St. Cloud State University
General Education Goal Area 6 Designation
Humanities & Fine Arts
Academic Affairs Use Only:
Response Date: ______________________
Effective Date: ______________________
Proposal Number: _________________
1.
Prepared by: Judy Dorn, English Department
Phone: 8-5432
Email: jadorn@stcloudstate.edu
2.
Requesting Unit: Foreign Languages
3.
Department, Course Number, Title: Humanities program, 250: Introduction to the Humanities
4.
Existing Course
5.
Will this course be flagged as a diversity course?
6.
Will this course also satisfy another General Education Goal Area?
7.
Course bulletin description, including credits and semesters to be offered:
YES
No
No
+HUMS 250. Introduction to the Humanities
Integrating at least three humanities
fields, using visual, performative, written, and analytical methods applied to a special
topic. 3 Cr. Fall, Spring.
8.
Indicate the clientele for whom this course is designed. Is the course for general education only, or
does it fulfill general education and other program needs for this or another department? Obtain
signatures from any affected departments.
No department outside the Humanities program relies on this course for programming, but the course is required
for the Humanities major and minor.
9.
Indicate any changes that must be made in offerings or resources in your department or other
departments by offering this course.
Course can continue as currently funded, with departments volunteering a course or with outside funding from the
Dean’s office or from Continuing Studies.
10.
For new courses or courses not yet approved for General Education, indicate any other SCSU departments
or units offering instruction that relates to the content of the proposed course. N/A
11.
Courses designated as General Education are included in the assessment plan for the Goal Area(s)
for which they are approved. Courses for which assessment is not included in the annual GE
assessment report for two years will be removed from the General Education Program.
YES
The Requesting Unit understands and recognizes the above conditions.
Please tell departments how they will be expected to track the timetable of these responsibilities.
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12.
Provide a concise explanation of how the following goal is a “significant focus” of the proposed course.
Goal Area 6: Humanities & Fine Arts
Expand appreciation and critical understanding of changing modes of human expression and systems of
thought in the arts and humanities, and develop abilities in the creation and performance of meaning.
See course description: Integrating
at least three humanities fields, using visual, performative,
written, and analytical methods applied to a special topic.
Note that the focus on a specific, often cultural topic naturally establishes sense of change and difference from the student’s
normal surroundings, and has the student learn a whole system through various media.
13. In order for a course to be designated as fulfilling Goal Area 6, it must address at least 5 of the 7 student learning
outcomes (SLOs) below. Check the SLOs below that are focused on in the proposed general education course.
1. YES Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
2. YES Describe and appreciate works in the arts and humanities as expressions of individual and collective values
within an intellectual, cultural, historical and social context.
3. YES Interpret and respond critically to works from various cultures in the arts and humanities.
4. YES Explore intellectually the ideas expressed in works in the arts and humanities.
5. YES Engage in creative processes or interpretive performance.
6. YES Articulate an informed personal response to works in the arts and humanities.
7. YES Analyze the diverse means of communication in the arts and humanities.
14.
Discuss how each Student Learning Outcome checked above is achieved in this course. (Note: Although
descriptions of typical assignments or types of assignments may be part of this discussion, it is not
appropriate to submit copies of actual assignments.)
1. This course goes beyond most courses in departments of CFAH to demonstrate scope and variety in the
Humanities, since it integrates readings and assignments across the arts, the human sciences (history and
anthropology), culture and media.
2. Each 250 course so far has focused on a specific topic, allowing for depth of focus and integration of
contexts: the Italian Renaissance, the Greek Ideal, the Wild Man, Surrealism, Moslem Andalusia.
3. Course assignments include analysis and interpretation of readings and works of art and culture. Works
are taught in cultural and historical context, ensuring that students use in their interpreting not only the
immediate appearance of the work but its performance in targeting an audience and influencing culture as
well as its layers of reference to context.
4. With a historical approach providing coherence for the material, each course is able to find conceptual
connections in the material. All courses include philosophical readings as well, practicing students’
powers of abstraction. Overall, the course topics connect students to ideas and to intellectual history.
5. Instructors have been guided to climax the course with a portfolio assignment including creative work
and presentations by students in the class. Students are encouraged in their skills of performance and oral
presentation. The course on surrealism had the students create surreal works of art.
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6. The portfolio assignment is meant to bring students to put together their own summation of the course and
their creative and written responses to the materials.
7. The course includes a wide variety of media, from film, music, and visual arts alongside traditional
readings, which ought also to be analyzed rhetorically and literarily. Students also are very aware of the
media available to them as they perform and present their assignments.
15.
List or attach the Course Outline (adequately described and including percentage of time to be allocated
to each topic). Curriculum Committees may request additional information. Topics larger than 20% need
to be broken down further. Indicate in your course outline where the Student Learning Outcomes
checked above are being met.
Note that the variety surveyed in the course covers 1 and 7.
10% Visual (may include architecture and film) and musical arts interpretation
20% Historical background and readings (2 and 3)
10% key terms and concepts, often presented in philosophical, theoretical, or intellectual texts (4)
20% Literary texts and rhetorical analysis of readings
10% Students’ analytic and interpretive writing, and in-class instruction regarding writing as response to source
material
20% Material appropriate for covering specific topic of course
10% Portfolio showing multiple humanities approaches (including creative work) and presentation (5 and 6)
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