Minutes of the General Education Committee
for April 26, 2002

The Committee met at 11:05 in D135 MOLN. Members present were Fay Akindes, Lori Allen, Bill Blanchard, Larry Duetsch, Steve Hawk, Farida Khan, Megan Mullen, Sue Norton, Esther Wilson, and Evelyn Zepp.

The Chair distributed information pertaining to the transfer of UW-Extension courses to meet the UW-Parkside foreign language requirement. UW System transfer policy states that UW-Extension courses will transfer on the same basis as comparable courses from other UW institutions. At present, only Parkside, Stout, and Superior limit the transferability of Extension language courses; we currently accept both semesters of French, accept neither semester of German, and accept the second (but not the
first) semester of Spanish. Fortunately, there are very few student inquiries about transfer of these courses. For now, it was agreed that the matter deserves attention and a more consistent policy should be considered early in the fall.

The Committee then resumed its discussion of the general education distribution course survey. When that survey was initiated, the broad goals/objectives of general education (critical thinking, oral and written communication skills, and teamwork) were well established, but there was a need to more fully understand the aspects of these goals that instructors were seeking to develop. The surveys have given us the insight we needed and will be suspended for now, although they may be revisited in time.

At the present time, the Committee deems it more important to seek additional evidence concerning the student learning outcomes that result from our general education program. When the goals were enacted, the Faculty Senate established an expectation that the goals/objectives of general education will be reinforced through each of the majors, so that the extent of the value added through general education will not be known until graduation. This makes good evidence concerning outcomes more
difficult to assemble. Evidence gathered from distribution courses generally pertains to student learning at early and intermediate stages in the student's undergraduate experience; moreover, most distribution courses enroll students from diverse intellectual backgrounds who place at various stages of development.

The Committee noted that a good deal of evidence that pertains to general education student learning outcomes is already being gathered for other reasons. The forms of evidence that are most readily available (work products drawn from the distribution courses and departmental capstones, as well as retrospective evaluations by alumni) need to be examined more thoroughly before steps are taken to commit resources to the collection of additional evidence.

With more time and sufficient resources, other forms of evidence could be gathered: distribution courses could be assessed in regard to the value they add for students with different backgrounds; individual students could be tracked/tested as they pass through the curriculum over time; employers could be surveyed in regard to the preparation of graduates they have employed.

Members agreed that the Committee should begin work on a longer-range assessment plan in the fall.

The meeting adjourned at 12:20.