General education values are designations that ASU allows for courses to be “counted” as meeting graduation criteria for their General Education requirements. It is important to remember that these values are designated and awarded by ASU, not by Mesa or Maricopa.
Since students transferring to ASU must have their “Gen Ed” designations, these “tags” are very important to students.
The general education values are:
| Core |
Awareness |
| Literacy and Critical inquiry (L) |
Cultural diversity in the U.S. (C) |
| Humanities (HU) |
Global (G) |
| Social/behavioral science (SB) |
Historical (H) |
| Natural sciences (SG/SQ) |
|
| Mathematics (MA) |
|
| Computer/Statistics/Quantitative Analysis (CS) |
Keep in mind that we are allowed to "double-dip" (apply one course to two or more general education requirements) between the core and the awareness areas or within the awareness area, but not within the core. For example, a course cannot count toward both HU and L requirements, but it can count toward HU, C, and H requirements.
How do you get the designations for your classes?
- For Direct Equivalency Classes:
If your course is a direct equivalency class (meaning that it transfers directly to ASU as the same class and number as their class) – then that class “inherits” the General Education.
The good news is that you do not have to go through an approval for these designations – they will get what the ASU class has. The bad news is that your class cannot have any additional designations that the ASU class does not have.
- For Transfer Classes:
There is an approval process that you go through for a class to get a General Education designation. Following are specific instructions.
The best first step is to get in touch with Skip (17159) because she has step-by-step instructions for filling out the ASU forms and, even better, some good models that you can use.
What is the actual process to follow?
Official course description and competencies - from MCCD online Curriculum list http://www.maricopa.edu/academic/ccta/curric/search_engine.php
- ASU Cover Page - download & complete. http://provost.asu.edu/generalstudies/gsdforms
- ASU “Tag” Criteria
- Narrative Page - This page is a guide to what the criteria should cover. It is not needed in your package but is for your reference when you complete the following section
- Specific Criteria tables - This is where you provide your justification for the designation
The KEY to this section is to be very specific about where and how the criteria are met. Avoid general statement like “see syllabus.” Identify outline sections and competencies that address the specific criteria
- Page 1: Fill in the boxes in column 3 identifying specifically which criteria are met and EXACTLY where in the course materials in this package they can be found.
- Page 2 of the table: This is similar to page 1 but the middle column is where you put a narrative explaining exactly how the materials you identify (column 3) meet the criteria (column 1)
- Sample Course Syllabus
- Additional materials: A faculty initiator may wish to add other material not asked for specifically, such as examples of assignments. For some of the designations, this type of information is requested, but not for others. Regardless, it is always a good idea for the faculty initiator to include as much information as he/she thinks is needed to justify the awarding of the designation.
- Xerox of table of contents of primary textbook(s)
-
ORDER: Put your materials in the order they are listed above.
PROCESSING: Call Skip at (480) 461-7159, she will be glad to help you with the process. In addition, she has some sample packages available for your use which is always helpful. Of course, you can do this work alone.
Whichever way – when you have a complete package send/bring it to Skip. She’ll double-check it and, assuming it’s all is there, the Curriculum Office will send it to your IC for their approval. Assuming it is then approved, the package will be sent to Jeff Ricker who will take it to the appropriate ASU Committee. Important note: You must complete a separate package for each “tag” you are requesting. They go to different committees.
Who reviews/approves General Education Designation requests?
There are two approvals needed for these requests:
- Your IC must approve the request. Jan will send your proposal to your IC as soon as Skip has completed her editing review and you have approved any changes.
- Then Jan sends the package to the MCCCD General Education Coordinator, Jeff Ricker, at District. He then takes all Gen Ed packages to ASU to the specific committees for their review/approval.
Jeff will let you (along with Skip and Jan) know when ASU gives its “verdict”.
How do you get help?
Call Skip at (480) 461-7159 for help with the process and for models to use. Seeing a finished product in your hands really makes the process much, much easier.
