Genereal Education Council - Minutes of May 19, 2006

Present: Bob Potter (chair), Bill Murray, Scott Campbell, Ilene Frank, Drew Smith, Joan Morris, Suzanne Perry-Casler, C. David Frankel

Ex Officio: Janet Moore, Terri Flateby, Diane Williams

1. Motion: to approve the minutes.
   April 21, 2006 minutes approved.
   May 5, 2006 minutes approved with one amendment: In item #2, change ACL to Academic Learning Compact (ALC).
   Seconded and passed.

2. Motion: The Resource Allocation document is approved with one correction. Item #4 on page 2 was removed (duplicate of #2). Seconded and passed.
   It was pointed out that this document can be modified as needed in the future.

3. Members discussed the "letter to the chair" certifying a proposed course from August 2006 to December 2009. It was decided to add "subject to availability of funds" to the end of the last sentence.
   Discussion: It was suggested that a data base be kept and a reminder sent to the chairs in the spring of 2009.
   Motion: The certification period of August 2006 to December 2009 is accepted.
   Seconded and passed.

   There was discussion about surveying the certified courses periodically. It was pointed out that it will be important to build good will with the department and not be intrusive and also said we may be able to do an intermediate assessment/survey or at certain times each year to develop a culture of reflection..

4. Reviewers were assigned to courses. The courses assigned:

   1. Biological Anthropology
   2. Introduction to Ethics.
   3. History of Visual Arts I and II.
   4. Cultural Anthropology
   5. Introduction to Anthropology.

5. Brief discussion described the data from a survey of students. There is also a need for further discussion of the quality of online courses. There was also discussion of periodic reports of survey results to maintain a communication link with general education faculty and their chairs.

6. There was discussion of a possible meeting of chairs and advisors in the fall about the goals and details of general education. Faculty could also be invited to attend. In the fall there should also be guidelines sent to chairs suggesting types of items to collect in preparation for the recertification process and to use for ongoing assessment.

7. The need to monitor courses that select historical context as a dimension was discusses. This is to be sure that they do not approach history as simply a chronological sequence of events. This was followed by a discussion about the amount of focus given to each dimension. There was some discussion of the concept of a final synthesis assignment that might pull together elements of a dimension that have been threaded through the semester. It was suggested that there could be a gradual build up of intermediate steps to a high-level synthesis assignment. Other alternative ways of attending to a dimension were to spend 2 to 3 weeks on one dimension, or give some attention to the dimension every week. With regard to historical context, at the least, students should be required to demonstrate access to primary sources. It was mentioned that critical thinking should be present in conjunction with historical context.

8. The GEC can support the general education assessment process by surveying faculty periodically and by eliciting the collection of student artifacts as evidence. The GEC has assessment funds and needs to make sure there is enough funding is available to focus on general education assessment.

   The next GEC meeting is Friday, May 26th, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 am.

Please send any suggestions or comments to:
Margaret Martinroe - webcat@ugs.usf.edu