ARCHIVED: IU Bloomington General Education program information for faculty and staff

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Following is information for faculty and staff regarding the General Education (GenEd) program at Indiana University Bloomington. For more, consult Faculty & Staff: General Education for Undergraduate Students or contact the GenEd program at iubgened@indiana.edu.

On this page:

GenEd Common Ground

About the GenEd Common Ground requirements

Baccalaureate degree programs at IU Bloomington include common course and disciplinary requirements that integrate general developmental goals with special campus resources. These common requirements articulate the ideals that IUB faculty hold for the general education of undergraduate students, and ensure that all students can explore a breadth of academic opportunities in addition to the specialized demands of their chosen majors. For more, see About IUB General Education and General Education Requirements.

GenEd Common Ground requirements for matriculated students

Students who matriculated during or after the summer 2011 semester are required to fulfill the GenEd Common Ground requirements.

Students who matriculated before the summer 2011 semester are not affected if they complete all degree requirements within eight years of matriculation as a degree-seeking student at IUB. Students who do not complete their degree requirements within eight years of matriculation will have their degree programs re-evaluated, and may be required to fulfill Common Ground requirements to complete their degrees.

Course approval

About GenEd-approved courses

Both the GenEd-Approved Courses page and the Schedule of Classes reflect the current course approval status for all GenEd courses; however, the authoritative record of approval is the annual IUB General Education Bulletin.

Notes:
  • To apply toward the Common Ground requirements, courses must be GenEd-approved for the semester in which they are taken. Courses approved for one semester may not be approved for previous or subsequent semesters.
  • Before a course can apply toward the GenEd Common Ground requirements, it must be GenEd-approved for the semester in which the course is taken.

Approval process for Common Ground curriculum

The IUB General Education Committee (GEC), comprising faculty from each undergraduate academic unit at IUB (i.e., the schools and the College), approves courses for the Common Ground curriculum. The appropriate subcommittees (English Composition, Mathematical Modeling, Arts and Humanities, Social and Historical Studies, Natural and Mathematical Sciences, and World Language and Cultures) evaluate course proposals once annually. The subcommittees then forward their recommendations to the GEC, who ratifies the subcommittee lists.

Criteria for evaluating GenEd course proposals

Each subcommittee evaluates the appropriate course proposals on the basis of the course guidelines published in Bloomington Faculty Council circular B16-2011 (PDF), which contains the general criteria for course eligibility, as well as learning outcomes and course characteristics for each GenEd category. For details, visit GenEd Learning Outcomes.

Proposing a course for the GenEd curriculum

Faculty who wish to propose a course for the GenEd curriculum should discuss their ideas with the chairperson of their department. With the approval of the chairperson and/or departmental curriculum committee (depending on departmental procedures), GenEd proposals are forwarded to the academic officer of the appropriate school or academic unit. Once the GenEd proposals receive school approval, the school's academic officer forwards the proposals to the GEC for consideration.

Note:
Individuals or departments may not submit course proposals directly to the GEC. The appropriate school must approve the course proposals and forward them to the GEC.

GenEd Course proposal forms

See Propose a Course for information about proposing a course for the Campus-wide GenEd program, as well as links to download the appropriate form for each GenEd area.

Proposing courses for more than one GenEd Common Ground category

You may propose a single course for both World Cultures credit and Breadth of Inquiry credit. If the course is approved by both the World Languages and Cultures subcommittee and the appropriate Breadth of Inquiry subcommittee, it may "double count" toward both requirements for students who take the course after its approval for the GenEd curriculum. However, you should not propose courses for more than one Breadth of Inquiry category (i.e., Arts and Humanities, Social and Historical Studies, Natural and Mathematical Sciences).

For more, see Course Eligibility.

Timeline for GenEd course proposals

Each fall, the co-chairs of the GEC send a call for course proposals to the academic officers of the schools and the College. The academic officers pass the call for course approvals to the school departments; approval procedures for the schools vary. Schools then forward proposals they approve to the GEC. (Individual faculty members or departments may not submit proposals directly to the GEC.) In the spring, the appropriate GenEd subcommittee reviews course proposals. The GEC ratifies the subcommittee's recommendations and publishes them on the IUB General Education website.

Proposing a new course for GenEd that has not yet been added to the IU Master Course Inventory

All courses submitted to the GEC for review must be fully approved and part of the IU course catalog prior to proposal for GenEd. However, a course does not have to be offered before it is proposed for GenEd.

For more, see Course Eligibility.

Revising and joint-listing courses

Revising a GenEd-approved course

As long as the course content does not also change, revisions to the course's prefix, number, title, or description will not usually affect its GenEd approval status. However, the GenEd Committee should be aware of all course revisions.

Once the changes are finalized, the department chairperson should write a memo to the GenEd co-chairs outlining the changes. This memo should be sent to the academic officer of the school in question, who will attach a letter indicating school support and forward both documents to the GenEd co-chairs. If the co-chairs have questions about the nature or extent of the changes, or if they consider the changes extensive enough to warrant resubmission of a course proposal to the GEC, they will inform both the school and the department. Otherwise, they will request an update to the GenEd course listing and notify the school, the department, and the appropriate committee.

Joint-listing a GenEd-approved course

Joint-listings of courses approved for General Education are permitted only if all four of the following conditions are satisfied:

  • Each course in a joint-listing has been approved for meeting the same General Education requirement(s)
  • Each course satisfies all other formal requirements, including those governing expected frequency of offering
  • The joint-listing has been approved in writing by the chief academic officer(s) of the unit(s) offering the courses to be joint-listed before the "final" schedule for the relevant semester has been submitted to the Office of the Registrar
  • Departmental scheduling officers must comply with technical requirements specified by the Office of the Registrar to ensure that students enrolled under different course numbers and titles in joint-listed classes can be credited with fulfilling a General Education requirement.

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Last modified on 2023-09-22 16:57:36.