GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE MINUTES, 9/3/14
CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL
Members present: S. Bradford, L. Calderon, S. Caro, M Cracolice, N. McCrady, J. Randall, K.
Reiser, T. Shearer
Ex-officio Members present: B. Howard, N. Lindsay
Members Absent/ Excused: K. Huthaily, T. Squires
Minutes: The minutes from 4/30/14 were approved.
COMMUNICATION ITEM:

New members were welcomed to the committee and members introduced themselves.
ASCRC Chair John DeBoer stopped by to introduce himself and thank members for
serving on the General Education Committee, a subcommittee of ASCRC.

The Committee is short a member from the Social Sciences. Requests for volunteers
have gone to department chairs and deans.

Additional assessment resources have been posted to the Moodle Shell. One of the
samples is the assessment program from the University of Missouri, Associate Provost
Nathan Lindsay’s prior institution. He indicated that accreditors are interested in
documented assessment of general education and many institutions are struggling with
how to do this. UM needs to record the data and develop action plans. It would be
helpful to have examples of what other Universities have done. Associate Provost
Lindsay will send examples to be posted on Moodle. As expected responses from the
UMKC faculty were mixed. Data was not required for every semester and random
sampling could be used for large sections. The data identified student strengths and
weaknesses. Peer to peer training seemed to go well.
The assessment requirement will need to be framed in a way that promotes faculty selfinterest.
BUSINESS ITEMS

This year the plan is to create a pilot assessment program with a sampling of faculty in
teaching courses meeting the natural science and mathematics requirement. A
subcommittee of the General Education Committee will work with the faculty to devise
assessment appropriate for their courses. Subcommittee members will reach out to the
faculty. There may be training workshops as well.
There were some concerns that this approach would assess individual courses rather
than the program and create a lot of work for faculty. The University will need to take a
multi-faceted approach to assessing general education that involves both indirect and
general mechanisms. Faculty have always done assessment, but may not have data
documented. . The training will offer a way to expand their efforts and offer better
analysis.
Professors Calderon, Cracolice, McGrady, and Caro volunteered to serve along with
Associate Provost Lindsay. The subcommittee will work with the faculty selected for
the pilot project to find out what they are currently doing in the way of assessment and
help them to devise a means to collect data. This will involve dissecting the assignments
to address learning outcomes, not just tracking grades.
An issue that may surface during planning for the pilot and review of the general
education forms (now revised to include assessment) is that often departments have
someone other than the instructor completing the form. This varies depending on the
culture in the department.

The General Education Committee considered the request to grant the general
education designations ( L and X) for NASX 239 Native North American History and Art,
the new course offered by the Bitterroot College effective this semester. After
discussion the request was granted with one abstention. However, it should be made
clear to the Bitterroot College that this is a one-time-only exception and they will need
to be meet curriculum deadlines in the future.

Members should look for good samples of responses to the assessment question on the
form to use as an example.

Although the problems with several of the General Education Groups have been
discussed and postponed by the Committee, changes to the General Education program
will not be a priority this year. Chair Caro would like to concentrate on the pilot
assessment project. The Academic Alignment and Innovation Program will also be
considering the General Education Program as it reviews the campus offerings. The
rolling review is due to start a new four-year cycle fall 2014. It would be helpful for the
issues with the criteria to be resolved prior to these efforts. The Committee will wait
until the AAIP Taskforce makes its recommendations. It was suggested that Andrew
Ware, the Faculty Fellow directing the AAIP efforts be invited to the General Education
Committee to discuss what role, if any, the General Education Committee will play in
the AAIP review. Any changes to general education should be grounded in pedogical not
economic reasons.
GOOD AND WELFARE

Associate Provost Lindsey announced that OCHE is presenting workshops on General
Education Assessment September 22 from 11:30-12:30 p.m. The symposium will run
from 9:00 a.m. -3:00 p.m. with various sessions and external experts. It is open to
faculty and staff from across the system.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 5:07p.m.