General Education Assessment Plan (March 2019) Part 1: Course level review/GELO alignment Each faculty member will report student success in meeting the GELO assigned to his/her course each term, using the reporting tool in the SPOL Assessment module. New General Education courses and those mapped to a specific group of GELOs that have been reviewed in the previous academic year will be required to submit a General Education validation form. This review will follow a three-year cycle, with all courses in the General Education program reviewed over that cycle to make certain they meet expectations for a General Education course at VCSU. Results of this process:  Gen Ed Council will update the GELO map and make changes as necessary. We will also be able to document changes that are occurring at the course level because of the outcome and program assessment process. Part 2: Program Assessment Each year, GE Council members will review the reported data and new validation forms within assigned individual GELOs (in combination with the data reported in #1 and relevant survey data collected through national survey tools such as NSSE) and will present summaries to the GE Council. The Council will discuss and determine actions to suggest or take in or after the next step. Faculty whose courses are mapped to a particular GELO will be asked to participate in the outcome assessment process for their GELO and discuss the results of the assessment, in combination with other relevant data. Five GELO groups will be convened in monthly meetings (one GELO per month Sept., Oct., Nov., Jan., Feb) each of two successive years, with the third year in the cycle reserved for Gen Ed Council to use as a program assessment review year to complete curricular changes and reflection to document and improve the process. The three-year cycle will resume the following year. Results of the process: Faculty will identify ways to improve teaching and learning to close gaps in quality; these changes will be highlighted in the validation forms submitted later with updated syllabi. Summaries of the assessments each year will be reported to oversight groups completing strategic planning and budget planning, to inform their decision-making, following the Assessment Data Flow process adopted for campus assessment.

VCSU has adopted a set of General Education Learning Outcomes (GELO) based on LEAP's Essential Learning Outcomes. Rubrics for each are provided in the attached file. The GELOs are Appreciation of the Arts/Aesthetics, Ethics, Diversity, Communication, Creative and Critical Thinking, Quantitative Literacy, Technological Skills and Literacy, Collaboration, Civic Engagement, and Holistic Health. Rubrics have been updated Spring 2022.

General Education Assessment The course catalog describes the mission, purpose, intellectual framework/outcomes, and specific requirements of the general education program. In addition, every syllabus for a general education course identifies a course project that connects the course to one of the General Education Learning Outcomes (GELO), providing the student with a concrete example of how the course fits into the general education program. These projects can be collected and reviewed, and the syllabi are also reviewed regularly to verify accurate outcome mapping. The General Education Learning Goals and Outcomes are described in the attachment with listings of aligned courses.

Each September, new General Education courses and those mapped to a specific group of GELOs that have been reviewed in the previous academic year will be required to submit a General Education validation form, which is attached in this solution. This review will follow a three-year cycle, with all courses in the General Education program reviewed over that cycle to make certain they meet expectations for a General Education course at VCSU.