General Studies

For Faculty-- How to propose or re-designate a General Studies course

How to Re-Designate your General Studies Course

Use this General Studies ReDesignation Worksheet  as a guide to help you through your re-designation in Curriculog.  Please also visit the internal Curriculum Sharepoint for resources and Curriculog how-to videos.  

Grandparenting Courses into the Renovated Program

Part of the recommendations approved by senate is to grandparent in all existing General Studies courses into the renovated program which first appeared in Catalog 2020-2021.  Therefore, all general studies courses, regardless of catalog year, should focus on the new student learning outcomes and category descriptions immediately.  Courses in SBS 1 and SBS 2 can begin working under the new SBS learning outcomes as well, regardless of catalog year.  

7-year Re-Designation

One of the Faculty Senate bylaws states that all General Studies courses will go up for re-designation every 7 years.  Therefore, all courses who last received designation in 2012 or earlier were up for re-designation in fall 2019, 2013 courses in 2020, etc.  Scroll to the bottom of this page to find out when your course is due for re-designation.  In fall 2020 the deadline for these course proposals in Curriculog is September 18th.  Representatives from those departments were notified via email.  The good news is, if there are non-substantive changes made to the course, the course will go directly from the department to the Faculty Senate General Studies committee.  This should save the college curriculum committees from reviewing extra proposals.  

General Studies Course Proposal Process

Whether you are creating a new course for General Studies designation or your course is due for its 7-year re-designation, or maybe your course is being updated anyway and triggers a General Studies review, the course proposal process has also been changed.  When you open Curriculog and populate the proper form, the only thing left to fill out should be the following questions:

1. Describe how the course fulfills the General Studies Mission.
2. Describe how the course fits the description of the desired General Studies category.
3. Describe how the course fulfills each student learning outcome (SLO) for the desired General Studies category. 
4. Provide an example(s) of a key assignment(s) and explain how it will be used to assess each General Studies SLO for the desired category.  (Provide example as upload/attachment or pasted text).
5. Click a checkbox to agree that, "I understand that a significant portion of this course (?80%) must fulfill the General Studies mission, category description and category SLO’s of the chosen General Studies category."

Note: The General Studies Committee will take a holistic view of each course (including review of all components, such as course outline, SBLO’s, etc.) to ensure that fulfillment of General Studies comprises a substantial portion of the course (i.e., ?80% of course content, assessment, etc.). You may be contacted for further information regarding this requirement.