General Education Requirements Committee (GERC)
About the General Education Requirements Committee (GERC)
The General Education Requirements Committee (GERC) is a subcommittee of the Undergraduate Curriculum Council (UCC). The GERC reports directly to UCC. The purpose of the GERC is: to consider all courses and policies that relate to the University’s general education requirements; to evaluate, on a regular basis, the University’s general education courses for appropriateness, rigor, and assessment; and to make general education curricular recommendations based on these evaluations to the UCC. The General Education Objectives are to be reviewed on a staged 5-year cycle (meaning that not all of the Objectives need be evaluated at once).
Does each iteration of a general education course need to undergo assessment?
Instruments from all delivery methods of a course and from all sections of a course should be included in the pool that is used for sampling.
What is the time period to be covered in the November assessment reports?
Each November report should address results from the previous academic year (e.g., November 2023 report includes 2022-23 academic year: Fall 2022, Spring 2023, and Summer 2023)
Do General Education Assessment results need to be reported every year?
Yes.
If a course is not offered in a given coverage year, is a report needed?
One report per course number should be filed each year. If the course had not been taught during the coverage year, the report should clearly indicate that.
The department is making some changes to the approved assessment plan for its general education course. What does GERC expect in these cases?
It depends on the type of changes intended.
GERC does not need to review:
Change in assessment instruments to be used.
Change in textbook(s) to be used.
Change in when the department will be discussing/implementing the results.
GERC, and often UCC, does need to review:
Change in sampling method(s).
Change in the learning outcomes that are being addressed, as in the case of Objectives that require a course meet 4 of 5 learning outcomes, for example.
Removal of a course from the general education program. (See instructions for removing a gen ed course.)
Course renumbering.
Change in course title.
GERC does not need to review my department's changes to the approved assessment plan. Shall I record these changes somewhere?
Yes. Please record this type of change on the approved assessment plan that is stored on Google Drive and can found on the Approved Assessment Plans webpage. If you need editing access to your course assessment plan, please contact gercmail@isu.edu.
GERC needs to review my department's intended changes. How do I proceed?
The steps are outlined on the Changing an Approved Assessment Plan webpage.
Is there a reason why I couldn't plan to use course grades as indicators of assessment for this process?
Normally, course grades indicate student-based assessment, rather than course-based or learning outcome-based assessment. It is likely that GERC would not have approved the use of course grades in your assessment plan. Please refer to the approved assessment plan for this course.
GERC Chair Announcements
September 17, 2024
Dear Department Chairs and Assessment Coordinators,
Thank you for your ongoing work with the General Education Requirements Committee (GERC) in managing ISU’s General Education program. This program depends on you to be successful and we appreciate the hard work you do to make that happen!
As the fall semester begins, we want to make you aware of this year’s reporting requirements:
- Annual assessment reports are due by November 1, 2024. Your reports should include data for the 2023-24 academic year (Fall 2023, Spring 2024, and Summer 2024). Please submit only one report per course that addresses all sections of the course, including in-person, online, hybrid, and early college course sections.
- See Course & Program Assessment Process, Departmental Obligations: 3. Annual Course Reports for details.
- If you need help with assessment reports, please contact me or your GERC representative.
- Objectives 5 and 6 are scheduled for objective reviews this academic year, and those Five-Year Reports are due January 17, 2025.
- See Course & Program Assessment Process Departmental Obligations: 4. Five-Year Reports for instructions, template to use, and sample reports. More information will be available soon.
GERC also encourages you to consider reviewing and updating the assessment plans for any courses with an assessment plan more than 4 years old. You can also revise your assessment plan at any time if you find it is no longer working for you. Revisions must be submitted to GERC for approval. Shu-Yuan Lin, Provost Fellow in Assessment, is available to answer questions regarding course assessment.
Once again, thank you for supporting our General Education program. Please contact me if you have questions.
Many thanks,
Edward Kammerer, Chair
General Education Requirements Committee (GERC)