Teaching Arts Courses

Syllabus Content

GE course syllabi need to contain specific language about the General Education Area to help familiarize students with the GE aspects of the specific GE Area, your course, and how these courses fit within their whole program. Therefore, you need to include the rationale for the Knowledge of the Disciplines requirements, the rationale for your specific course to be approved as a Arts course, and the Arts Student Learning Outcomes in your course syllabus.

• Knowledge of the Disciplines Rationale Expand dropdown
  "Since each discipline offers a different perspective for understanding the world, understanding anything well requires some understanding of all of them. Students employ critical thinking skills to develop questions of inquiry that reflect an understanding of different disciplinary perspectives."
• Specific Course Rationale Expand dropdown
  To find the rationale for your course's inclusion in Knowledge of the Disciplines - Arts go to the catalog, select the course you're teaching, scroll down to the heading "Rationale for Knowledge of the Disciplines" and copy and paste the rationale. 
• Student Learning Outcomes Expand dropdown

  "In Arts Courses, students will:

  1. Acquire basic knowledge and skills in the use of the vocabularies, materials, tools, techniques, and intellectual methods in an arts discipline.
  2. Examine the relationship between creative and critical thinking.
  3. Learn the relationship between content and form.
  4. Begin to understand historical development in an arts discipline.
  5. Develop ability to evaluate work in an arts discipline.
  6. Learn to define and solve artistic problems."

Assessment Resources

Completing Assessment of GE Courses every semester is vital to ensuring that EMU's GE Courses are successful and that students meet the Learning Outcomes through intentional learning. Assessment is meant to facilitate evaluation of student success in reaching the intended learning outcomes of each General Education area. GE has created Assessment Rubrics for each GE Area. Students are rated as exceeding the target learning outcome, meeting the target learning outcome, or falling below the target learning outcome. Below is the Arts Assessment Rubric which will be included in the gradebook of your Arts course Canvas shell upon request.

The first Student Learning Outcome states that students will investigate artistic problems.

The second Student Learning Outcome states that students will communicate within an arts discipline. 

The third Student Learning Outcome states that students will analyze and evaluate works of art.

The fourth Student Learning Outcome states that students will contextualize works of art.

Please contact Dr. Brendan Fay, Head of the Arts Working Group for the General Education Sub-Committee on Assessment, at [email protected] to have the above rubric included in the gradebook feature of the Canvas shells for your Arts courses or with any additional questions regarding teaching a GE Arts course. 

Arts Learning Community - Coming Soon!

As an EMU instructor teaching a GE course, you will be invited to join an intentional Learning Community to meet other EMU instructors teaching in the same GE Area. These learning communities will allow instructors to develop, share, and facilitate student learning together. Look for the Arts Learning Community in your Canvas Dashboard to get more information.