General Education Program:
Resources Page
In 2008, UWSP initiated a six-step process to review and revise our
General Degree Requirements (GDRs) and to create a new General Education
Program (GEP). A new subcommittee of the Academic Affairs Committee,
the General Education Policy Review Committee (GEPRC), was formed and
charged with following a six-step process. The GEPRC has worked with
various units across campus to develop the new GEP. While the old GDR
system specified different requirements for students (depending on their
degree type), the new GEP is common to all students (regardless of
degree types). Based on new
Degree Type Requirements, each department will identify which majors will be offered for which degree type.
Beginning in the fall of 2011, a new standing committee of Faculty
Senate, the General Education Committee (GEC) has assumed responsibility
for managing the new GEP, including approving courses and facilitating
assessment.
Phase I: Grandfathering existing GDR courses into the new GEP
Throughout
fall 2011, the GEC received grandfathering “worksheets” from
departments listing the various courses with GDR designation. These
worksheets allowed departments to indicate their preference for
converting existing GDR courses into new GEP courses. In addition to this, the GEC has approved numerous courses for a variety of GEP categories.
Here is a list of approved GEP courses:
New: Sample GEP Advising Sheet (updated: May 2, 2013)
Here is a copy of the GEP Course Application Form:
Specific course application forms are available for
Interdisciplinary Studies and
Experiential Learning:
These Microsoft Word documents have fillable fields and drop-down
selections. Users should be able to save this blank form to their
computer with a new name (reflective of the department and course).
Filling out this form will require that you are familiar with the
approved learning outcomes for the GEP categories. A convenient 2-page
summary of these learning outcomes is available
here, and a
cover page is available to provide additional guidance.
The GEP Interdisciplinary Studies requirement can also be satisfied by completing an approved interdisciplinary
Major, Minor, or Certificate Program. Here is an application form for seeking this approval:
The
GEP Examples Page includes
some examples of how these forms could be filled out. We provide these
examples merely as illustration to help users get a sense of what’s expected when
filling out the form.
Phase III: Updating Majors to Meet the "in the Major" Requirements
The new GEP includes two requirements that serve to integrate what
students learn throughout the GEP and what students learn within their
major. One is the Communication in the Major requirement, and the other
is the Capstone Experience in the Major.
Departments will need to
identify components of each major that meet these requirements. The GEC
recently approved two application forms to guide Departments when making
revisions to incorporate these "in the Major" requirements.
Saving a copy of these forms on your computer will allow you to save your progress and return to the forms as needed.
Phase IV: Assessment
Step 6 includes
an Assessment Plan for the new GEP (pp. 15-19). The Academic Affairs
Committee and Faculty Senate have now approved this GEP Assessment Plan.
Following the details specified, the GEC will create procedures to
collect course portfolios and form faculty learning communities.
The GEP Assessment Plan calls for assessing all courses in the Foundation Level during the 2013-2014 academic year. Additional details are coming soon.
For an example of the assessment process, please see the following: