes proposals for entirely new I courses, as well as proposals to add the I attribute to an existing course. This suspension will be in force until the Interdisciplinary criteria can be updated next academic year. All existing I courses will maintain their designation until a revalidation process that will follow approval of new I criteria and Handbook. Proposals that have already passed CAPC support as of 5/31/22 will be processed as usual. For more information, please see this announcement that was made at the last CAPC Assembly meeting. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Interdisciplinary Director, Rodney Mader (rmader@wcupa.edu) or the Gen Ed Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu).
Writing Emphasis (W) courses that have not been revalidated since the Fall of 2019, when the current Gen Ed Program went into effect, must be submitted to CAPC for revalidation. Many W courses were revalidated as they came through CAPC for other edits since 2019—these courses do not have to be re-submitted at this time. Here is a link to a list of all approved W courses and those that are already revalidated for 2019. Please check the list; if you still are not sure if your W course needs to be submitted for revalidation, you can reach out to Gen Ed Committee Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu) or Writing Emphasis Subcommittee Chair and Writing Across the Curriculum Director, Justin Rademaekers (JRademaekers@wcupa.edu).
Please see here for more details.
The deadline for submission for revalidation is December 31, 2022 to avoid having the W removed from the course, but we encourage preparers to submit at their earliest convenience to allow proper review.
The current Gen Ed Program, implemented in the Fall of 2019, includes the requirement of “a universal implementation of capstone courses in the majors, with a requirement that students synthesize their entire undergraduate career (Gen Ed, major, minor, and co-curricular work).” CAPC previously asked each program to identify a “Capstone Course” for their majors. At this time we are calling for each program to design a specific Gen Ed Capstone Assignment that will be part of that course. Each program/major must submit a Gen Ed Capstone Assignment to CAPC for approval, and all sections of the capstone course(s) in that program/major will use the approved assignment. See details here.
The deadline for submission is December 31, 2022, but we encourage preparers to submit at their earliest convenience to allow proper review. Completion of the Capstone course, with the Gen Ed Capstone Assignment, will become a graduation requirement for students matriculating to WCU starting Fall of 2023. Some programs have already had their Assignments approved, but most have not. If your department has already had an assignment approved, there is no need to resubmit at this time. If you are not sure if your program has an approved Gen Ed Capstone Assignment, please reach out to Gen Ed Committee Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu).
If, after reviewing the materials, you have any questions about Capstone Assignment criteria or how to prepare your Assignment, please contact Gen Ed Committee Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu) or Capstone Director, Sharon DeJoy (SDeJoy@wcupa.edu).
The current Gen Ed Program, implemented in the Fall of 2019, includes the requirement of “a universal use of Electronic Portfolios to facilitate students’ thinking across their Gen Ed and Major courses.” More information about ePortfolios as part of the Gen Ed Program can be found here.
Although students have been creating e-Portfolios as part of their FYE activities since Fall of 2019, the full roll out of this Gen Ed requirement across the university was delayed by the University’s/PASSHE's recent switch to Google Sites as the supported e-Portfolio platform. The transition to Google Sites is now complete, and the roll-out to students and faculty across campus has begun. Watch for more information and learning opportunities.
Beginning with the start of the Fall 2022 semester, all Gen Ed course proposals submitted to CAPC, regardless of reason for submission, will be expected to identify in the syllabus one assessment artifact addressing each relevant Gen Ed goal that students will be expected to upload to their ePortfolio. Once the course is approved, it is expected that students will be required to submit the identified artifacts to their ePortfolios beginning the next term that the course is taught. You can find more details here.
If you have any questions about identifying an artifact suitable for upload to ePortfolio, please contact Gen Ed Committee Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu), or the chair of the relevant subcommittee (member lists can be found here).