General Education Committee
January 11th, 2011 McMahon Centennial Center Buddy Green Room 2:00 PM
Approved Minutes
Members present:
(Chair) James Heflin – Communications
Kirsten Underwood - Music
Ramona Hall – Education
David Fennema – Theatre Arts
Abbas Johari – Multimedia Design
Abdulhamid Sukar – Business
Mohammad Tabatabai – Mathematical Sciences
John Geiger – Psychology
Nicole Bucher – Student Body Representative
Jason Smith – Library
Karla Oty – IRAA (non-voting)
John McArthur – Vice-President for Academic Affairs (non-voting)
Agenda Items/Discussions
1.
The meeting was called to order at 2:02 PM.
2.
Heflin made a motion to approve minutes from December 7th, 2010. Sukar seconded.
3.
Next item on agenda involved planning for the PQIR presentation on February 4th for learning outcomes
1d, 2d, and 2e. Heflin said he would put the PowerPoint slides together. 1d. Tabatabai. Fennema, and
Underwood volunteered to present these outcomes. The next PQIR will be on February 11th and will
include learning outcomes 1a, 2a, and 3b. These will be in a Word document. Sukar, Hall, and Geiger
volunteered to present these outcomes.
4.
New Business: discussion about the General Education website. Oty suggested the site should have
learning outcomes. Underwood suggested current PQIR’s, as well as a summary or narrative of general
education at Cameron. McArthur suggested having a link to current general education courses on the site,
as well as linking to the State Regents Course Equivalency Project page. This would help assist students
who may transfer to other universities. The committee also discussed looking at other universities to
compare what they list on their general education site.
5.
New Business: Oty informed the committee about the General Education Group on Aggie Access. This
will be the location that will store documents related to the General Education PQIR. Group members will
have access to this information, and can use this site for file-sharing.
6.
Next item: Oty said that the current PQIR will be for data from the 2009 – 2010 Academic Year. Oty also
said next year the deadlines for data will have to be moved back to the fall in order to be included in the
Regent’s Report.
7.
Next item: Oty mentioned involved the process to change alignment between departments and learning
outcomes. Oty suggested that this committee needs to formalize this process due to the fact that
departments may want to change some or all of their alignments, possibly making it difficult for every
student to get assessed on every learning outcome by the time they graduate. It was suggested to use a
form similar to a course modification form that explains the reason(s) why a change is requested and what
would replace the course. Heflin suggested looking at any learning outcomes that are not covered, or if
possible, removing the outcome if it is not being assessed. Geiger and Oty suggested that perhaps either all
of the general education courses cover all of the learning outcomes or all of the elective choices in one area
cover all of the outcomes. Geiger asked if there were ways that a student can meet all of their general
education requirements and still not get assessed in all of the learning outcomes. Oty said that scenario can
happen and needs to be fixed.
8.
Next meeting will be on February 1st, 2011 at 2:00 PM. Buddy Green Room, McMahon Centennial
Complex.
9.
Meeting adjourned at 2:40 PM.