WCU General Education News

October 2022

To provide useful information for reviewers at every level as they consider Gen Ed course proposals, and the role the course may play in the WCU Gen Ed curriculum, a new "Narrative" form is required for any new or revised course that checks any of the following boxes in the CIM shell:

· Additional Baccalaureate Requirement 2019+

· General Education 2019+

· General Education Pathways

Required use of the new form will become effective Nov. 1, 2022. It can be found linked to the CIM page at submission or here (please be sure to download the file and save to your own computer to complete--do not complete the form in Google Drive or Sharepoint). If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Gen Ed Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu).

It’s been 30 years since WCU implemented the Interdisciplinary Requirement as part of the General Education Program. Gen Ed Council Director, Rodney Mader, will be hosting a series of Zoom meetings this semester to facilitate conversations about the I curriculum, including: the place of interdisciplinarity in 2022; what’s working in our current I curriculum and what could be improved; how students think about the I requirement; and whatever additional themes arise during the meetings. More information and the Fall 2022 meeting schedule is here.

To make this work efficient, CAPC has temporarily suspended 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. All existing I courses will maintain their designation until a revalidation process that will follow approval of new I criteria and Handbook. (See details here).

Please contact the Interdisciplinary Director, Rodney Mader (rmader@wcupa.edu), with any questions.

There will be an open forum (on Zoom) for those interested in seeking an Ethics designation on a new or existing course on October 26th from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. Joan Woolfrey and Matt Pierlott (both former members of CAPC’s General Education subcommittee and experts in ethics) will be available to answer questions, walk you through the D2L Ethics Training Module site that will soon be launched, and suggest pointers for a making a successful submission. See details here. To RSVP, or with any questions, contact Joan jwoolfrey@wcupa.edu.

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

Capstone Assignment Director Sharon DeJoy will host a series of meetings around designing a Capstone Assignment. See schedule here. Faculty working on their program's Capstone Assignment are welcomed and encouraged to attend one or more of these meetings.

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, you can check here, or reach out to Capstone Assignment Director Sharon DeJoy SDeJoy@wcupa.edu or Gen Ed Committee 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 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).