GE Minutes 1-28-2014

General Education Committee
28 January 2014
In Attendance: LaFaun Barnhurst, Susan Larsen, Gregory Wright, Richard Squire,
Melanie Jenkins, Clinton King, Adam Larsen, Joseph Papenfuss, Steve Hood, Beckie
Hermansen

Joseph distributed a copy of exceprts from Charles van Doren’s book, A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future. We discussed the section on Renaissance Men and the link to liberal education. One idea was to market GE more effectively—to both students and faculty—to change the attitude toward GE. Rather than getting GE out of the way, we need to educate students as to value.

We spent some time discussing assessment, practical challenges, and solutions to assessment problems. Gregory Wright distributed a copy of a handout of GE requirements and learning outcomes document from Brandman University. We looked briefly at their outcomes and measurements. We also discussed different assessment instruments: CCSEQ, SESSE, our own instrument, focus groups. We had a fruitful discussion about using one day at the end of school year or at the end of semester (contract day) for faculty to get together and do course assessment. We also discussed the possibility of adding assessment participation to graduation requirements in order to get better numbers for assessment participation. Agenda items for next week: internal document/assessment tool, Steve Hood-NEH grant