General Education Transfer Common Core Certificate (GET-CCC) Task Force Report
Prepared by Maureen Sevigny
June 1, 2004
A
task force[1]
was convened in late May at OIT to address the following item on the State
Board’s Excellence in Delivery and Productivity Working Group’s
agenda:
4. Increase the successful transfer of
community college students to OUS campuses through
the creation of a fully transferable lower-division set of common student educational
outcomes leading into an academic major.
The Task Force
interpreted its charge to be that of conceptualizing a certificate consisting
of lower-division courses that meet defined learning outcomes and that would
fully transfer among public colleges and universities in Oregon. These courses
would not replace any university’s general education requirement but
would become part of its requirement and be applicable to the bachelor’s
degree. Each university would add further courses to this core to define its
own general education requirement, consistent with its own mission and degree
programs. The goal is to ensure that students do not lose general education
credits when they transfer from one Oregon public college or university to
another. This does not to ensure that transfer students have completed the right
credits for a specific major or that their time to graduation will necessarily
be shortened.
For such a certificate
to meet its intended purpose of being a “fully transferable lower
division set of student educational outcomes leading into an academic
major” faculty will need to work together across the state to identify
and specify:
1. key areas that comprise general education
(communication, natural science, mathematics, etc.)
2. learning outcomes from each key area
3. the appropriate number of credits in each
area. This number must be set such that students receive an adequate exposure to the area but
are not forced to take more credits in any area than are required for a bachelor’s degree in the OUS
university of their choice
4. a process for reviewing and revising the
certificate in the future to keep it from stagnating
OIT General Education Transfer Common Core Certificate (GET-CCC) Task Force initial findings
1. Concept of a transferable
outcomes-based general education certificate:
The GET-CCC Task Force
supports the idea of general education being outcomes-based. This is consistent
with on-going work in OIT’s ad hoc committee on general education.
The Task Force also
supports the concept of having college and university faculty work together to
develop a shared vision of general education outcomes and to have faculty on
each campus determine which of their lower division courses meet those
outcomes. The Task Force believes that any changes in general education must be
faculty-driven if they are to be successful.
The Task Force
recognizes that a transferable general education certificate must serve the
unique missions and programs of the seven OUS institutions. As such, the
certificate must not be viewed as summative but rather as a core component of
each institution’s general education requirement. It is expected that
each university will build on this agree-upon core and include additional
general education courses that are appropriate to its mission. The end result
would be a common core embodied in each university’s general education
requirements, similar to the model implemented in Colorado. The common core
would not replace any institution’s general education requirement.
2. Number of credits and distribution of
credits in the transfer certificate:
The Task Force reviewed
the 3-30-04 Draft Proposal for Transferable General Education Core Certificate
from the OUS Joint Boards Articulation Committee (JBAC). It determined that the
55-credit core modeled after the Associate of Arts/Oregon Transfer (AA/OT)
degree is a poor fit for OIT and the other OUS universities because it
specifies more credits in some subject areas than individual universities
currently require. This would either force changes to the general education
requirements on each campus (which faculty would not support) or it would force
students to take credits that would not apply toward their degree (which this
certificate is supposed to avoid). Neither is acceptable.
The OIT Task Force
believes that a 36-credit certificate, the minimum number of credits required
for a certificate in OUS institutions, is a much better model. This certificate
would maintain a solid core of general education outcomes in communication,
mathematics, social science, arts and humanities, and natural/laboratory
science without forcing any OUS institution to increase the number of credits
it currently requires in any of these key learning areas.
The distribution of the
36 credits across the subject areas would need to be decided by faculty and the
chief academic officers from the colleges and universities. The OIT Task Force
identified a potential distribution of courses and credits based on the minimum
number of credits currently required by the OUS universities in each subject
area. The Task force believes this is a good starting point for the detailed
discussions that must follow. See Appendix A for current OUS general education
requirements by institution and the proposed distribution of courses/credits
for the transfer certificate.
3. Process for developing the
certificate: role of the faculty
The OIT Task Force
discussed a two-step process for faculty involvement.
First, faculty,
university administrators, and the Excellence in Productivity and Delivery
Working Group (“More Better Faster” or “MBF”) need to
agree on the product to be developed. At this time, JBAC has proposed a
55-credit certificate and the OIT Task Force is recommending a 36-credit
certificate. Other proposals may also be in development at other campuses. The
product must be defined and the key stakeholders must support it before the
details can be developed. These stakeholders include faculty, university
administrators, the State Board, and possibly elected officials.
Second, faculty must be
given the time and resources to work on the details of the desired outcomes
from the general education subject areas and to identify the appropriate
courses at each college and university that meet these outcomes. The Oregon
Writing and English Advisory Committee, which has already developed outcomes
for Writing 121 and Writing 227 at the high school, community college, and
university levels, can serve as a model for this work.
Timing: The OIT Task
Force supports IFS’ proposal to host meetings at each university campus
in October to engage faculty in this important process as early as possible.
Feedback from these meetings will be critical for identifying key issues that
may not be readily apparent at this time. Given that faculty commitments for
summer have already been made, it is not possible to begin this process any
sooner.
4. Learning from the design and success
of the AS/OT-Business degree
The OIT Task Force Chair has been involved
in the development of the AS/OT-Business degree which was approved in April 2003 after more than
two years of work by faculty, chairs, and deans of the business programs in OUS and Oregon community
colleges. Several hundred community college students
are currently enrolled in this degree, which is an indicator of its success.
The AS/OT degree builds on a common core but
allows for flexibility in two key areas:
·
The
degree recognizes that the “same” course may be three credits on
one campus and four credits on another.
Community college and university faculty and chairs have agreed to a variable
number of credits in each key
area and do not believe there is any need to standardize their courses across campuses.
·
Program
differences across the campuses are recognized and respected. Requirements
beyond the core have been
customized by each OUS university based on the needs of each specific program.
The OIT Task Force believes the
AS/OT-Business can be a model for the General Education Transfer Common Core Certificate in terms of
its flexibility in addressing the needs of students, community colleges, and universities
(“product”) and the cooperative activities of faculty, chairs, and
deans that led to its development and
continue to oversee its growth (“process”).
The AS/OT-Business degree is robust in large measure because the business departments and schools were not forced into untenable “compromises” and the process was not hasty. A transferable common core needs an orderly process with active engagement of faculty to be successful, too.
The transfer certificate envisioned by the Task Force would enable students to complete a substantial portion of their general education credits and transfer them easily to another Oregon community college or university. This preparation alone, however, does not guarantee that students are on track to enter a university and earn a bachelors degree in the field of their choice in a timely manner. Students who plan to transfer to an OUS institution will still need to understand the university’s requirements for their intended major. Judicious choices of electives within the associate’s degree will be needed to ensure a smooth transition to a bachelor’s degree program. Dual enrollment, articulation agreements, and good advising will help with this process but, ultimately, it is left to the student to seek out guidance and act accordingly.
Appendix A
Table 1: Lower Division
General Education Credit Requirements at OUS Institutions
|
Subject area |
OIT |
EOU |
SOU |
WOU |
UO |
OSU |
PSU* |
|
Humanities/Arts |
9 |
18 |
12 |
21 |
16 |
6 |
|
|
Social Science |
12 |
9 |
8 |
12 |
16 |
6 |
|
|
Natural/Lab Science |
** |
9 |
8 |
12 |
16 |
12 |
|
|
Writing/Communication |
18 |
15 |
8 |
6 |
8 |
9 |
|
|
Mathematics |
4** |
*** |
0-4 |
**** |
*** |
3 |
|
|
Other |
29-32 |
9 |
|
4 |
6 |
6 |
|
|
Total |
72-75 |
60 |
36-40 |
55 |
62 |
42 |
|
*
PSU
requirements vary substantially between BA and BS degrees. Twenty-seven credits
of general
education
are met through Freshman and Sophomore Inquiry classes
** OIT requires
college algebra (4 credits) plus 12 additional credits in mathematics and/or
science
*** College
level mathematics proficiency required
**** 7-12 credits of math/computer science
required
Table 2: Oregon General Education Transfer Certificate based on minimum courses in each subject area as seen in Table 1
|
Subject area |
number of courses |
number of credits |
|
Communication |
2 |
6-8 |
|
Mathematics |
1 |
3-5 |
|
Humanities |
2 |
6-8 |
|
Social Science |
2 |
6-8 |
|
Natural/Lab Sciences |
1 |
4-5 |
|
Electives* |
1-4 |
2-11 |
|
Total |
9-13 |
36 |
*
Electives to be chosen from above categories, maximum of one course in any
subject area
[1] Task Force members include: Marla Edge, Registrar; Polly Francis, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the OIT Committee on General Education; Dr. Kevin Brown, Assistant Professor of Communication and Chair of OIT’s Assessment Commission; Dr. Linda Young, Professor of Communication and Director of OIT’s Center for Learning and Teaching; Dr. Burt Clark, Associate Professor of Natural Sciences; Claude Kansaku, Associate Professor of Computer Systems Engineering Technology; Chris Caster, Assistant Professor of Medical Imaging Technology. The Committee is chaired by Dr. Maureen Sevigny, Professor of Management and member of the InterInstitutional Faculty Senate’s ad hoc committee on the Transfer General Education Certificate