THE GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE RECERTIFICATION PROCESS
Overview
As part of its decision to adopt the new general education curriculum that debuted in 1999, the UTC Faculty stipulated that the program be evaluated regularly to ensure that its objectives are being met and to promote improvements in the general education experience at UTC.
Central to this charge of assessing general education at UTC is the periodic review of courses approved for the general education curriculum. In 2002, the general education committee commenced this process, which was organized such that each year roughly one-fifth of all the courses are evaluated against the overall general education objectives and the specific guidelines and requirements for their particular content areas. Courses that pass this scrutiny are then recertified as general education courses for an additional five-year period.
Timeline and responsibilities
The recertification process begins in August of each academic year, following the selection of the general education committee chair. S/he will ascertain which courses are scheduled for review and designate which general education committee members will act as liaisons for the courses (meaning that they will be responsible for gathering the supporting materials for their set of courses as well as recommending whether the committee should recertify them).
The remainder of the process is outlined in the following table:
| Time period | Action | Responsible party |
August
|
Notify heads of departments with courses up for review Chairs. Communicate name(s) of liaison(s) and request assistance with the recertification process | GenEd
committee chair
|
Early
September
|
Inform department heads of specific courses to be reviewed, remind of supporting document requirements and deadlines. | GenEd
committee liaisons
|
Fall
semester
|
Departments collect necessary supporting materials from concerned instructors and submit to department head. | Department
heads of courses under review
|
Mid
October
|
As necessary, send reminder letter to department heads about review materials and deadlines. | GenEd
committee liaisons
|
December
|
Deliver review files and recertification statements to liaisons. | Department
heads of courses under review
|
Early
January
|
Verification of course materials for completeness. As necessary, work with department head(s) to acquire missing documents. | GenEd
committee liaisons
|
January
to March
|
Recommend course of action on reviewed courses to the full GenEd committee. | GenEd
committee liaisons
|
April
|
Notify department heads of committee recertification decisions. Update recertification status worksheet for records/website. | GenEd
committee chair
|
Review materials
For each course under review, the liaison will assemble a dossier consisting of materials from each instructor who taught the course at any time during the previous academic year (fall, spring and all summer terms). If an instructor taught multiple sections of the course in any single term, materials need only be collected for a single section. However, if an instructor taught multiple sections in different terms, materials will need to be assembled for each term. If the course under review was not offered in the previous academic year, materials should be submitted from the last time the course was taught in the previous five years. Courses that have not been taught in the previous five years are subject to automatic decertification.
The following materials are required of every course/instructor:
- course syllabus
- copies of major exams and quizzes
- instructions for major course assignments, particularly writing assignments
Instructors are also encouraged to submit other significant handouts (e.g., grading rubrics) as part of their dossiers, especially if they help clarify how the course meets its specific general education category guidelines and requirements.
For each set of course material for an instructor, the department must complete a recertification checklist (available in both .doc and .pdf format). The complete course dossier, thus, will consist of one packet of material (documents and checklist) for each instructor.
Recertification decisions
As noted above, all courses that pass the review process are recertified for a period of five years. Courses that do not satisfy the essential criteria may be placed on probation, with a final decision on recertification to be reached during the fall semester of the following academic year, or removed entirely from the list of certified courses. Note, there is no appeal to the decision to decertify a course. Rather, a new proposal to certify the course is required.
