GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM GOALS AND ASSESSMENT PLAN
ACCEPTED BY THE FACULTY SENATE 3-28-05
2 Background.
3 Wichita State University is an urban institution that serves a large number of non-traditional
4 students. We have many minority, international, part-time, first-generation-to-go-to-college, and
5 transfer students. Indeed, only a small minority of our graduates consists of traditional four-or five-year
6 students who take all of their general education courses with us.
7 These facts of life have had a strong effect on the nature of our general education program
8 and on the means by which we can assess it. At some institutions, the general education program
9 consists of a limited number of courses so that there is a strong element of shared experience for
10 students; that is not possible here. At some institutions, outcomes are measured by a single exam
11 given to all; that also is not possible here.
12 The essence of our assessment program is that it is a means for providing feedback to ensure
13 that we are achieving our goals to the fullest extent possible. It is based on the premise that our
14 faculty members are professionals who are competent to judge outcomes in the courses they teach.
15 Nature of the program and its relationship to the mission of the university
16 The mission of Wichita State University includes equipping our students “ . . . with the
17 educational and cultural tools they need to thrive in a complex world, and to achieve both
18 individual responsibility in their own lives and effective citizenship in the local, national, and
19 global community; . . .”
20 In the context of our general education program, we interpret this statement in terms of the skills
21 and breadth of experiences needed for our graduates to succeed. The skills we emphasize are
22 those involved in finding, assessing and analyzing information and formulating ideas so that they
23 can be communicated orally or in writing, as appropriate. The diversity of intellectual exposure
24 demanded by our general education program provides our students with the breadth they need to
25 “thrive in a complex world.”
26 Goals of the Program
27 The goals of the Wichita State University General Education program are as follows:
28 • to study and apply basic mathematical principles;
29 • to study and apply principles of written and oral communication;
30 • to study and apply basic library research skills including basic assessment of various kinds of
31 sources;
32 • to study and gain a basic understanding of the natural sciences, social and behavioral
33 sciences, humanities and fine arts.
34 Structure of the Program
35 The first three goals are articulated in an across-the-(general education)-curriculum structure
36 for writing, oral communication, mathematics and library research. Students are introduced to
37 these skill areas in four Basic Skills courses – two in English composition and one each in public
38 speaking and mathematics. They are intended not only to provide practice in library research,
39 writing, speaking and the manipulation of abstractions but also to provide students with
40 experience in thinking clearly so that they can argue clearly – in evaluating oral and written and
41 mathematically-based arguments. Students are required to complete this part of their general
42 education program in their first 48 credit hours.
43 The second tier of the program is an introduction to the major arenas of intellectual life: the
44 humanities and fine arts, the social sciences, and mathematics and the natural sciences. Students
45 are required to take at least one Introductory Course in the fine arts, and two each in the
46 humanities, social sciences, and mathematics/natural sciences. Students may take Introductory
47 Courses concurrently with the Basic Skills courses, subject to course prerequisites.
48 The third tier of the program allows students to follow interests developed in the introductory
49 courses. They are required to take one Further Studies course (outside their major) in each of
50 the three divisions. Both the Introductory Courses and the Further Studies courses are designed
51 to enhance students’ skills in oral and written communication, library research and mathematical
52 manipulation of data. That is, within the General Education Program, we have an across-the-
53 curriculum structure for library research, mathematical reasoning, writing and oral
54 communication. Departments are encouraged to continue this emphasis in courses beyond the
55 general education program.
56 Within this final tier, students are required to take at least one and at most two Issues and
57 Perspectives courses outside their major. These courses substitute for one or two of the Further
58 Studies courses in the general education requirements. They are a means of exposing students to
59 certain valuable but non-canonical subjects and methodologies. The requirement ensures that
60 students are exposed to either a problem that has emerged from contemporary conditions or
61 an interdisciplinary discussion of an enduring topic.
62 The Assessment Process.
63 Basic Skills Courses
64 The departments responsible for designing and teaching the Basic Skills courses are also
65 given the responsibility for assessing the outcomes in terms of individual students and for
66 assessing the training provided to those who teach the courses. Statements from the three
67 departments regarding how they accomplish such assessment are attached to this document. The
68 General Education Committee reviews these procedures periodically, in discussion with the
69 program directors from the concerned departments.
70 In addition, during the appropriate part of the assessment cycle, the three departments report
71 summary statistics to the General Education Committee to aid in the assessment of the overall
72 program. These include: number of students who have taken the courses, course grade
73 distributions, exit/final exam grade distributions, and whatever other measures they have
74 accumulated.
75 For instance, the Elliott School of Communications reports the results of their pre-test/post-
76 test of students’ self-reported attitudes regarding speech competency and both the instrument used
77 and the cumulative scores for the persuasive policy speech required of all students in
78 Communication 111.
79 The English Department reports numbers of students in the composition courses and the
80 grade distributions in the courses and on the exit exams.
81 Introductory, Further Studies and Issues & Perspectives Courses
82 Assessment of the rest of the general education program (including further assessment of the
83 basic skills courses) is accomplished through 1) program monitoring, 2) tracking outcomes, and
84 3) other institutional feedback.
85 Program monitoring
86 In order to determine the extent to which the various courses are contributing as they should
87 to the general education program, we obtain information from the instructors of record regarding
88 1) the ways in which the course addresses all of the goals of the program
89 2) how the goals are reflected in course assignments
90 3) the percentage of the course grade that is derived from assignments directly related to
91 general education goals.
92 Instructors may include this information in course syllabi. Alternatively, they may report the same
93 information to the general education committee independently of the syllabus.
94 One of the goals of the program, (to gain a basic understanding of the natural sciences,
95 social and behavioral sciences, humanities and fine arts) is addressed in the structure of the
96 program, which requires students to take Introductory and Further Studies courses in the various
97 broad fields of inquiry. In addition, the General Education Committee uses a General Education
98 Course Proposal Form and the course syllabi to determine the appropriateness of a course for the
99 program and the extent to which the course addresses this goal. Since such courses will vary in
100 the extent to which they can involve library research, public speaking, mathematics and writing,
101 the general education committee is responsible for developing and maintaining a matrix that
102 documents which general education courses at the introductory and further studies levels have
103 components that require students to apply their library research, mathematical, and written and
104 oral communication skills. Students and advisors use this matrix when planning courses of study
105 to ensure that students obtain practice in applying their newly-acquired skills while completing the
106 rest of their general education program.
107 Tracking Outcomes
108 The outcomes of the program are determined in three ways.
109 1) Course grade distributions are a measure of the outcomes of the individual general
110 education courses. Grade distributions (without student names) for each general education
111 class will be generated as needed by the general education committee using WIN (ERP).
112 2) We interview a sample of graduating seniors who took all of their general education
113 coursework at WSU and a sample of those who transferred all or most of their general
114 education hours to obtain both a student’s perspective of the program as a whole and of their
115 attainment of the skills and perspectives that the program is supposed to provide. Students
116 who have completed the program can speak to all aspects of it and, by the time they are
117 seniors, are more likely to be able to assess the value to them of the program.
118 3) Individual departments provide feedback to the general education committee as part of the
119 regular program assessment cycle regarding how well the general education program is
120 serving their departmental programs. At the time that a department comes up for assessment,
121 WIN will generate a list of their graduates in the previous three years who completed all of
122 their general education hours at WSU and another list of students who transferred all or most
123 of their general education credits. The general education committee asks the departments to
124 compare the two lists in order to comment on 1) how well the general education program is
125 meeting its stated goals and 2) how well the program is serving their departmental needs.
127 Institutional Feedback
128 In order to monitor and improve the program, we have designed a set of feedback processes
129 that allow all parts of the university that affect general education to learn from one another.
130 Faculty members who teach general education courses will have access through WIN to that part of
131 student records that shows which general education courses they have already taken. This will
132 allow faculty to advise appropriately those students who have taken a Basic Skills course but have
133 not benefited fully from it. The faculty will then also be able to inform the general education
134 committee when such failures do occur.
135 The general education committee meets yearly with academic advisors to obtain
136 feedback from them regarding the program and to provide them with whatever feedback the
137 committee obtains from faculty. Similarly, the general education committee meets annually with
138 representatives from the University Libraries regarding students’ library research skills. The committee also
130 receives annual reports from exceptions committees so that it can review all cases that involve
140 general education requirements. Any waivers of requirements made by deans will also be
141 reported to the committee so that it can monitor them as well.
142 Schedule
143 In order to mesh the assessment of general education with the other assessments at the
144 university, we review the program in a three-year cycle. Since the program consists of three main
145 elements – basic skills courses, introductory courses and further studies courses – each is
146 reviewed in turn. In the fall semester, the general education committee gathers and assesses the
147 data that has accumulated since the last review and writes a report to the Faculty Senate. In the
148 spring semester, the report with any recommendations for change is presented to the senate early
149 in the semester so that the senate has the time for thorough consideration prior to taking the
150 recommendations to the general faculty later in the semester. Any changes approved by the
151 general faculty will be instituted in the following version of the undergraduate catalog.