EMU's General Education Program makes progress in first year

Eastern Michigan University economics professor Sharon Erenburg usually gives multiple-choice tests to the 70-plus students in her "Principles of Macroeconomics" class. The class size just doesn't lend itself to a lot of writing assignments.

But last fall, as part of a pilot assessment of Eastern Michigan's revised General Education standards, Erenburg tried something different with one section of the class.

MAKING STRIDES: Eastern Michigan University professors report successes in their new General Education Program classes or have plans to adapt existing classes. The 2007-08 academic year was the first for EMU's new General Education Program, which is outcome-based and takes learning beyond the traditional classroom.

She had her students in her class read an article from CNNMoney.com about the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates. Then, in an assignment worth 20 percent of their grade, they had to explain, in detail, the role of the central bank and the effect of that rate decrease on the economy.

She also set up a rubric that specified how much detail and accuracy they needed on each question to get an "A", or a "B", and so on.

"It was interesting," she said. "The cooperation level was extremely high. They really got into this assignment. I don't know if its because I told them it was part of a pilot, but they really seemed to appreciate the rubric itself and the opportunity to write and analyze as opposed to just coming in to take a multiple-choice test."

The first year under EMU's new general education requirements is filled with these kinds of stories, example after example of points where the academic rubber meets the real-world road.

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