How to Propose a General Education Course

Any department in Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or the College of Fine Arts can propose Introductory, Further Studies and Issues and Perspectives courses. Units in the other colleges can propose Issues and Perspectives courses.

The place to start is with the regular curriculum change form.This form is required for all curriculum changes, and its use ensures that the proposal will go to the appropriate review committees and administrators. Be sure to check item 13 if you are proposing a general education course.

In addition to that form, you will need to submit a General Education Course Proposal Form and a detailed syllabus. The information required on the General Education Form includes:

  • what kind of General Education course is being proposed
  • when it will first be taught
  • planned course rotation
  • prerequisites

The following rules apply:

  • Introductory courses should not have prerequisites.
  • Further Studies courses should have an Introductory course as a prerequisite.
  • I&P courses do not need to (but may) have a prerequisite.
  • No General Education course should have as a prerequisite any course that is NOT a General Education course.

Description of appropriate basic skills components:

  • All General Education courses beyond the Basic Skills should have a minimum of two basic skills components (math, library research, writing, and/or public speaking).
  • Description of diversity component (if appropriate).

In order to meet the goal of studying cultural diversity, the General Education committee maintains a list of General Education courses a student can take to meet this goal. If the content of your course is appropriate, it will be so listed, but the committee needs an explicit description of both the diversity component and how it will be evaluated (see below).

Evaluation of basic skills and diversity components:

  • In order to evaluate the basic skills and diversity components of a course, the General Education committee needs to know the extent to which they contribute to the course grade and how they will be evaluated.
  • Students should have access to the same information. Therefore, it is appropriate to include it in the course syllabus.
  • This section need not be elaborate. For instance, for a writing component in an Introductory Course, the syllabus might contain the following:
    • "The term paper will count toward 20% of the course grade. It will be evaluated with the rubrik used in English 102.”

If you are not familiar with the rubriks used in the Basic Skills Courses, you can find them here:

  • Math rubrik
  • English 101 rubrik
  • English 102 rubrik
  • Commo 111 rubrik

For Further Studies and I&P courses, the General Education Committee expects to see a level of expectation for student performance that is somewhat higher than in the Basic Skills courses.

When your course proposal gets to the General Education Coordinator, that person automatically looks for the following information and fills out a check list before submitting your proposal to the committee for its consideration. Here it is.

Worksheet for all General Education course applications pending

New Course Proposal

  • Appropriate University Approval Forms are attached.___________
  • General Education Form attached._____________
  • Form is complete in every required entry.___________
  • Form content is consistent with Guidelines.______________

Syllabus is attached.

  • Includes basic information._________
  • Includes grading requirements._________
  • Includes detailed weekly listing of readings, assignments, subjects.______
  • Includes details of who will teach the course and how often offered._____
  • Includes list of writing requirements.____________
  • Includes grade impact of writing requirements.________
  • Includes discussion of writing requirements.__________
  • Includes a list of numerical components of the course.__________
  • Includes grade impact of the numerical components.__________
  • Includes a library component in the course.__________
  • Includes grade impact of the library component._____________
  • Includes an oral communication component in the course._________
  • Includes grade impact of the oral communication component in the course.___________
  • Includes diversity component ____________
  • Includes grade impact of diversity component ______