UMass Boston

In order to propose that a course counts for a Gen Ed distribution or diversity requirement or that it satisfies the First-Year Seminar, Intermediate Seminar, Quantitative Reasoning, or Language Proficiency requirement, the originator needs to submit the form uc5: UGRD Course – Add General Education in the Curriculog System and upload the additional supplementary information required for the Gen Ed Status being sought.

Faculty may propose a course for Gen Ed status at any time. There are three basic types of Gen Ed actions:

• If the course already exists and you wish to add a Gen Ed designation without modifying the course in any way other than updating the course description to specify the Gen Ed designation, you should submit a UGRD Course Change – Superficial form (uc2) along with form uc5 and the required additional materials for review by the Gen Ed Committee.
• If the course already exists but you wish to update the course at the same time that you want to add a Gen Ed designation, you should submit a UGRG Course Change – Substantial form (uc1) along with form uc5 and the required additional materials for review by the Gen Ed Committee.
• If you’re submitting a proposal for a new course and want to add a Gen Ed designation, you should submit a UGRD Course – New form (uc3) along with form uc5 and the required additional materials for review by the Gen Ed Committee.

It is possible to simultaneously propose a new course or make meaningful changes to an existing course and submit it for Gen Ed approval. However, the official workflow requires such proposals to first pass through the college/school level of review before being sent to the Gen Ed committee for review. In addition to reviewing syllabi, various Gen Ed sub-committees often review course titles and WISER descriptions when evaluating proposals, and they may require changes. This could potentially mean that the course must go back to the college/school level and be re-reviewed.

To help avoid this situation, the originator of the proposal for the new course should consult with Gen Ed prior to launching the proposal in Curriculog to ensure that it is being developed in such a way that it will be approved as a Gen Ed course. When the proposal is officially launched, the originator should also email the chair of their college/school’s Curriculum Committee and the chair of the Gen Ed Committee to notify them. The Gen Ed Committee will then informally review the materials at the same time as they are being formally reviewed by the college/school. If the Gen Ed committee requires revisions, they will contact the originator, the department chair, and the college/school Senate Chair regarding any necessary additions or changes before the materials complete the college-level review. Since proposals for new courses or changes to existing courses must be formally approved by the college/school before they can be brought to the Faculty Council for formal Gen Ed approval, this informal consultation helps to ensure that there are no issues once the proposal officially reaches the Gen Ed committee.

The broad, general requirements for Distribution and Diversity are:

• The first paragraph of the Gen Ed rationale (or rationales if more than one Gen Ed proposal is being submitted) should be embedded in the syllabus with subheadings.
• For Distribution proposals, a separate description of the Capabilities should also be inserted in the syllabus and should be independent of “learning outcomes.”
• For World Cultures and Diversity proposals, WISER course descriptions and syllabi course descriptions should broadly indicate the cultures or dimensions of Diversity.
• For all proposals, grading standards and rubrics for written work should appear in the syllabi, and a substantial sample of assignments of each type described in the proposal and the syllabus should be uploaded to Curriculog as attachments to the “Gen Ed Addition” form. If proposals for more than one Gen Ed designation are submitted, sample assignments should be attached as files to each proposal. Discussions of assessments in the rationale for each Gen Ed proposal should refer to specific assignments in the attachments. For Diversity courses, Diversity should be very clearly one of the learning outcomes and given prominence.

Additional guidelines for proposing Gen Ed courses can be found here https://www.umb.edu/academics/seas/undergraduate-studies/for-faculty/).

Please also contact the Chair of the appropriate Gen Ed subcommittee to confirm what additional materials are required for Gen Ed status review. Each Gen Ed status requires different supporting documents, so you must make sure that your proposal includes all the required materials and that they are formatted correctly. This is especially important if you are proposing a first-year or intermediate seminar, as these typically go through multiple drafts, and you will likely need to work with the Seminar Assessment Subcommittee before submitting the course to Curriculog.