General Criteria for Lower Division

General Education Courses

Approved by Academic Senate April 13, 1994

Regardless of academic major, all students who complete the General Education program at CSUSM will share a common intellectual experience in which the integration of knowledge is demonstrated both through the development of individual skills and through the study of ideas, issues and facts. CSUSM's General Education program is guided by the University's Mission Statement and seeks to anticipate the forms of understanding and the types of wisdom necessary both for individuals to situate themselves in their past and present and to create and transform their futures.

Area Requirements:

All courses certified for GE must meet the goals, objectives and requirements specified for all courses below as well as the criteria specific to a division or skills area.

1. Goals

The primary purpose of General Education courses will be to explore, to understand, and to respond to:

Skill development.
Technological and ecological continuity and change.
Global issues and perspectives.
Multiculturalism, gender construction and difference, and human diversity.
Ethical and moral questions affecting the present and shaping the future.

2. Objectives

Within this framework, the objectives of the CSUSM General Education program are:

To develop analytical skills and reasoning powers.
To develop and increase the ability to communicate ideas and to locate and share information.
To develop abilities to address complex issues and problems using disciplined analytic skills and creative techniques.
To develop a coherent and broad-based understanding of the fundamental principles governing the natural world.
To create, to use and to understand modern technology, and to adapt to the pace of technological change.
To apply scientific principles and modern technology to problems in every day life.
To understand and to experience the different forms of creativity as they exist and have existed across cultures in varying genres and media.
To promote global citizenship through knowledge of the forces which shape and have shaped the individual and modern society.
To recognize and to explore the linkages among nations and among peoples of diverse cultures and cultural backgrounds and to understand differences between cultures while recognizing the common bonds that unite humanity.
To acknowledge the interdisciplinary and interdependent nature of successful dispute resolution associated with the complex problems confronting both our increasingly diverse society and the global community.
To understand ethical responsibility and accountability in regards to individual and collective action.
To explore questions of justice and human rights as fundamental issues that link individuals to others in our society and across cultures.

General Education provides students the opportunity to meet these objectives by allowing them to explore and to develop their skills and knowledge within a community that respects and encourages the variety of viewpoints available in society. Intellectual discourse and activity require that ideas be challenged with vigor and intensity, but intellectual communities are both respectful of and civil towards the individuals expressing those ideas.

3. Course Requirements

All courses certified for General Education must meet the following requirements:

Writing.

Lower Division General Education courses shall participate in the All-University Writing requirement. A minimum of 2500 words of writing shall be required in each course.
Writing assignments, style and formats shall be appropriate to the discipline of the course.
Evaluation of written work in all courses shall include assessment of writing proficiency.

Perspectives.

All courses and course proposals shall demonstrate to the extent possible:

* Their integration of analyses rooted in questions of race, class and gender.
* Their inclusion and acknowledgment of comprehensive materials regarding cultural difference among peoples and across nations.
* Their attention to the ethical and moral questions raised by the material in the course.

4. Evaluation and Assessment

All courses certified for General Education shall be evaluated periodically to determine if they satisfy all applicable General Education criteria.

New courses shall be reviewed after the second semester in which they are taught .
All courses shall be reviewed every three years.
Procedures for course review shall be established by the General Education Committee.
Proposals for General Education courses shall address the question of assessment and shall identify the means by which faculty will assess student learning.
Faculty are responsible for assessing student learning in their courses and should be able to demonstrate, by methods appropriate to their discipline, to what degree students have achieved the goals of the course.
Faculty should assess student learning in all sections each semester the course is offered.
Assessment data shall be used to improve student learning and to improve teaching. In addition, assessment data will be used to revise General Education courses. Use of assessment data in faculty personnel actions or evaluations shall be at the discretion of the individual faculty members teaching General Education courses.

General Criteria for Lower Division

General Education Courses

Approved by Academic Senate April 13, 1994

Area Requirements:

1. Goals

2. Objectives

3. Course Requirements

4. Evaluation and Assessment

AREA A

AREA B

AREA C

AREA D

AREA E