Introduction

The General Education Committee, now in its second year, has reviewed the work of the General Education Task Force and writes with continued purpose to re-envision the General Education curriculum at Clemson.

As the General Education Task Force noted in May 2018, a Clemson General Education curriculum should/could involve Ways of Knowing (i.e. – traditional disciplines of arts and humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics), Communication (i.e. – composing, editing, oral/written/digital presentation), and Integration. Currently, Clemson’s General Education curriculum emphasizes Ways of Knowing and Communication, but falls short on the Integration component.

At the August 2019 General Education Program retreat, approximately 200 stakeholders were able to examine and make meaning from course assessment and survey data related to student learning. Qualitative feedback collected from attendees indicate that our current General Education curriculum needs improvement in encouraging students to practice application, engage in diversity, and take ownership for their intellectual development. Nearly all of the input can be summarized into two needs: improving our curriculum and truly supporting its delivery.

Our discussions over the past year-and-a-half have focused on these opportunities. We revised our student learning outcomes and assessment rubrics last year for all but the Integration components, and we supported a program of faculty development to focus on assignment design in courses that are part of the General Education curriculum. Now it is time to further discuss and implement curricular improvements.

Update

The link below includes an update document for what the General Education Committee is working toward.

Update document (available by contacting Trogden@Clemson.edu)

Our timeline includes:

1. Open discussions and focused discussions with faculty, staff, advisors, Chairs, students, and other stakeholders in the spring semester.
   • Link to menu of in-person opportunities.
   • Qualtrics survey to provide input (anonymous).
   • Leave a blog comment below (not anonymous).
   • Contact a General Education Committee member.
2. Analytics/dashboard creation to help us model change. (With CCIT.) Continued partnership with Provost Office on instructional budget models.
3. Creation of a transition plan and teach-out plan.
4. Updates to our SACSCOC Vice President. (With Office of Institutional Effectiveness.)
5. Faculty/teaching development opportunities for General Education course revision and assignment creation.
6. Moving a proposal to the University’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee in fall 2020 for a 2022 launch.