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LARC É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Policy Summary

Shortcuts to policy sections below:

• É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Gen Ed Model
• É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience Model (WI, LIT, RS)
• Program Requirements
• Creating New É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT Courses
• Receiving É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core or É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience Credit (Including Transfer Credit)
• Management of the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Program
• Assessment (É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI and LIT Courses)

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core General Education Model

É«ÀÇÉçÇø graduates will need to have lifelong learning skills that enable them to be flexible, adaptable, and agile, so they can engage responsibly, critically, and ethically in an ever-changing world. Through É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, students will strengthen their ability to be critical thinkers, intentional learners, and engaged citizens. É«ÀÇÉçÇø is an inclusive, agile, and responsive institution, and its graduates exhibit those same qualities.

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Literacies

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core is organized around the following six literacies:

• Artistic Literacy
• Communicative Literacy
• Global Literacy
• Humanistic Literacy
• Quantitative Literacy
• Scientific Literacy

Instead of emphasizing content coverage, a literacy framework promotes habits of mind. Each literacy provides students with a greater capacity to participate in society—to access information, to analyze and reflect, and to express conclusions and opinions. Learning is not only cognitive, but affective and experiential as well. To be literate means both to have expertise in a subject area and to be able to practice that expertise. Students increase their literacy through the practice of four kinds of learning: acquisition of content knowledge and skills; understanding of concepts and theories; appreciation of values and dispositions; and engagement in real-world applications and experiences. Through development of each of the six literacies, É«ÀÇÉçÇø students prepare themselves to be engaged citizens who contribute to their communities and create opportunities for personal success and fulfillment.

Artistic Literacy

Artistic literacy is the knowledge and understanding of the centrality of the arts and aesthetics to human existence. Art reflects, and artists respond to and interact with, their communities. Artistic literacy requires learning about and engaging in the creative and performing arts. Visual, verbal, physical and auditory expression will be informed by a study of historical and cultural contexts. Active experimental engagement, including critical analysis and evaluation, will foster an aesthetic sensibility, which includes cognitive and emotional responses.

Artistic Literacy Learning Outcomes

• Artistic: Styles, Genres, Traditions and Theories – Students can demonstrate fluency with artistic styles, genres, traditions and theories within historical and cultural contexts.
• Artistic: Reflection – Students can reflect on their experience of works of art and artistic performances.
• Artistic: Analysis, Interpretation and Critique – Students can analyze, interpret or critique works of art and artistic performances.
• Artistic: Art, Self and Society – Students can explain the relationship of art to self and society.
• Artistic: Creative Process – Students can engage thoughtfully in the creative process.
• Artistic: Works and Performances – Students can create artistic works or performances.
• Artistic: Professional Standards – Students can make choices that show awareness of professional standards and conventions.

Communicative Literacy

Communicative literacy is the capacity to analyze, reflect on, and respond to diverse communication situations. This includes understanding the ways in which audience, context, and purpose shape acts of communication. Communicative literacy is demonstrated through fluency in various modes of communication and effective adaptation, invention, and choice of strategies for communication. Engagement in a range of communicative acts and experiences will cultivate critical awareness and ethical responsibility.

Communicative Literacy Learning Outcomes

• Communicative: Context, Audience and Purpose – Students can communicate in ways that are sensitive to context, audience and purpose.
• Communicative: Conventions – Students can navigate the conventions of various communities, genres, media and modes.
• Communicative: Sources – Students can select credible, authoritative sources and integrate relevant information into their communications.
• Communicative: Analysis and Critique – Students can employ analytical and critical skills in their own communications and in their evaluation of others’ communications.
• Communicative: Content Expression – Students can produce cohesive, insightful work that demonstrates understanding of a subject.
• Communicative: Clear and Compelling Language – Students can use clear, compelling language to communicate meaning.
• Communicative: Team Communication – Students can communicate effectively in teams using written, verbal, and non-verbal communication skills: listening, providing feedback, fostering an inclusive climate, etc.
• Communicative: Ethical Communication – Students can display intellectual honesty, consideration of social consequences, and respect for the work of others in their communications.

Global Literacy

Global literacy is the ability to understand the complexities of one’s own society as well as the global community. This requires knowledge of the diversity of world cultures and recognition of the interdependence of the contemporary world. The extensive globalization of the world’s economies and societies reveals the limits of human and natural resources in a global context. Knowledge of the reciprocal nature of local and global conditions will produce an international perspective. Engagement will occur through the traditional curriculum as well as high impact, experiential learning, such as Study Abroad, internships, service, and other methods of active community engagement.

Global Literacy Learning Outcomes

• Global: Self-Reflection – Students can reflect critically on their own perspectives and cultural experiences.
• Global: Cultural Knowledge – Students can express their knowledge and understanding of another culture.
• Global: Global Structures – Students can describe and analyze the institutions, systems and forces of our interconnected, global society.
• Global: Global History – Students can describe and analyze the historical factors that have shaped societies and cultures.
• Global: Cultural Engagement – Students can navigate ambiguity and complexity through engagement in various cultural contexts (language learning, study abroad, dialogue, and other immersive experiences).
• Global: Sustainability – Students can identify sustainable social, environmental, and economic practices to implement in their communities and in their own lives.
• Global: Justice, Equity and Inclusion – Students can understand and promote social justice, equity and inclusion.

Humanistic Literacy

Humanistic literacy is the ability to understand how human experience is shaped by economic, political, literacy, socio-cultural, historical and other contexts. Humanistic literacy includes critical awareness of how dominant paradigms are created and shape human thinking and feeling. It also encompasses the ability to empathize with other times, places, cultures, and mindsets and to grasp the complexity of change and perspective. Active engagement involves the study ad interpretation of significant texts and artifacts to develop awareness and to use this awareness to make decisions and to initiate and react to change.

Humanistic Literacy Learning Outcomes

• Humanistic: Historical Knowledge – Students can identify and explain developments in human history and thought.
• Humanistic: Analysis – Students can analyze (e.g., perform close readings of) texts and other artifacts.
• Humanistic: Theory – Students can apply theoretical approaches to their understanding of human experience.
• Humanistic: Research – Students can find, organize and synthesize information in support of their research goals.
• Humanistic: Critical Evaluation – Students can critically evaluate evidence and claims (e.g., raise objections, examine from multiple perspectives).
• Humanistic: Argument – Students can develop a coherent, credible argument to defend a position.
• Humanistic: Ethical Reasoning – Students can appraise the ethical dimensions of a situation and engage in ethical reasoning.

Quantitative Literacy

Quantitative literacy is the ability to reason logically and to communicate mathematical ideas verbally, symbolically, and graphically. It means knowing fundamental concepts and techniques of mathematical principles and processes in order to see mathematical functions as quantitative relationships, to understand the concept of probability, and to estimate or approximate answers to questions. This knowledge provides a foundation for understanding how to construct logical arguments and how to make use of mathematical thinking. Quantitative literacy encourages appreciation of mathematics as a practical tool as well as a philosophical and humanistic endeavor which helps to understand the world. Engagement in quantitative literacy includes analysis of the use of mathematics and the application of mathematical thinking and modeling to real-world problems.

Quantitative Literacy Learning Outcomes

• Quantitative: Quantitative Concepts – Students can explain mathematical and statistical concepts.
• Quantitative: Calculation – Students can perform calculations to solve problems.
• Quantitative: Algorithmic Thinking – Students can devise and employ a step-by-step process to solve a quantitative problem.
• Quantitative: Representation – Students can convert quantitative information into various representations (e.g., equations, graphs, diagrams, tables).
• Quantitative: Interpretation – Students can explain information presented in quantitative representations and make appropriate inferences based on that information.
• Quantitative: Application – Students can make judgments and draw appropriate conclusions based on quantitative analysis, including recognizing the limits of the analysis.

Scientific Literacy

Scientific literacy is the understanding that science is systematic, evidence-based process of observation, modeling, and testing, to formulate and refine theories which not only explain but predict. Scientific literacy encompasses an appreciation of the role of science in society, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It includes recognition of the scientific knowledge, skills and values that promote informed evaluation of the validity of claims and proposed solutions to current problems. Scientific literacy does not necessarily involve the production of new science but rather it enables one to informed decisions and cooperative engagement in the protection and improvement of the world through scientific processes.

Scientific Literacy Learning Outcomes

• Scientific: Foundational Knowledge – Students can explain scientific terms, concepts, facts, laws, theories, models, etc.
• Scientific: Procedures and Methods – Students can understand and apply the procedures and methods of science.
• Scientific: Experiments and Studies – Students can design and conduct scientific experiments and studies.
• Scientific: Interpretation and Analysis – Students can interpret scientific evidence, analyze data and draw appropriate conclusions.
• Scientific: Evaluation – Students can evaluate the quality and utility of published and current scientific work.
• Scientific: Application – Students can apply scientific thinking to real-world problems and policies.
• Scientific: Ethics – Students can identify and adhere to ethical practices in science.

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience Model

In addition to É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core general education requirements, students must complete the following É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience requirements: É«ÀÇÉçÇø Seminar (RS), Broad-Based Literature (LIT) and Writing Intensive (WI).

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Seminar (RS)

College is very different from high school; all É«ÀÇÉçÇø first-year students are supported through this transition in their É«ÀÇÉçÇø Seminar course. Students build skills for success in college-level work and will engage with the É«ÀÇÉçÇø community. Students who transfer in as sophomores, juniors, or seniors do not take É«ÀÇÉçÇø Seminar courses.

Broad-Based Literature (LIT)

In Broad-Based Literature courses, students develop their critical skills by performing in-depth analyses of texts.

LIT Guidelines

Courses designated as Broad-Based Literature (LIT) should adhere to the following guidelines.

• The reading of literature should be a central focus of the course.
  • “Literature” here refers to imaginative and creative texts, rather than works that are mainly in-formational. Literature encompasses a wide variety of genres (novels, short stories, poems, plays, screenplays, autobiographies, memoirs, songs, etc.), as well as cultural, historical and philosophical documents (letters, histories, essays, sermons, ethnographies, proclamations, etc.)
  • The course should be reading-intensive. Although the exact amount of reading might vary by genre and subject, students should be expected to do significant amounts of reading in preparation for class sessions.
• Instructors should adopt a text-centered approach to teaching that emphasizes literary analysis (interpretation and evidence-driven argumentation).
• Instructors should have students engage critically and reflectively with literary texts in a manner appropriate to the course subject. Although the precise nature of this engagement cannot be defined in advance, some examples are included below.
  • Attend to the ways literature relates to or represents race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identification, class, disability, culture, history, philosophy, religion, psychology, sociology, science, visual and performing arts, etc.
  • Explore how and why language and literature—and the stories we tell about ourselves and others—define individuals, groups, regions, nations, etc.
  • Recognize how literature provides access to—and offers diverse perspectives on—specific cultural and historical moments.
  • Address how literature reveals the concerns, beliefs, and events of the past, and how these continue to influence and/or inform us in the present.
  • Demonstrate how literature shapes historical and cultural events, social experiences, and systems of belief.
  • Consider how works by traditionally underrepresented writers allow readers to reflect upon and engage with ideas and experiences that may differ from their own.
  • Reflect on how a reader’s interactions with a literary text help create meaning.
  • Examine the craft, technique, and changing technologies of writing.
• Departments should have a written plan for how to teach literature in the course (consistent with the above guidelines)—and a plan for assessing student writing in the course.
• Departments should be committed to hiring and training instructors who can carry out this course plan.

Writing Intensive (WI)

The ability to write effectively is vital for any well-educated person, no matter their career field. Students’ writing skills will be bolstered by these special courses emphasizing learning, and expressing one’s learning, through the writing process.

WI Guidelines

Courses designated as Writing Intensive (WI) should adhere to the following guidelines.

• The teaching of writing should be a central focus of the course.
• To allow for this focus on writing instruction, it is preferable to have 22 or fewer students in a WI course. Some courses already have smaller caps.
• Writing assignments must comprise a significant portion (at least 40%) of the overall course grade.
• Instructors should teach the discipline-specific writing conventions and practices for the course subject. (E.g., a WI biology course might focus on writing lab reports or a research paper, while a WI political science course might include a policy analysis as a key assignment.)
• Instructors should also follow general best practices in the teaching of writing:
  • Course time should be dedicated to the teaching of writing (and this should be indicated on the syllabus).
  • Instructors should employ scaffolded or process-based writing instruction. (E.g., thesis workshops, outlining and annotated bibliography assignments, graded drafts, peer review, etc.)
  • For courses that use collaborative writing assignments, it must be clear how each student in the group will contribute substantively to the project—and will be individually evaluated for their contribution.
• Instructors should assign writing projects that are fully integrated into the course content and appropriate for the subject. In general, however, É«ÀÇÉçÇø is open to a broad range of writing forms and genres, including, but not limited to, the following:
  • scholarly discourse within a given discipline;
  • reflective writing meant to deepen learning and engagement with course content;
  • researched presentations delivered to an audience;
  • the production of websites and various forms of technical and professional writing.
• Departments should have a clear plan for how to teach writing in the course (consistent with the above guidelines)—and a plan for assessing student writing in the course.
• Departments should be committed to hiring and training instructors who can carry out this course plan.
  • Instructors should be familiar with the genre conventions of the writing being assigned—and capable of providing strong examples of writing in these genres.
  • Instructors should be prepared (based, for example, on their past experiences or participation in professional development opportunities) to teach writing effectively and consistently with the department’s course plan.

Program Requirements

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Requirements

É«ÀÇÉçÇø students in all undergraduate major programs must complete course requirements in all six É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Literacies, for a total of 24 sh, as follows:

• Artistic Literacy: any Artistic Literacy-designated course (3 sh)
• Communicative Literacy: all of the following courses:
  • COMP 01111 – College Composition I (or equivalent) (3 sh)
  • COMP 01112 – College Composition II (or equivalent) (3 sh)
  • CMS 04205 – Public Speaking or CMS 04206 – Digital Presentations (or equivalent) (3 sh)
• Global Literacy: any Global Literacy-designated course (3 sh)
• Humanistic Literacy: any Humanistic Literacy-designated course (3 sh)
• Quantitative Literacy: any Quantitative Literacy-designated course (3 sh)
• Scientific Literacy: any Scientific Literacy-designated course (3 sh)

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience Requirements

Students must also fulfill the following É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience requirements:

• One Broad-Based Literature-designated Course (LIT)
• One É«ÀÇÉçÇø Seminar-designated Course (RS)
• One Writing-Intensive-designated Course (WI)

Non-Program Requirements

All undergraduates must complete a minimum of 18 sh of Non-Program courses. Non-program courses can include any University course except those with the same subject code as those associated with each undergraduate's major. 

Overlapping Program Requirements

Courses may sometimes be used to fulfill more than one of the above program requirements. Although a course can belong to only one É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy, it could potentially also satisfy a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience, Non-Program, Major, Minor or Concentration requirement.

Students on the Previous General Education Model

Native (non-transfer) É«ÀÇÉçÇø students who began their studies at É«ÀÇÉçÇø prior to Fall 2018 continue to follow the requirements of the previous general education model. Transfer students who began their studies at É«ÀÇÉçÇø prior to Fall 2021 are also on the previous general education model. However, if these students switch their majors, they will also switch to the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core general education requirements.

On a case-by-case basis, departments and/or advisors may also authorize switching students from the previous general education model to É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, when it is determined in consultation with the student that the change will advance the student’s progress to degree.

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Creating New É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT Courses

To create a new É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI, or LIT course - or to add one of these attributes to an existing course - begin by creating either a new course or change to existing course proposal in OnBase. (See this  page for more information on how to do this.) A course assessment document must be completed and attached to the proposal under the "additional supporting documentation" section. This document should follow the official template, which ensures that all information required for LARC's review is included. This file should be submitted—as an editable Word Document, not a PDF. Here is a blank assessment template, which includes language and formats for the various types of courses for which one of these documents might be required. Any questions about the writing of these assessments should be emailed to the chair of the LARC committee, Grace Fillenwarth. It is recommended that you submit a draft assessment document to the chair for preliminary review in order to ensure a smoother approval process in OnBase.

Revoking Courses from É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core

The LARC Committee will work collaboratively with departments to help them develop successful assessment plans for these courses. As a last resort, should a department fail to meet their assessment obligations for a course, the LARC Committee can remove this course’s É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT designation. The department can appeal this decision to the Senate.

Should a course lose its É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT designation, students who previously took the class will still receive credit for fulfilling the requirement.

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Receiving É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core or É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience Credit

Retroactive Credit

If a course is added to É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core after a student has taken it, the course will retroactively count as satisfying that student’s É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Literacy requirement.

Substitutions and Waivers

Consistent with our commitment to general education as an institutional curriculum shared by all of our graduates, the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core requirements apply to all programs. Departments therefore cannot substitute non-equivalent courses in a general way or remove the requirement for fulfilling a literacy from their program. On a case-by-case basis, however, departments may authorize substitutions for individual students when warranted by extenuating circumstances, based on their existing waiver power.

On a case-by-case basis, departments and/or advisors may also authorize switching students from the previous general education model to É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, when it is determined in consultation with the student that the change will advance the student’s progress to degree.

Transfer Credit for É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT Courses

The É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy requirements are waived for transfer students with an earned A.A. or A.S. degree from a NJ community/county college. For all other students, the following criteria will be used to determine whether transfer credits fulfill É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core requirements.

These criteria are intended to make it easier for students to count transfer credits earned elsewhere, while still preserving the integrity of assessment in our own É«ÀÇÉçÇø courses. By establishing transfer equivalencies to the various É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacies, students and advisors can easily see which courses and exams are satisfying É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT requirements.

Workflow for Establishing É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Transfer Equivalencies

The LARC Committee is responsible for establishing equivalencies between transfer courses or exams and the various É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacies, plus the WI and LIT requirements.
A course or exam that comes in from another institution with no established transfer equivalency will go out to the relevant department chair or head on the Outstanding Data report. The chair or head can choose from the following three options:

• (1) The exam or course is directly equivalent to a É«ÀÇÉçÇø course that is already in É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core.
  • Here, nothing more needs to be done. Once the equivalency is set up, students will automatically satisfy the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy requirement through this transfer credit.
• (2) The exam or course is directly equivalent to a É«ÀÇÉçÇø course that is not in É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core
  • Here, the equivalency to this É«ÀÇÉçÇø course will be set up. The chair or head will also have the option to flag the transfer course or exam for consideration by the LARC Committee as potentially satisfying a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy.
• (3) The exam or course is not directly equivalent to any É«ÀÇÉçÇø course
  • Here, the exam or course will be set up to count as either a free elective or a subject elective (e.g., HIST 05075 GEN ED History). The chair or head will again have the option to flag the transfer course or exam for consideration by the LARC Committee as potentially satisfying a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy.

Any transfer courses or exams flagged by the chair or head for consideration as potentially satisfying a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy (in options 2 or 3) will be forwarded to the LARC Committee Chair by the Registrar’s Office. The Chair will use the provided course descriptions to determine whether the course adequately aligns with some of the outcomes of that É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy. (Note: an approved transfer course or exam can be used to satisfy only one É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy.)

If the LARC chair approves this request, then one of the following actions will be taken:

• (A) If the transfer course or exam is directly equivalent to a É«ÀÇÉçÇø course that is not in É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core (option 2 above), then a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy attribute will be added to the equivalency.
  • For example, suppose a county college course called Acoustical Physics was established as equivalent to the É«ÀÇÉçÇø course Physics of Sound and Music, which is not currently in É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core. If the LARC Committee approved the transfer course as satisfying the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Scientific literacy, then this attribute would be added for all students who have earned transfer credit for this exam or course (from this specific institution).
  • Importantly, however, adding a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core attribute to a transfer course or exam does not change the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core status of any equivalent course here at É«ÀÇÉçÇø. So, in this example, students who took the equivalent Physics of Sound and Music at É«ÀÇÉçÇø could not use it to satisfy the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Scientific literacy, since this course is not currently included in É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core. This policy is important for two reasons. First, it protects the right of departments to decide which courses they want to include in É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core. Second, it preserves the integrity of our general education model, where departments need to have an approved plan for assessing students in the course based on the outcomes for that literacy. This policy should not create any impediments for students here at É«ÀÇÉçÇø, since they will have easy access to advising on which courses satisfy É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core requirements.
• (B) If the transfer course or exam is not directly equivalent to any É«ÀÇÉçÇø course (option 3 above), then it will be made equivalent to a generic É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core placeholder course, showing which Core literacy it satisfies—and potentially also which attribute from the former general education model that it satisfies.
  • The Registrar’s Office will build these placeholder courses, using the CORE subject code, for each É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Literacy—and, as needed, for each combination of a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy and an attribute from the former general education model. Since these are not actual courses, no curriculum proposals will be needed to set them up.

Workflow for Establishing WI Transfer Credit

A transfer course will not automatically fulfill the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement—even if its equivalent É«ÀÇÉçÇø course does so. (Even if the two courses are established as being equivalent in disciplinary content, there is no guarantee that the transfer course is also being taught consistently with É«ÀÇÉçÇø’s WI guidelines.) If a transfer course is equivalent to a É«ÀÇÉçÇø course that has a non-WI version, Transfer Credit will make the transfer course equivalent to the non-WI É«ÀÇÉçÇø version. If the É«ÀÇÉçÇø equivalent lacks a non-WI version, Transfer Credit will make the course equivalent to a generic INTR substitute course. DegreeWorks will then be manipulated so that the generic INTR substitute course fulfills the appropriate program, É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core and LIT requirements (i.e., all of the requirements fulfilled by the É«ÀÇÉçÇø course—except WI).

Students can submit an appeal to have their transfer course fulfill the WI requirement. This appeal will be reviewed by the LARC Committee chair, based on the following criteria:

• At least 40% of the course grade based on writing assignments (as indicated on the syllabus);
• Significant course time dedicated to the teaching of writing (as indicated on the syllabus).

If the appeal is approved, Transfer Credit would make the transfer course equivalent to the WI version of the É«ÀÇÉçÇø course.

Applying and Appealing Transfer Credit Decisions

Newly approved É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core transfer credit equivalencies are not date dependent, so they will also apply to students who previously took the transfer course or exam. Students can request that their transfer transcripts be reviewed for courses that have been approved for É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core equivalences since they transferred to the University.

A record of all approved É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core transfer credits will be maintained at the existing transfer credit database, which can be found here:

• /registrar/transferring-credits/transfer-credit-evaluation-database.html

Advisors and faculty are not permitted to add a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core or WI exception to a particular course or exam if there is not an established equivalency. However, students, faculty or advisors can appeal to have a transfer course or exam count as satisfying a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core literacy or the WI requirement. These appeals follow the existing credit appeal process run through the Coordinator of University Transfer Services, and they will be forwarded to the LARC Committee for review. The LARC Committee will maintain a record of all transfer credit decisions and their rationales, along with any appeals.

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Management of the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Program

The É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core program is co-managed by the LARC Committee chair and the Director of Assessment (in the Provost’s Office).

Department Course Liaisons and Managers

Each É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core course has two department representatives: a Course Manager and a Faculty Liaison. (One person may occupy both roles.) The course manager is responsible for creating and maintaining the materials (questions, assignments, projects, etc.) used for assessment. The Faculty Liaison has the following responsibilities:

• Ensuring that faculty follow the agreed-upon assessment plan when teaching the course;
• Providing faculty with the resources and information to teach the course in accordance with this plan;
• Helping coordinate the process of entering assessment data in TracDat/Improve;
• Working with the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Committee Chair, where necessary, to address any problems that arise with the course.

Course Syllabus Requirements

The syllabus for each É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT course will include a statement about the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core or É«ÀÇÉçÇø Experience requirement, aloing with a list of the learning outcomes being assessed. This statement will be included in the course’s assessment plan.

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Assessment

The details of assessment are handled by É«ÀÇÉçÇø’s Director of Assessment, in coordination with the chair of the LARC Committee.

All É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI and LIT assessments will be included on a single plan for the course. The plan can also include program assessment based on this course, should the department choose to do so. Faculty can view all of this assessment data in the University dashboards.

Assessment of É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Courses

For É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core courses, a minimum of two É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core outcomes will be assessed per course per semester. The assessment scores must be based on graded student work in the class.

In each course, the student scores for the various É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Learning Outcomes are translated to a standardized scale. The translation is initially determined by the Department Liaison for this course, working with the Director of Assessment. As we accumulate more data, we will begin a process of calibrating these translations. This process will be carried out by the LARC Committee, in collaboration with the Director of Assessment and the department that offers the course.

Assessment of WI and LIT Courses

Every semester, each section of a WI or LIT course will assess at least one É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core outcome related to that designation. Like É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, the assessment will be based on work in the course that counts to-ward the students’ grades. For WI or LIT courses that are also in É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, one assessment instrument can often be used for both kinds of assessment.

WI courses will assess one of the following outcomes from the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Communicative Literacy:

• Context, Audience and Purpose: Students can communicate in ways that are sensitive to context, audience and purpose.
• Conventions: Students can navigate the conventions of various communities, genres, media and modes.
• Sources – Students can select credible, authoritative sources and integrate relevant information into their communications.
• Analysis and Critique: Students can employ analytical and critical skills in their own communications and in their evaluation of others’ communications.

LIT courses will assess the following outcome from the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core Humanistic Literacy:

• Analysis: Students can analyze (e.g., perform close readings of) texts and other artifacts.

Modifying Existing Assessment Plans

Departments that wish to modify a previously approved assessment plan for a É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core, WI or LIT course should submit a revised plan to the chair of the LARC Committee. Minor changes can be approved directly by the chair. Major changes will be reviewed by the Committee.

Faculty Assessment Privacy

É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core makes possible detailed visualizations of the accumulated student assessment data. This allows us to detect patterns and trends in student success in the various É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core outcomes—based on demographic data, class level, major, etc. To encourage accurate data collection, it is vital that individual faculty are not judged or evaluated based on their students’ scores. For this reason, É«ÀÇÉçÇø faculty, staff and administrators will not use É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core data to evaluate individual faculty members, and student and faculty names will not be viewable in the É«ÀÇÉçÇø Core dashboards. Although faculty assessment scores are private, departments may be notified if an instructor is not submitting assessment scores at all.

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