To:
Department Chairs/School Directors
From:
Linda Saliga, Chair
General Education Implementation Chairs Committee
Date:
February 29, 2016
RE:
Course Proposals for Tagged courses
You are invited to submit proposals for currently offered courses to be evaluated for inclusion in the revised
General Education tagged courses. Be sure to use the appropriate template (Critical Thinking, US Diversity,
Global Diversity, and Social Issues)
Email completed template, syllabus, and learning artifact assignment to the appropriate address:
Domestic Diversity
Global Diversity
Social Issues
Critical Thinking
domdiv@uakron.edu
glodiv@uakron.edu
csasi@uakron.edu
ctr@uakron.edu
Proposals are due by April 8th, 2016.
As you complete your proposal, keep in mind the key changes that will be implemented in our revised General
Education program:
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Learning Outcomes. Each course must demonstrate that it meets the learning outcomes identified on the
template. Identify which aspects of the course (lectures, activities, assignments) meet each outcome. The
schedule/outline of the course should reflect instruction in all the required learning outcomes.
Critical Thinking. Each course must engage students in critical thinking. We define critical thinking in
terms of these cognitive skills:
1. Interpretation
2. Analysis
3. Evaluation
4. Inference (synthesizing, drawing conclusions, identifying alternatives, generalizing)
5. Communication (explaining results, justifying procedures, presenting arguments)
6. Metacognition (reflection, self-monitoring, self-correction)
(Facione)
You should identify which critical thinking skills fit your disciplinary work, and explain how you
incorporate some of these skills into the assignments, activities, or exams in the proposed course.
Written Communication. All general education courses must demonstrate that at least 15% of course
work involves writing appropriate for the discipline; some areas require more. Check each template to for
details. Examples include, but are not limited to: full solutions to scientific problems, lab reports, essays,
research papers, essay exams, case studies, projects, blog submissions on Springboard, and other
disciplinary writing that can be used to assess critical thinking.
Learning Artifact(s). These student-produced artifacts will be used for formative assessment of the
General Education program. All sections of this course must submit the same type of learning artifact(s),
although there can be variation based on individual faculty preferences. You should select a primary
artifact that meets as many of the course learning outcomes as possible, including critical thinking and
written communication. You may identify secondary artifacts if necessary. Examples of learning artifacts
include: course portfolio, comprehensive exam, lab report, project, term report, etc.