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General Education, CSU, Chico
GE Course Assessment Resources
Why do course assessment?
GE, like any other academic program, has to ensure the quality of the curriculum. In degree programs, the disciplinary faculty oversee the curriculum for the program and serve that role. General Education lacks a departmental “home.” The General Education Advisory Committee (GEAC) has been created to perform the oversight role that a department normally would regarding curriculum, setting learning outcomes and ensuring program quality. These functions are carried out in dialogue with faculty in departments that offer GE courses and by ensuring that the composition of GEAC is broadly representative of campus stakeholders. The responsibilities and composition of GEAC are described in EM 99-05 and Memorandum of Agreement from Academic Affairs.
One way to ensure the quality of the GE is periodic review of courses. A review cycle is established in the Memorandum of Agreement referenced above. GEAC has established criteria for reviewing courses derived from EM 99-05 and in dialogue with faculty teaching these courses. Specific methods for course assessment are recommended by GEAC and communicated to faculty and departments whose GE courses are undergoing review. In general, GEAC has moved over the years from “take my word for it” assessment, to indirect methods of assessment (e.g. asking students to assess their own learning of course concepts) to direct assessment that measures student learning directly. GEAC encourages direct, embedded assessment of learning in GE courses through the use of authentic measures of learning routinely used by faculty in their courses: exams, papers, projects, etc. This produces assessment information that is both genuine and reduces faculty workload.
For examples of GEAC’s approach to assessment, see the call for Area C Assessment Plans, the call for Area D Assessment Plans and a sample hypothetical assessment plan illustrative of “what GEAC wants.”
Other universities doing course assessment