General Education Assessment Schedule

Previous 3-Year Cycle and Revised 5-Year Cycle

Note: In Spring 2010, the General Education Assessment Committee voted to recommend a shift from a 3-year assessment cycle to a 5-year cycle. Starting in 2010-2011, the Director of Assessment, in consultation with the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the Associate Dean for General Education, did an ad hoc paring down to two categories assessed per year for 2010-2011. For 2011-2012, and 2012-2013, given the transition process to the new general education plan, we chose categories that were not set to change in the new system. The table below shows the first three years of the ad hoc 5-year cycle followed by a proposal for a formal 5-year cycle. To facilitate the transition to the new cycle and the new general education categories, the proposal begins in 2012-2013 with two categories – The Arts and Humanities – that are being carried over from our previous general education categories. The plan for assessing the competencies with the major has not been developed yet, and will be in addition to the categories included in this cycle. The schedule below was approved by the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the Associate Dean for General Education on March 4th, 2013.

Previously Approved Schedule Actual/ Year (3-year cycle) Proposed 5-Year Cycle 2010-2011  Math  Math  Oral Discourse  Oral Discourse  Information Literacy  Basic Communication  Critical Thinking 2011-2012  Natural Sciences  Natural Sciences  Social Sciences  Social Sciences  Humanities  The Arts 2012-2013  Europe  The Arts  Global and Cross-Cultural Perspectives  Humanities  Regions Beyond Europe  U.S. Diversity (Both were last assessed in 2008-2009.)  U.S. History  Foreign Language 2013-2014  Oral Discourse  U.S. History  Information Literacy  Foreign Language  Basic Communication  Natural Sciences  Critical Thinking (History & Language last assessed in 2009- 2010; Natural Sciences was assessed in 2011- 2012, but deemed insufficient.) 2014-2015  Natural Sciences  Challenges (new, but related to categories  Social Sciences assessed in 2009-2010)  Humanities  Mathematics (incomplete assessment in  The Arts 2010-2011) 2015-2016  Lower Level Writing (new to the assessment cycle) NA  International Perspectives (new, but related to categories assessed in 2009-2010) 2016-2017 NA  Natural Sciences  Social Sciences

(Both were last assessed in 2011-2012.)