GE Minutes 3-11-2014

General Education Committee
11 Mar. 2014
In Attendance: LaFaun Barnhurst, Gregory Wright, Richard Squire, Melanie Jenkins,
Adam Larsen, Joseph Papenfuss, Steve Hood
I. Approval of Minutes (2-25-14)
Richard motioned we approve minutes of 2-25-14; Lafaun seconded.
Unanimous vote

II. Discussion Items

Curriculum Committee approved the GE knowledge area descriptors on March 6. We can now use those descriptors to begin the approval process for syllabi. Melanie will send it to Lawrence Durtschi so that departments can access it.

5-year Syllabi Review: Melanie is working on creating a list of GE courses that have not been reviewed in the last 5 years. She will distribute that to the GE Committee, the Curriculum Committee chair, and Steve Hood so that he can take the list to Dean’s Council.

Beckie is midway through administering assessments. She is finalizing the internal assessment. We agreed that there should be an essay question and we like one that focuses on relevance of GE.

Dr. Hood sent an announcement to department chairs reminding them to complete and submit assessments. The GE Committee may be asked to assist with that effort. The chairs did receive copies of the GE descriptors and the template for reporting GE assessment. We will evaluate the assessment schedule in our next meeting. We have completed two of our major goals: internal assessment tool and GE descriptors. We agreed that our next goal will be to get syllabi up to date by April 2015. We will discuss this at the August workshop.

Dr. Hood wants the back-to-school meetings to be useful, and he would like to spend time talking about assessment. We agreed to spend a full meeting in mid-April discussing agenda for that workshop.

Melanie reported that the Ednet proposal is expected to pass. We agreed as a committee that since most courses will be general education courses, we need to insist that courses maintain the same quality and rigor as our face to face courses. We need to make decisions about elections for the GE committee. We do not want to replace the committee all at once, so we will work on designing a staggered schedule. Melanie will work on replacing Mel Jacobsen and Clinton King, both at large members, this semester.

III. Consent items

A. New Courses
B. 5-year Review
C. Pending
Com 2300
Art 1010
Art 1020
Art 1040
Art 1050
Art 1060
IV. Assessment