MEMORANDUM

                                                                        October 31, 2005

 

To:      

            Chair,

 

From:   David Hobby

            Chair, GE Board

 

Subj:    GE Assessment plan needed from your department

 

I apologize for the short notice given on this.  We are still working on coming up with a standard process for dealing with GE assessments, and did not have all the details worked out.  Your department has probably participated in some GE assessments by now, as this is our third year of doing them.

 

There are two differences in the process this year.  One is that GE assessment plans should be submitted to the GE Board.  (Send them to: David Hobby, GE Board, FOB E3.)  This is so that Faculty Governance has a role in the process.  The GE Board will be reviewing plans to insure that they are likely to meet with the approval of GEAR, the system-wide group that oversees GE assessment.

 

The second change is the implementation of strengthened campus-based assessment.  Courses with the Systematic Inquiry competency are deemed “Critical Thinking” courses, and need to be assessed relative to a standard rubric developed by a panel selected by GEAR.  While these courses will be assessed at the same time the rest of their GE category is, the plan for the Critical Thinking assessment is due soon.  (Courses in MATH and in COMP are also subject to strengthened campus-based assessment, but this impacts fewer departments.)

 

In this packet, you will find a copy of your department’s courses in the spreadsheet of courses approved for GE 3.  It shows that your department should produce an assessment plan that addresses the following:

 

_______  Courses in WRLD or USST, which are not approved for SI. 

(Plans for these courses are due November 28th; rubrics for them are due January 15th.)

 

_______  Courses in WRLD or USST, which are approved for SI.

(These courses must be ready for either kind of assessment, so plans should be submitted both for their assessment of the WRLD or USST objectives, and for their assessment of Critical Thinking.  These plans are due November 28th; rubrics are due January 15th.)

 

_______  Courses in other categories, which are approved for Systematic Inquiry.

(Plans for the Critical Thinking assessment of these courses are due November 28th, together with a sample rubric for one of them.  The actual assessment of these courses will take place in another year.  The remaining rubrics are due then.)