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General Education Requirements Committee (GERC)

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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).

 

Frequently Asked Questions about General Education Assessment

GERC Chair Announcements

December 13, 2022

Colleagues,

The General Education Requirements Committee (GERC) is conducting a Comprehensive Program Assessment of the General Education Program, as required in our five-year review cycle plan. All nine objectives have completed objective reviews; these reports will form the basis for the comprehensive review, along with other supporting information.

If you have questions or concerns about the Comprehensive Program Assessment, please contact your GERC representative or Joanne Tokle, Chair (joannetokle@isu.edu, ext. 2934)

Thank you for your interest in and continuing support of our General Education Program.

Best regards,

General Education Requirements Committee

 

14 April 2022

Colleagues,
 
The General Education Requirements Committee (GERC) is nearing the end of the review cycle of our General Education program. The eight completed Objective Review Committee reports are available on GERC’s Course and Program Assessment webpage (expand the Objective Review Schedule tab at the bottom of that webpage), and the Objective 9, Cultural Diversity, objective review will be available soon. With the completion of all objective reviews, GERC will conduct an overall review/assessment of our General Education program in 2022-2023.
 
This is an opportune time to evaluate the success of our program in serving the critical mission of general education, and in the spirit of continuous improvement, consider how we would like to move forward. We ask your participation in a survey, which should take about 10 minutes to complete. Please complete the survey by April 20, 2022.
 
If you have questions or concerns about the survey, please contact your GERC representative or Matt Wilson, Chair.
 
Best regards,
 
General Education Requirements Committee

 

 

19 October 2021

Dear Department Chairs and Assessment Coordinators,

Thank you for our ongoing work with the General Education Requirements Committee (GERC) in managing ISU's general education program. I am writing today with the reminder that General Education Annual Assessment Reports need to be submitted by Nov. 1, 2021. Please forward this email as needed to the assessment coordinator(s) for your department's gen ed courses.

As you prepare your report(s) please bear in mind the following about the reporting process: 

  • The time period for this year’s reports is the 2020/2021 academic year (i.e., Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Summer 2021)

  • There should be only one report submitted per general education course per academic reporting year; please do not combine multiple courses into the same report unless it is a course/lab pair.  

  • The data entered should be representative, including all iterations of the course: including multiple sections, varying methods of delivery (e.g., online, traditional classroom, hybrid, etc.), and any dual enrollment versions

  • Respondents are asked to provide responses based on the assessment plan previously submitted to and approved by GERC.

  • If a gen ed course was not taught during the 2020-21 academic year, please submit a report anyway indicating that the course was not taught.  That will help alleviate GERC having to follow up on missing reports.
     
    • The form will ask for reporting on the following:
  • The percentage of students who satisfied each of the learning outcomes being assessed pertinent to the general education objective that your course meets
  • The direct and indirect assessment materials that were collected for the course
  • The process by which the assessment materials were reviewed
  • A summary of the key findings from your review of the assessment materials
  • A summary of any steps planned and/or taken in response to the review

A few notes about the Qualtrics reporting tool:

  • The link to the tool lies in BengalWeb under the Academics tab and in that tab’s Institutional Research channel: General Education Assessment Reporting for Use by Departments

  • The tool includes an option to review all input before submitting.  Please carefully review your input before submitting, since all incorrect or duplicate submissions have to be manually identified, verified, and deleted to ensure the accuracy of the report data.

  • The confirmation email that you receive upon submission of a report includes both a copy of the report that was submitted as well as a link to revise that report, if needed.

If you or your assessment coordinators need any assistance with these assessment reports, you may contact Ann Hackert in the Office of Assessment (hackeann@isu.edu or assessment@isu.edu). You may also reach out to me or a GERC Representative from your college. 

Note: reports do not need to be submitted for courses in Objective 9: Cultural Diversity; however, you do need to submit a Five-Year Assessment Report (Departmental 5-Year Objective Review Report Template) by January 18th, 2022.

Thank you all for helping us ensure we offer Idaho State University students the best general education experience possible.

Regards,

Matt Wilson

2021/2022 GERC Chair