1. Dan Kline, GenEd Director
AY18-19 GER Forum 1: What’s the Latest in GenEd? What’s on the Horizon?
Dan Kline, GenEd Director
Friday, 14 September 2018
LIB 302 | 11:30-12:30

2. UAA GERs: 3 Tiers, 7 Categories, 9 Outcomes
Tier I: Basic & Crosscutting Skills (12 cr)
Written Comm (6 cr)
Oral Comm (3 cr)
Quantitative Lit (3 cr)
Tier II: Disciplinary Knowledge (22 cr)
Natural Sciences (7 cr)
Social Sciences (6 cr)
Humanities (6 cr)
Fine Arts (3 cr)
Tier III: Integrative Capstone (3 cr)
Meets GER in the major
Integration of Tier I in major
After completing the GERs, UAA students should be able to:
Communicate effectively in a variety of contexts and formats.
Reason mathematically and analyze quantitative and qualitative data competently to reach sound conclusions.
Relate knowledge to the historical context in which it developed and the human problems it addresses.
Interpret different systems of aesthetic representation and understand their historical and cultural contexts.
Investigate the complexity of human institutions and behavior to better understand interpersonal, group and cultural dynamics.
Identify ways in which science has advanced the understanding of important natural processes.
Locate and use relevant information to make appropriate personal and professional decisions.
Adopt critical perspectives for understanding the forces of globalization and diversity.
Integrate knowledge and employ skills gained to synthesize creative thinking, critical judgment and personal experience in a meaningful and coherent manner.

3. The Vision Thing: From GERs to GenEd Program
“Why do I have to take this stoopid course?”
Compliance / Reporting
Menu & Checklist
Course-based & discipline-focused
Category specific
Individual responsibility
Curricular maze
Overly complicated
Too many courses
Too many outcomes
Inconsistent pathways
Prerequisite issues
“There are good (pedagogically sound and curricularly coherent) reasons for you to take these courses!”
Values / Teaching & Learning
Shared outcomes & collective understanding
Cross-cutting skills & cumulative experience
Mutual investment (GenEd ↔ Majors/Progr/Profs)
GER-initiated & program-developed
“Umbrella” indicators – seeded & mapped
“General” education
Shared expectations & responsibility
Better communication (faculty, students/parents, others)
Closing the Loop: pedagogy & assessment

4. GER Shared-Assessment Principles
Because so many of the GER SLOs are “cross-cutting skills” valued across the curriculum, we have built the GER assessment so that it is
Shared across all curricula & developed by cross-disciplinary faculty
Sampled from a wide variety of student work in all courses
Sustainable alongside UAA’s current robust course- and program-level assessment processes
GER shared assessment offers a snapshot of collective student achievement across the breadth of UAA programs
All indicators are faculty-developed based upon UAA curriculum review materials and coordinated with the AAC&U’s LEAP indicators and VALUE rubrics where possible
GenEd is everyone’s business!

5. Faculty-Developed GER Outcomes & Indicators  Full Cycle Complete
AY14-15 – Faculty Senate GER Assessment Committee recommendations (GenEd Director & three outcomes per year) & GELO task force
AY15-16 – Rubric 1: Written Communication, Oral Communication, and Information Literacy.
GER assessment
AY16-17 – Rubric 2: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Fine Arts
GER & AA assessment (shared assessment and simplified outcomes) aligned
AY17-18 – Rubric 3: Natural Sciences, Quantitative Skills, and Knowledge Integration.
GER, AA, AAS (shared assessment and aligned curriculum; all five UAA campuses)

6. AA Assessment: From Five Separate to One Shared
One UAA AA Degree but
Five Sets of Outcomes and
Five Different Assessment Plans
AY16-17: AA Program Review
Single Assessment Plan fro all UAA campuses
Shared Set of Simplified Outcomes (opposite)
AY17-18: Now Coordinated with GER & AAS “related instruction”
Shared materials and artifacts
Shared rubrics
Common team
New Shared AA Outcomes
Communicate Effectively
Think Critically
Evaluate Analytically
Reason Empirically

7. Thumbnail View – GenEd Related Discussions
AY18-19 Assessment Focus: Critical Thinking
Workshops (Fa18 & Spr19): Mapping, SLOs, Scaffolding, Assignments
Develop four shared indicators & map to AAC&U’s VALUE Rubric
AKNT Refinement
Diversity & Inclusion GenEd Initiative
Interstate Passport
ePortfolios
Career Awareness
(Equity & Inclusion Awareness)
(High-Impact Practices)
(Statewide Alignment Discussions)

8. Big Picture David Marshall: ”Learning Systems” approach
Coordinated academic & student services efforts
“Assignment Awareness”
The whole institution(s) and whole student(s)
Student Success Initiatives: Data-informed Decision Making
”Academic Pathways” (meta-majors)  Four categories of student
FYA (First Year Advising)  “Safe Scheduling”
FYE (First-Year Experience)
UNIV courses & “Introduction to …” courses
Tier 1 move to CTC
“What do we want a UAA student to know and be able to do?”

9. Movement Toward Programmatic Definition
GER Assessment Discussions
Critical Thinking
E-portfolios
Course-level Inconsistencies
Integrative Capstone
Simplified Outcomes
“Work Collaboratively”
“Live Responsibly”
100- & 200-level / prereqs?
Narrowed Course Offerings
Coordinated / Scaffolded Assignments

10. Key Questions “Never waste a good crisis”
What are the key criteria to guide our discussions concerning the next phase of GenEd?
What structures & strengths do we already have in place to facilitate those discussions for that next phase?
What is the best way to facilitate those discussions efficiently?
What would you add?

11. The Bottom Line
With nearly one-third of the baccalaureate degree and one-half of the Associate of Arts degree committed to the General Education Requirements,
we must continue to communicate the pedagogical value of the GenEd and its fundamental importance to a college education and to a successful career, and
we must continue to do meaningful assessment that furthers student success in all areas of their university experience.
A programmatically coherent, pedagogically coordinated, consistently communicated, and curricularly (and extra-curricularly) aligned GER is central to fulfilling UAA’s mission.