About

*General Education policies are a work in progress. Current policies as written are subject to change and more policies will be added as the academic year progresses. 

The Baccalaureate Core Committee (BCC) serves as the Policy and Process Committee of the General Education Implementation Initiative. The BCC is a curricular committee of the Faculty Senate and per their standing rules, “has the authority to develop and approve strategy, policy and planning” as it relates to the General Education program of Oregon State University. During the 22-23 academic year, this committee has worked to build a policy portfolio that will effectively implement our new General Education program. The original Bacc Core was not developed with policies, long-term planning, and strategies in place and has lacked strategic leadership. What currently exists, instead of policies, are disparate sets of recommendations. The absence of policies, planning, and strategies has proven problematic for a curricular committee charged with the welfare and success of the university's General Education program. Many of the policy issues approved by the BCC reflect the operating norms of the committee.

The BCC reviewed several different policy issues and in in some cases determined not to produce policy results; if appropriate, those results are listed in this document as well. There are generally three kinds of policy and planning issues at hand in developing a new General Education program: planning for installing the core (expect an update regarding this issue during the first week of March 23), general standards (such as syllabus requirements), and specific questions which depend on the adoption of the curriculum.

This package of policies as they stand are primarily related to general standards.

All BCC meetings are public with agendas distributed in advance. Full detailed minutes of BCC meetings are available here.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns about these policies. Please contact McKenzie Huber, Bacc Core Director, or the Co-Chairs of the Bacc Core Committee, Daniel Faltesek and Rene Reitsma.

Major Issues for Spring Quarter 23:
  • Policies about Expertise - Transitions and Zero-Credit Requirements
  • Policies about Assessment
Policies about Committee Processes

Course Reviews

To encourage a variety of perspectives, all course proposals will be reviewed by two GenEd committee members, at least one of whom will be outside the proposing college, then discussed by the committee and either approved if they have reached committee standards or sent back. 

Policies about Courses

Dual listing courses in more than one category

Courses will be approved in a single category to encourage focused excellence in curriculum and assessment.

Course Sizes

Category-specific educational standards for maximum class size have been established by the Faculty Senate. Variances, when permitted, require a reasonable plan to provide labor to support the course. The Director of General Education is responsible for managing variance approvals.

Foundations Courses will be Lower Division

Course levels in Signature areas are determined by the framework ratified by the Faculty Senate. All courses approved in areas mapped to the CTM will be lower-division.

The primary purpose of approved courses will be General Education

Courses approved will have their primary purpose of being in the General Education program, and each learning outcome must be integral to the course and meaningfully assessed.

Courses will use accessible language

Syllabi for approved courses will be clearly written from a learner's perspective so that they are accessible to students from any discipline and any background.

Grade Minima

The general education program does not impose any grade minimum requirement distinct from the institution's.

University Standard Platforms Must Be Used

All General Education courses must use the University Standard Learning Management System for purposes of communication with students, distribution of syllabi/learning outcomes, and accessible grading information. 

Faculty Development Requirements

  • Due to the positive impact of professional development on the quality of teaching and student satisfaction, all General Education instructors should enroll in professional development, to be renewed on a periodic basis. 
  • Some areas may require additional, and ongoing, professional development as is described in the category criteria and/or other General Education policies. 
  • General Education professional development will be provided on an institutional (OSU-wide) basis and will be provisioned to meet campus demand.

Professional development takes on two forms, which are designed to accommodate differences in the complexity and novelty of courses, types, outcomes, expertise, and experience. 

  1. To develop an on-campus General Education course, the developer(s) will complete the Course Adaptation Design Institute (CADI) experience, for which compensation may be available. E-campus development support will continue to be provided by Ecampus. 
     
  2. To teach an approved General Education course, an instructor will complete OSU's General Education Pedagogical Support and Development program.

In the event that professional development is inadequately provisioned, with the awareness of Academic Affairs, temporary waivers may be granted. 

  • Emergency circumstances which require a temporary waiver may exist but are exceedingly rare (such as the sudden unavailability of an instructor, failure to hire faculty, or loss of situational awareness by a unit are not included in these). 
  • In these circumstances, the Director of General Education (the responsible party for the waiver) and the Coordinator of Faculty Development will actively work with faculty across units to find a solution, which may include a temporary waiver, an MOU for support from a different unit, or some other solution.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

In an effort to limit costs for students, the Bacc Core Committee (BCC) encourages faculty to adopt OERs for their courses when possible. The BCC will transparently make this recommendation known in several ways:  

1. Include an OER component in Gen Ed professional development program(s). 

2. Curriculum Management System for new/change course proposals: If a Gen Ed course proposal, the following questions appear:  

  • “For each non-OER/non-freely-available resource, indicate (yes/no) whether or not an effort was made to find an OER/freely-available alternative (with a referral to OSU's 'Open Educational Resources' office for help). (This info is being gathered for informational purposes only)  
  • If "no" then the following statement appears:   
  • "In order to maximize access to quality General Education, Oregon State University strongly encourages all course designers and instructors to use Open Education Resources (OER) in their courses. Where adequate OER are not available course designers and instructors are encouraged to search for low-cost or no-cost options."  

3. Have the above OER statement on the Gen Ed website. 

Policies about Courses Interaction

Intra-Category Diversification

In general education categories requiring more than one course (such as humanities and scientific inquiry), students may only apply one course per subject designator.

Shared Courses Between Majors, General Education

  • A course may fulfill a requirement in the General Education curriculum and other requirements outside of General Education (*except for Seeking Solutions). Academic units may restrict the number of times a course may apply toward an academic program. The program may impose its own grade minimum for a General Education course to apply in a specific academic program.

*Please note for the Seeking Solutions category, the Faculty Senate adopted proposed Criteria 3, which states: Courses in Seeking Solutions will not double count for major requirements.

Policies about Transfer Credits

Transfer Course Articulations

The BCC's Transfer Course Policy was created in consultation and partnership with Erin Bird, Transfer Transitions Coordinator, and Registrar and Admissions Office members. The Transfer Transitions Coordinator and others provided expert consultation and advice to the BCC and recommended a  balanced approach to articulating transfer courses for General Education that involves the following evaluation decision points:

  • If a transfer course is a direct equivalent* to an OSU course, and the OSU course carries a General Education attribute, then the transfer course will also carry the OSU General Education attribute regardless of the category with which it is affiliated at the sending institution.
  • If a transfer course is a direct equivalent* to an OSU course, and the OSU course does not carry a General Education attribute, then the transfer course will not be awarded an OSU General Education attribute, regardless of whether the transfer course is affiliated with a General Education category at the sending institution.
  • If a transfer course is not a direct equivalent to an OSU course (articulated as Lower Division Transfer - LDT), is transferred from an Oregon community college, and is offered in an approved CTM or AAOT/ASOT category, OSU will award the respective General Education categorical attribute.
  • If a transfer course is not a direct equivalent to an OSU course (articulated as Lower Division Transfer - LDT), is transferred from an institution that isn’t an Oregon community college, is affiliated with a General Education category at the sending institution, and where the course has outcomes similar to OSU’s LOCR-approved outcomes, OSU will award the respective General Education categorical attribute.
  • If a transfer course is not a direct equivalent to an OSU course (articulated as Lower Division Transfer - LDT), is from an institution that isn’t an Oregon community college, and is not offered in the sending institution’s General Education, then the transfer course will not be awarded an OSU General Education attribute.

*Direct equivalency awarded when courses align with all category learning outcomes and with at least 75% alignment of course content.