WCU General Education News

July 2024

The following applies to all courses approved to meet requirements in any aspect of the Gen Ed Program (Academic Foundations and Distributed Disciplinary Requirements) as well as Additional Baccalaureate Requirements (ABR).

We are receiving a non-trivial number of course substitution requests that are related to the use of outdated or inaccurate Gen Ed/ABR course syllabi. There are several issues that create this situation; each is easily avoided:

1. The syllabus for a course is not updated when a course is approved for a new attribute (e.g., a W is added) or an attribute is removed officially (e.g., a W is removed). All faculty teaching any course related to Gen Ed/ABR requirements should check the course catalog/schedule each semester as they prepare their syllabi to ensure they know the current Gen Ed/ABR status of the course. Syllabi should be adjusted accordingly, e.g., adding or removing Gen Ed goals/outcomes. 

2. A revised syllabus is used before the change has been officially approved and shows up in the catalog/schedule. Regardless of when a proposal is submitted to CAPC, which semester the change is requested to start, or when it is approved at CAPC Assembly, the new syllabus should not be used for class until approval is final and the change shows in the course catalog/schedule. 

3. A syllabus includes Gen Ed goals/student learning outcomes for attributes not approved. For example, a course approved as a Speaking Emphasis course (and no other attributes) should include only Gen Ed Goals/SLOs #1 and #2, not any others. If the course also happens to address competencies related to other Gen Ed goals (e.g., Demonstrate the ability to think across disciplinary boundaries; Make ethical choices), those should be developed and identified as course goals/outcomes and not listed as Gen Ed. Otherwise, it gives the impression the course is meeting Gen Ed goals and students expect credit for that attribute.

In short, courses must be taught as described in the current catalog and the course schedule that was in place when students were enrolled (typically the prior term). We are requesting help from deans, department chairs, and faculty to improve our "truth in advertising" by teaching each Gen Ed/ABR course only as currently approved using an appropriate syllabus. For example, deans and chairs can watch for "extra" Gen Ed goals/SLOs in syllabi submitted to CIM. Chairs can ensure that temporary faculty or faculty assigned last minute to a Gen Ed/ABR course are explicitly informed of the requirements. If a sample syllabus is provided it should be "up-to-date." Faculty can stay informed about the current status of their courses.

We appreciate your help. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Gen Ed Committee Chair/Gen Ed Council Director, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu).

See the Gen Ed 2019 Program document for details about requirements.

With the implementation of Banner/RamPortal, the abbreviations for many Academic Foundations, Distributed Disciplinary, and Additional Baccalaureate attributes have been changed to 3 letters. These new abbreviations are already implemented in the online platforms; documentation (e.g., Handbooks, Criteria Checklists, CAPC website) will be edited over time as the opportunity arises. The new abbreviations are:

Academic Foundations

Mathematics (MAT) 

Interdisciplinary (INT) 

Diverse Communities (DIV) 

Ethics (ETH)

Distributed Disciplinary Requirements

Arts (ART) 

Behavioral And Social Science (BSS)

Humanities (HUM) 

Science (SCI)

Additional Baccalaureate Requirements

Speaking Emphasis (SPE) 

Writing Emphasis (WRT) 

Capstone (CAP) 

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the system transition team.

CAPC is now calling for all existing Diverse Communities courses (DIV, previously J) to be submitted for revalidation. Because of the approved changes to the Goal and SLOs, all course/syllabi will need to be revised and submitted to CIM, even those recently reviewed for other reasons. The deadline for proposals to revalidate existing DIV courses is May 2025. All proposals to add DIV to an existing course or for a brand new DIV course must align with the new goal/SLOs effective immediately. 

The revised Goal and SLOs are: 

DIVERSE COMMUNITIES GOAL (GEN ED GOAL 5):

Examine the workings of power, oppression, and resistance in a diverse society.

DIVERSE COMMUNITIES SLOs. Address all of the following:

a) Analyze the role that social structures have historically played or continue to play in maintaining disparities within and/or across diverse groups.

b) Discuss the varied ways peoples from marginalized groups resist oppression and wield agency despite structural exclusion and discrimination.

c) Identify relevant tools or strategies to challenge oppression and help create a more just and equitable world.

Each SLO must be explicitly aligned with an appropriate assessment (an assignment can assess more than one SLO). One assessment of Goal #5 must be explicitly identified for upload to the students' Gen Ed ePortfolio (see info below).

The new handbook can be found here; the criteria here. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Gen Ed Committee Chair, Karen Mitchell  or Diverse Communities Subcommittee Chair, Cristobal Cardemil-Krause

The revalidation of Writing Emphasis courses is completed, with just a couple of straggling proposals in the workflow. The W attribute has been removed from several courses at departments' request. As noted in the best practices section, if you teach a course that has been a W course, please check its status in the current catalog and course schedule. If it is still listed as a W, you must teach it as a W until the change is published. Advisors should take care to ensure their advisees are identifying currenly approved W courses in planning their curriculum.

If you have any questions, please contact Gen Ed Committee Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu), or W subcommittee chair, John Taylor (jtaylor3@wcupa.edu).

Completion of the Capstone course, including the Gen Ed Capstone Assignment, is a graduation requirement for students who matriculated to WCU Fall of 2023 or later. It is thus imperative that your program have an approved Assignment implemented now. If your program still needs an approved Capstone Assignment, the chair has been notified. If you are not sure of the status of your program's Gen Ed Capstone Assignment, you can check here, or reach out to Gen Ed Committee Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu). You can read more about this Gen Ed requirement here.

Since Fall 2022, all Gen Ed courses (Academic Foundations, Distributive Disciplinary Requirements) and Additional Baccalaureate courses must identify in the syllabus one assessment artifact addressing each relevant Gen Ed goal. Students are expected to upload these assessments to their required Gen Ed Google Sites ePortfolio. Note that this is not the D2L ePortfolio, or any other professional portfolio a student may be asked to create as part of a course or major program. It is the portfolio they create in Google Sites during FYE or upon transfer to WCU.

All Writing Emphasis (W) and Speaking Emphasis (SE) courses should identify one artifact for Goal 1 and one artifact for Goal 2; all other courses should identify one artifact for each of the other Goals related to the Gen Ed attributes of the courses (Goals 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, as appropriate; See the Gen Ed 2019 Program for reference). An artifact may meet more than one goal. The identified artifact(s) should be a good representation of the attribute (e.g., for a W course, the artifact should be a substantial piece of writing; for an ET course, the artifact should demonstrate ethical thinking/problem seeing/problem solving). You can find more details here. 

To help support students with the ePortfolio requirement, please use syllabus language similar to this: “You must upload [assignment name, or options] to your General Education Google Sites E-Portfolio so you will have it to reflect upon during your Capstone course. If you took FYE at WCU your first year, you should have created your portfolio then. If you have not previously created your portfolio in Google Sites for any reason, please follow these instructions for creating your Portfolio using Google Sites.”

Although faculty are not required to monitor students' ePortfolios, we are asking for your help with compliance by reminding students of the need to upload these assessments and potentially providing some small credit incentive to do so. Including a reflection as part of these assignments makes the use of the portfolio more meaningful for students.

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). More general questions about the Gen Ed ePortfolio can be directed to either Karen or Janneken Smucker, Gen Ed Council ePortfolio Director (JSmucker@wcupa.edu).

Any Gen Ed/Additional Baccalaureate Requirement course proposal submitted to CIM that does not identify specific ePortfolio artifacts will be rolled back to the preparer without further review.

Effective Fall 2023, a Gen Ed "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

The form 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 and then upload to the CIM proposal as an additional file--do not complete the form in Google Drive or Sharepoint). 

The form provides useful information for reviewers at every level as they consider course proposals and the role the course may play in the WCU Gen Ed curriculum. Any proposals in the categories listed above (for a new or revised course) that do not include the Gen Ed Narrative Form will be rolled back to the preparer without review.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Gen Ed Chair, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu).

The suspension of proposals for Interdisciplinary courses continues for Fall 2024, as we work to bring our I curriculum into the 21st century. This is for both new courses and existing courses that seek to add the I. Until curriculum revisions are completed, all I proposals (revised or new) are suspended. NOTE: As per usual CAPC process, although we are not accepting any new I proposals, any existing I course that comes through CAPC for any reason will be reviewed to ensure it meets the current I criteria. The criteria, handbook, and checklist can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact Gen Ed Committee Chair/Gen Ed Council Director, Karen Mitchell (kmitchell@wcupa.edu)