Subcommittee on Core Curriculum Minutes 2013-08-21

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by John Swinton at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences Room 2-51.

Attendance

Voting Members Present: Scott Butler, Mary Magoulick, Chavonda Mills, Amy Sumpter, John Swinton
Non-Voting Member Present: Kay Anderson
Guests: Ryan Brown, Roberta Gorham, Yeprem Mehranian
Regrets: Cara Meade

Announcements

John announced that the Executive Committee and University Senate were in the process of filing the current vacancies on SoCC.

Discussion Items

Submission and Review Process. The committee discussed ways to make the course submission and review process friendlier, easier, and more efficient. The committee proposed amending the course submission process by asking faculty to answer questions about their course rather than submitting course outcomes. This change was deemed appropriate for additional consideration since 1) the course outcome statements that faculty submit do not always provide SoCC with all of the information it needs to review a course, 2) all core courses need to address the same overarching course outcome(s) for each area, and 3) review of course outcomes has been a major hurdle to approving courses during the last two years.

The committee brainstormed questions that could be asked to generate the needed information for a global overlay course. Possible questions included how the course meets the global overlay outcome statement, the areas of the globe that are included in course material, and what percentage of the course is focused on global issues. Mary agreed to draft a set of questions for review and discussion at the next meeting. In addition, John will reach out to Lee Gillis and the Psychology Department to see if they would be willing to test this new format once developed, using the PSYC 3600 Social Psychology course that they recently submitted for the global overlay. If this format is successful in testing, the committee plans to adopt the new process and make similar changes to the submission process for GC1Y and GC2Y sections and Area A-E courses.

The committee also discussed other options to make the course review process easier, including revising the forms so that all necessary pages (approval form and submission form) are included in a single file, adding instructions directly to the forms, and providing examples of previously approved courses.

Global Overlay Course Content. During this conversation, the committee also discussed whether the use of the term “global” in this outcome intended to mean “diverse” or “international.” Several members of the committee voiced the belief that this was intended to be an international requirement, especially since the system also requires an accompanying US Perspectives course.

GC1Y and GC2Y Course Requirements. During Assessment Day, Mary Magoulick and Cara Meade noticed that the expectations for GC1Y and GC2Y might be unclear. Several faculty members expressed the belief that the writing and learning beyond the classroom requirements of GC1Y and GC1Y had been eliminated because they were not explicitly included in the outcome statements for these areas. SoCC will work to clarify the requirements for these courses this year. The committee also discussed the association of the GC2Y fourth hour and the learning beyond the classroom requirement. A GC2Y course must have four instructional (instructor-led or supervised) contact hours, and it needs to have a learning beyond the classroom component. These two may, but do not necessarily have to be, related.

GC1Y and GC2Y Section Size. Committee members also noted that the class size for GC1Y and GC2Y courses is higher than originally intended, and that this limits some of the learning experiences that we hoped to provide through these courses. It was suggested that the committee draft a statement encouraging the deans to allocate enough faculty to these areas to lower class size in future terms.

Action Item

GC2Y 2000 Underworlds and Afterlives as an Area B2 Section
After discussion, this section was approved with a vote of 5-0-0. This section will now be sent to CAPC as an information item and to the Provost for review.

Discussion Item

QEP Theme. Ryan Brown asked if there had been changes to the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan over the summer. The Quality Enhancement Plan theme of “building a culture of engaged learning” was announced during the President’s university convocation address in January. Forums sponsored by Jason Huffman in the spring focused on a theme of engaged learning and high impact pedagogies, including internships and undergraduate research. Provost Brown was interviewed by the Colonnade recently and discussed the QEP and engaged learning as including study abroad, internships, and undergraduate research. However, in the Provost’s remarks as the faculty welcome, she referred specifically to community based engaged learning. The committee discussed possible implications of this change and the way it might relate to the learning beyond the classroom components of the core curriculum. Ryan also asked for this item to be placed on this month’s CAPC agenda.

Next Meeting

The committee’s next meeting will be Wednesday, August 28, at 1:00 p.m. in Arts & Sciences Room 2-51.

Adjournment

The committee adjourned at 2:00 p.m.