General Education Course Approval Process

Expectations/Criteria for General Education Courses

• The course must be in the Course Inventory Management (CIM) system and approved by the General Education Committee according to the process outlined here
• Courses must be regularly assessed and reports submitted according to the General Education assessment cycle
• Courses must align with General Education Statement of Intent

1. General Education courses should provide exposure to issues, ideas,and methods across broad areas of inquiry:
   * Courses are not appropriate for General Education if the primary purpose is to predominately serve academic majors in the offering discipline or college
   * Courses should serve a broad range of students and majors.
2. Courses are regularly offered:
   * Courses fulfilling Distribution requirements should be offered annually
   * Diversity courses should be offered, at minimum, every other year

• Courses must align with appropriate General Education student learning outcomes
• Courses must meet other General Education policies (e.g. restrictions on pre-requisites, etc.)
• For new courses, details of how assessment will occur must be included in the course proposal. For existing courses, evidence must be provided of continuous assessment of the appropriate General Education student learning outcomes
• A course with potentialto overlap in content with another discipline. Relevant chair(s)/director(s) need to review and approve before submission to the General Education Committee.

Course Approval Process

Read the Keys to a Succesful Course Proposal or Master Syllabus
Submitting a Syllabus
Review Outcome Possibilities

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Keys to a Successful Course Proposal or Master Syllabus

• Follow all instructions provided on the new course proposal form.
• Complete all sections of the form thoroughly, yet explicitly.
• Pay careful attention to formatting (i.e. fonts, bullets, numbers, and tabs).
• Clearly state SLOs in terms of the student (e.g. "in this course students will demonstrate" or "students will analyze").
• List and explain assignments completely, but succinctly. The total value of all assignments should equal 100%.
• Bibliography should include references reflecting recent scholarship, unless older documents have historical value. A standard reference style (i.e. APA or MLS) should be used.
• College, school, or department approval process must be followed, prior to promoting the course proposal or master syllabus to the General Education Committee.
• Please note: department chairs and program directors should read the course proposal carefully.

Quantitative Literacy Guidelines

Writing in the Disciplines (WID) Guidelines

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Submitting Syllabi and Forms to CIM-Course

• The deadline for submissions of fall courses is February 15^th.
• Courses should be submitted using the UNO-CIM-Course.
• Review the student learning outcomes and the CIM-Course carefully before submitting a syllabus.
• All syllabi received one week prior to a scheduled committee meeting will be reviewed at the general education meeting. During the meeting a review status will be determined.

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Review Outcome Possibilities

Possible Results of Course Review: New course proposals will be approved or denied at the time they are advanced to the General Education committeefor review. Existing General Education courses will be reviewed as part of the regular assessment cycle and will result in one of three possible outcomes. The outcome will be communicated with units by Oct 31stof the fall semester following submission of their assessment materials:

• Re-approval for 3 years, or until the next assessment cycle
• Provisional approval pending satisfactory revisions of minor issues or details
• One year probation for courses that do not meet stated criteria

Courses still not meeting expectations after a one-year probation may be removed from the General Education curriculum.

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