Gen. Ed. Early Fall Update

Dear Colleagues,

We’re writing with an update about the General Education Review and Inquiry committee’s efforts so far this fall. The Committee has met three times as we move into the Design phase of our work, a process that will crucially—and intensively—involve faculty. We explain that phase below, and look forward to continued collaboration with leaders of the Faculty Senate to do it thoroughly and well. You’ll recall that in June we sent a summary of our work for 2017-18. (You can access a copy of that email on the GERI portfolio page at https://portfolio.du.edu/downloadItem/455797.)

The Inquiry Phase of the GERI’s work, across 2017-18, focused on understanding the existing DU Common Curriculum. We gathered and summarized faculty and student responses to it, researched campus and national contexts for general education (through Impact 2025, on the one hand, to various AAC&U and similar initiatives on the other), then reported our analyses to the campus. This phase culminated in a Mission, Vision, and Outcomes for general education at DU, presented in June and also available here. While the MVO statements can be adjusted (and certainly should be, in response to compelling reasons), we believe our future efforts are best spent in a design phase.

The Design Phase will be spent determining the curricular requirements and/or course features that best enact the Mission, Vision, and Outcomes for general education. This innovation phase will best happen with the active and intensive contributions of faculty across campus, in a series of collaborative opportunities. We’ll invite everyone to propose ideas for delivering the learning outcomes, placing a premium on exploratory and innovative approaches. GERI will partner with the Faculty Senate to sponsor many of these activities. We will gather, summarize, and synthesize ideas generated in a first round, then organize additional stages dedicated to further generating and refining. We’ll solicit input both through in-person sessions and through digital/asynchronous means, and we’ll use online means to record, distill, and map ideas. The process and results will strongly inform the committee as we propose any appropriate changes in general education at DU.

You should expect information soon on how you can contribute to the design phase efforts. Meanwhile, you might find interesting the 2018 AAC&U report, “Fulfilling the American Dream: Liberal Education and the Future of Work,” which finds that both private sector and nonprofit executives high value liberal education. Learning outcomes rated as most important “include oral communication, critical thinking, ethical judgment, working effectively in teams, written communication, and the real-world application of skills and knowledge.”