GE Projects
GE is engaged in a number of projects, both ones that serve to renovate the program and ones that will go on to be broader impact projects. This page serves to list our on-going projects.
GE Renovation Projects
1. 'Every Course, Every Outcome' Assessment
Over the last few years, GE has undertaken an massive, university wide project of evaluating every GE course for every learning outcome. The most recent efforts include faculty working groups operationalizing the program's original outcomes for each category, developing and testing rubrics to measure the operationalized outcomes, and integrate assessment into our LMS (Canvas). Faculty Senate and the Provost's Office have confirmed measurable outcomes for several categories of GE over the last few years, including GEEC - WRTG, GEEC - OC, GEKH, GEKS, GEKN, GEWI, and GEQR. Work is ongoing for GEUS, GEGA, and GEKA.
GE's Subcommittee for Assessment leads this project.
2. GELB Renovation
A critical but difficult to manage component of the GE program is Learning Beyond the Classroom. Students benefit from experiential and exploratory learning and the connection this sort of learning provides to identity development, the local community, and to the global world. We are currently investigating the possibility of streamlining this challenging degree requirement.
GE's Subcommittee for Integrative and Applied Learning (formerly LBC) leads this project.
3. GE Conference
GE's 2015 Review suggested the need for greater contact with faculty and staff about GE, especially its learning outcomes, design, and renovations. In 2016, GE began a local conference to address this need.
GE's Advisory Council determines conference content, and the conference is designed and lead by a GE Faculty Fellow.
4. Vetting Criteria
GE's 'Every Course, Every Outcome' assessment project, as well as a variety of local concerns, has given rise to an investigation of our course vetting criteria.
GE's Subcommittee for Vetting leads this project.
5. converGE
In an effort to make engagement with the GE program more agentive and autonomous for students, GE has worked with InfoReady to develop a wish-list app for the program. This app serves a number of GE purposes, but foremost it puts the program in an easy to digest and navigate format. Check it out here!
The GE Director is responsible for this project.
6. GE Program Outcomes
While the GE Program has category specific student learning outcomes, the next layer of program accountability and assessment it the program as a whole. Early self evaluations suggest that the GE program at EMU has a special and important focus on social justice and student agency.
GE's Subcommittee for Teaching and Learning will have responsibility for this project, but right now the GE Director is responsible for it.
7. GE Subcommittee Renovation
GE's current subcommittee structure leaves out a number of critical responsibilities that were envisioned by the faculty who designed the program. GE's Advisory Council and the the GE Director have begun a project to restructure the subcommittees to cover more ground and focus on key elements of the program and the support of student learning. To this end, a new subcommittee structure has been adopted:
Assessment, Course Vetting, Writing Intensive Vetting, Teaching and Learning, Integrative and Applied Learning, and Student Success subcommittees now make up the GE subcommittee structure. This restructuring serves to cover more ground and increase the potential for GE renovation in light of the 2015 Review.
8. EMU Signature Learning Arc
The core idea of a Signature Learning Arc is to promote individual meaning making within a Bachelor’s Degree. Students engage with the various programs (GE, Major, Minor) and experiences (Curricular and Co-curricular) that make up their Bachelor’s degree with intentionality and opportunities for reflection.
This project is currently in the working group phase, with Faculty Fellow leadership for a first year experience, a sophomore to junior transition element, and a capstone. The reflect arc component is still in its incubation phase.
GE's Subcommittee for Teaching and Learning has responsibility for the development of the SLA.
9. GE Phases
GE is designed to meet students where they are at, and as a result requires those who engage GE to notice that it unfolds in three major phases. GE provides foundational courses for success in college and beyond. GE provides students with the opportunity to explore ideas and disciplines. And GE provides opportunities to integrate learning from non-major courses to the major as well as differentiate oneself from others with the same research core. Communicating this developmental approach to GE is the core of this project.
The GE Director is responsible for this project.
10. G2C and GE
11. GE Program Review
12. Faculty Fellows