• General Education Core for the Four Colleges
• Examples of Assessable Student Learning OutcomesGE Committee Members and Contact Information
• FAQs

General Education for Faculty

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During the 2008-2009 Academic Year, UHH will transition to a new general education program:

General Education Core for the Four Colleges

This website contains information to assist faculty in the process of compiling and submitting proposed syllabi for GE certification.

Proposed GE syllabi should be submitted with an Application for GE Certification:

APPLICATION_FOR_GE_CERTIFICATION_Form_fillable_RTF

Proposed syllabi and application forms must be completed and submitted to: uhhgened@hawaii.edu by October 17, 2008.

Courses certified as GE must satisfy the certification requirements for the particular category or categories under which the course will run and the syllabus must:

1. list student learning outcomes or objectives;

2. align course learning outcomes with general education outcomes by including the phase 1 outcomes, one or more of the phase 2 outcomes and one or more of the phase 3 outcomes in some form in the course learning outcomes;

3. include rigorous writing assignment(s)--such as response papers, reflection papers, exam essays, or research papers--that total atleast 1250 words or rigorous quantitative assignment(s)--such as statistical analyses of data, creation of computer programs, proofs of theroms, mathematical problem solving--that total the equivelent of at least five typed, double-spaced pages.

It is recommended that writing assignments be thoughtfully woven into the course requirements in such a way that these assignments deliver and/or reinforce at least some part of the course content.  That is, writing assignments may more usefully be divided into smaller steps rather than required as a single paper.

This link will direct you to examples of learning outcomes:

Examples of Assessable Student Learning Outcomes or Objectives

These are other useful sources of information that will help you write learning outcomes:

Learning Outcomes Assessment Planning Guide (California Polytechnic State University)

Bloom's Taxonomy

2008-2009 GE Committee members are prepared to visit each program and assist in writing syllabi that conform to the new GE requirements. Please feel free to email any of the committee members if you have questions or concerns:

The following is a list of colleges and departments and the GE committee members assigned to assist each program:

FAQs

• Is it possible to double count/triple count among the categories?
  • Yes, the Integrative Requirements--Writing Intensive, Hawai'i-Pan-Pacific, and Global and Community Citizenship--can double count/triple count with the Basic and Area Requirements as long as the course has been certified in the relevant two or three categories.
• Can 300-and 400-level courses count as GE?
  • Yes, the Area Requirements and Integrative Requirements can be upper-division courses (as well as lower-division courses). However an upper division course with a number of program prerequisites would not be appropriate for a general education course, since students will have already taken the 100-level or 200-level prerequiste (and received general education credit for those prerequisites).
• Will the new GE complicate the transfer process?
  • No. Transfer courses do not have to correspond precisely with a UHH course that is certified as a GE course in order to count as fulfilling a GE requirement. With the exception of the composition requirement, to which transfer courses from outside the UH System must directly correspond, transfer courses will be accepted as fulfilling GE requirements if the course satisfies the category certification requirements.
• Will Associate's Degrees from other colleges and universities satisfy our GE requirements?

  • Students who transfer with an AA degree from a U.S. accredited university will be admitted with junior level standing and be considered to have completed all of the GE requirements except the Hawai‘i-Pan-Pacific Requirement (HPP), the Global and Community Citizenship (GCC) requirement, and two required writing intensive courses. Students transferring with an AA degree from another campus within the UH System will be admitted with junior level standing and be considered to have met all of the GE requirements, except two required writing intensive courses.

• Are courses that include fieldwork eligible to apply for GE certification under the Global and Community Citizenship (GCC) category?
  • Yes, courses that involve interaction with the environment or community outside the unversity--such as field work, community workshops, internships, service learning--can qualify for certification under the GCC category.
• Do syllabi have to be submitted for all sections of a multiple-section course?
  • No, it will only be necessary to submit one syllabus for multiple-section courses and the same course taught by different faculty. Programs will insure that all sections of the same class share a core set of learning outcomes (additional learning outcomes may be added according to the discretion of individual instructors).  Departments will also insure that the same courses taught by different faculty share some sort of rigorous writing/quantitative assignment.  This does not have to be the same assignment.
• Do I have to resubmit syllabi for GE certification every year?
  • No. Once the course is certified it will remain part of the General Education program. A General Education Curriculum review committee will be maintained every year to certify new courses and review selected general education courses to insure that these courses continue to comply with general education standards.
  • However, Writing Intensive courses must be certified every semester as per system requirements.