Assessment of the Core Curriculum

The Core Curriculum, like most General Education requirements, is not a degree granting program; the Core is comprised largely of arts and sciences courses that provide the supporting fabric for the major. Nonetheless, if we are to require these courses of our students we are accountable for documenting their efficacy. Our assessment procedure is unique for general education at a major public research institution.

We are collecting portfolios for each course in the Core. Each portfolio contains a current syllabus, sample student assignments, and the course assessment report. Instructors are not identified in the assessment report; single courses with multiple sections are expected to coordinate the assessment and establish the congruence of the sections with the frame of the course. Each course is treated as an indicator for Core goals, and these indicators are evaluated using a primary trait analysis grid.

Members of the Core Curriculum Executive Council review and rate these portfolios on a regular basis. Feedback to the originating academic unit consists of the cover sheet rating, the primary trait grid, and written comments from the reviewers. Courses for which there is no assessment will be excused from the Core Curriculum.

This portfolio project has been in place since the pilot reading of Summer 1996. It is labor intensive, but also productive of rich and complicated profiles of an area of undergraduate experience. This system of gathering portfolios on Core courses actually accomplishes two purposes: the assessment of student learning outcomes and the review of faculty instruction, two different but complementary activities. The result, of course, is the same: the quality of the University.

For a copy of our most recent assessment report, contact Jim Allen, Director, University Core Curriculum, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois 62901-4522.