General Education refers to the foundational knowledge and skills that students are expected to acquire across a broad range of disciplines (English Composition, Natural Science, Social Science, Humanities and Cultural Practices, Ethics, and Quantitative and Logical Thinking). Assessment of the student learning outcomes in the General Education curriculum takes place at the level of individual high-enrollment General Education courses, which may fall outside of a student's direct field of study and are designed to develop well-rounded individuals. Assessment is focused on evaluating whether students have achieved the desired learning outcomes in each of the seven broad General Education areas. At FSU, General Education assessment occurs on a 3-year cycle and is facilitated by the IPA Office and the Office of Liberal Studies.
Assessment of General Education Curriculum:
The interactive Power BI report below provides information on three key elements of the assessment process for General Education:
- The Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) assessed in each of the seven General Education areas and associated academic departments,
- The General Education courses included in the sample each Fall of the three-year cycle,
- The different locations and modalities of the General Education courses included in the sample.
Helpful Resources:
The Office of Institutional Performance and Assessment (IPA) is excited to offer a wide range of resources to support the university in assessment and improvement of student learning outcomes in FSU's general education curriculum. Our fellow assessment colleagues and practitioners from other institutions are welcome to make use of resources that we authored. We ask that you please adhere to the fair use guidelines and cite/give credit when using these materials outside of FSU.
This guide provides a comprehensive overview of the best practices in General Education curriculum Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) assessment, including how to best align SLOs with the Bloom's taxonomy and specific course assignments.
This one-page quick guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to document General Education SLOs levels in the canvas gradebook as unweighted and hidden (from student view) assignment scores.
In the unique circumstances where the Canvas gradebook is not used to store assessment data, this template must be used to document and submit necessary information.
This template is used to collect information on which assignment(s) from the Canvas Gradebook will be used to assess student performance on the General Education Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs).
This report displays levels of learning demonstrated by FSU students on the General Education curriculum SLOs in select courses. Please note that this specific, externally facing example was built using contrived student data for a fictitious department of Agriculture.
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to navigate each page of the interactive report.
This template serves as a guide for documenting analysis of the General Education curriculum assessment results visualized in the interactive report.
This guide lists different types of common improvement actions for General Education SLOs. It also includes example narratives for reference.
More from CoreFSU:
This page on the Office of Liberal Studies website provides a comprehensive list of all General Education courses (as well as all other liberal studies courses) offered at FSU.
This page on the Office of Liberal Studies website provides a collection of additional resources specifically for the faculty/instructors teaching General Education courses.