Tag: Common Curriculum

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Office of General Education

Think big, do good with Engage Dallas, and satisfy two Common Curriculum requirements

The Office of General Education and Engage Dallas requests your assistance amplifying the following community engagement opportunities with students.

On Wednesday, September 13, from the Office of General Education email, the following message was sent to all undergraduate students. Students can satisfy two Common Curriculum requirements via service with this pre-approved opportunity.

——— [ Begin Message ] ———-

From: Office of General Education (gened@smu.edu)

Subject: Think big, do good with Engage Dallas, and satisfy two Common Curriculum requirements

Engage Dallas is a place-based community engagement initiative via SMU’s Residential Commons to address community needs focusing on South and West Dallas. The initiative is a long-term, university-wide commitment led by students to partner with local residents, organizations, and other leaders to positively impact the community. There is equal emphasis on campus and community impact stemming from the initiative.

2-in-2 Campaign

Engage Dallas is a free and easy way for students to earn two of their required proficiencies for graduation, the Community Engagement Proficiency and Experience (CEPE) and Civics & Individual Ethics proficiency (CIE) through sustained engagement with Engage Dallas. Below is a suggested path for completion of your proficiencies:

Monthly Service

To earn service hours and get connected to the Dallas community, connect with your Commons to participate in Engage Dallas monthly service events. All Engage Dallas upcoming events can be found on the Engage Dallas SMU360 page and your Residential Commons SMU360 page.

Solo Service

Engage Dallas offers solo service as a way for students to serve independently with our community partners. There are over 20 solo service opportunities ranging from art class volunteer to kennel companion to reading tutor for kids. All solo service opportunities can be found on the “Find Opportunities” page in the Engage Dallas Canvas Course under “Individual Service.” All students have a Residential Commons affiliation—Commuter students are affiliated with Boaz Commons, and Transfer Students are affiliated with Ware Commons.

#1Day4Dallas

Engage Dallas will host the 3rd annual #1Day4Dallas service event on Saturday, October 21. Breakfast, lunch, and 4 hours of direct service are included—spots are limited, so students are encouraged to register today!

Please direct any questions about Engage Dallas to engagedallas@smu.edu.

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Office of General Education

Council on General Education approved updates to the Common Curriculum Critical Reasoning rubric

On Friday, September 1st, operating within its scope of authority, the Council on General Education approved an update to the Common Curriculum Critical Reasoning rubric.

Critical Reasoning was assessed for the first time in Summer 2021 by the Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness. Following that round of assessment, raters recommended reviewing and revising the rubric, which they found difficult to apply in many cases. A faculty-led committee was charged to review and revise the rubric over the summer.

Further review of the rubric found that although the learning outcome for Critical Reasoning is appropriate to the components (Students will demonstrate university-level critical reasoning proficiencies through written expression), the supporting skills emphasize writing and are nearly identical to the supporting skills for Academic Writing requirement, which has a different learning outcome (Students will develop competency, clarity, coherence, and organization in their writing). Plus, writing is assessed separately under the Academic Writing, Writing, and within the academic evaluation process.

The current design of the Critical Reasoning rubric has functioned as a barrier to the development of courses outside of the Writing and Reasoning Program (WRTR), mainly because of the primary focus on academic writing in the current iteration of the rubric. Therefore, efforts to revise the Critical Reasoning rubric have been joined with this effort to expand offerings in Critical Reasoning beyond WRTR 1313, WRTR 2304, and WRTR 2306.

Common Curriculum course proposal forms and the online rubrics were updated with the newly-approved rubric.

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Office of General Education Student Academic Engagement & Success Student Academic Success Programs Student Success & Retention

Summer Forge has successfully wrapped up its inaugural year

The Summer Forge, an academic support program at SMU, has successfully wrapped up the inaugural year. Summer Forge provided the initial cohort of 20 undergraduate students with financial, academic, and social support to accelerate their path to on-time graduation.   

Students who participated in Summer Forge could select courses during May Term, Summer Term, or August Term, in addition to SMU–in–Taos that fulfilled a major or Common Curriculum requirement. The initial cohort for Summer Forge attempted over 80 credit hours during the summer terms, with 96% of the attempted coursework completed.  

Summer Forge participants were offered tailored campus resource referrals and coached on strategies to support a successful academic summer term. 83% of the Summer Forge students report using the tutoring services provided in the ALEC, and 17% report receiving support from the Writing Center. 

Here is what some of the students had to say about their time in Summer Forge: 

“Summer Forge exceeded my expectations with the ability to aid in summer tuition and provide opportunities to students who are struggling or need a little help. I would highly recommend the program in order to catch up on classes and graduate with your class on time.”-Katie P.  

 

“It allows the opportunity to raise your GPA without worrying about any finances in the process, as that can be stressful to worry about in itself.” -Morgan L.  

 

“Summer Forge was a great opportunity for me to take Summer courses and advance my studies. The program is helping me graduate on time and make up time lost.”-Sloan H.  

Summer Forge is a collaboration between the Office of Student Success and Retention, SMU in Four, Office of Financial Aid, and Student Academic Success Programs.  

For more information visit www.smu.edu/summerforge.  

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Office of General Education Student Academic Engagement & Success Student Academic Success Programs

Peer Academic Leaders kick off the academic year with social media campaign and certification program

As the Fall 2023 semester fast approaches, the Office of General Education is pleased to announce the Peer Academic Leader program (PALs) relaunch.

PALs are third- and fourth-year SMU students who have proven to be successful academically and are also highly involved on campus. Their mission as peer leaders will be to plan and facilitate programming throughout the academic year to ensure first- and second-year students are knowledgeable about campus resources. PALs will also serve as peer advisors to ensure students are registered for classes on time and understand common curriculum requirements.

Be sure to follow our Instagram (smu_advising_pals) for updates on PALs events. The PALs have quickly adopted this page and begun their first social media campaign, “Meet Your PAL“. These posts contain short videos where the PALs can introduce themselves, discuss their favorite part of being an SMU student, and share back-to-school tips.


The PALs will move back to campus on August 10th, 2023, and we’re excited to welcome them back.

They will be in training from August 11th until August 16th. As a result of training, PALs will be Certified Peer Educators, ready to support their fellow Mustangs. The training includes eight modules, covering the role of peer education, helping peers make a behavior change, listening skills, response and referral skills, how to take action and intervene, recognizing the role of diversity and inclusivity, programming and presentation skills, self-care, and group dynamics.

Finally, starting on August 17th, PALs will serve as Stampede Guides to further connect with their residents.

Questions, comments, or social media collaborations are welcome. Please contact Melina Padron, Senior Advisor for General Education.

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Office of General Education

New Common Curriculum course and experience proposal forms available

Conference room

Updated Common Curriculum course and approved program or organization proposal forms are now available for download.

Based on recommendations from the Council on General Education and to improve proposal experience, each Common Curriculum (CC) Foundation, Breadth, and Proficiency & Experience will have its own form. Individual forms will aid the proposer in addressing all requirements during the first submission, improve the ability of CoGE to offer targeted feedback to the proposers when necessary, and aid in the CoGE review process to ensure all criteria are met.

Departments and proposers can submit course or experience proposals for any CC Foundations, Breadth, or Proficiencies & Experiences components via the Office of General Education online proposal system. At the same time, sponsors of programs and organizations will be able to submit proposals for Proficiency & Experience components via the same system.

Updates that make the new proposal forms more user-friendly include:

  • fillable PDF formatting,
  • more space for descriptions and explanations,
  • links to the CC rubrics to ensure accuracy, and
  • individual forms for each component rather than selecting one component via a checkbox.

If you have any questions about the new forms, proposing a course or experience, or the Common Curriculum, please contact the Office of General Education.

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Office of General Education Student Academic Engagement & Success

Common Curriculum Course Search updated along with WIM to W course-tag conversions

On September 9, 2022, the Council on General Education approved a proposal to change how the Common Curriculum’s Writing in the Major (WIM) Proficiency and Experience is tracked on the Degree Progress Report (DPR) and replace it with program-level Writing in the Major student learning outcome.

This means that the Writing in the Major Proficiency and Experience has been removed from the Degree Progress Report, and courses that conveyed the WIM tag have been removed from the undergraduate catalog.

In concert with the Writing Board, the Office of General Education has evaluated the 69 WIM-tagged courses that previously were approved for the Writing (W) Proficiency and Experience tag on the Common Curriculum before WIM. Academic departments were contacted about their willingness to convert from a WIM to a W tag.

Following an administrative evaluation based on the W criteria, 20 of the 69 courses were identified, approved by the academic department, and changed from WIM to W in the undergraduate catalog.

In addition to the above changes, the Office of General Education updated the Common Curriculum course search with approved courses approved by the Council on General Education to meet graduation or general education requirements. We also processed the removal of tags requested by academic departments.

The July 17, 2023, update reflects the following tag additions and removals.

Added:

ADV 3305- Writing (W) ANTH 3301- Writing (W) ANTH 3370 – Exploring Science (ES)
ARHS 1305- Creativity & Aesthetics (CA) ARHS 3321 – Creativity & Aesthetics (CA) ARHS 3347 – Creativity & Aesthetics (CA)
ARHS 3390- Creativity & Aesthetics (CA) ASCE 3330- Writing (W) CEE 3302- Writing (W)
DANC 3363- Exploring Science (ES) ENGL 1362 – Literary Analysis & Interpretation (LAI) ENGL 2315- Literary Analysis & Interpretation (LAI)
FILM 3305 – Oral Communication (OC); Quantitative Applications (QA) FILM 3353- Historical Contexts (HC) GERM 3311- Writing (W)
JOUR 3313- Community Engagement (CE) JOUR 3313- Writing (W) JOUR 3362- Community Engagement (CE)
JOUR 3362- Writing (W) JOUR 3382- Community Engagement (CE) JOUR 3382- Writing (W)
MATH 1340- Quantitative Reasoning (QR) MATH 3311 – Writing (W) MUHI 1305- Historical Contexts (HC)
MUTH 3350- Writing (W) OREM 2375- Technological Advances and Society (TAS); Civics and Individual Ethics (CIE) PLSC 3330- Writing (W)
PLSC 3334- Writing (W) PLSC 3340- Writing (W) PLSC 3342- Writing (W)
PLSC 3352- Writing (W) PLSC 3358- Writing (W) PLSC 3360- Writing (W)
PSYC 3301- Writing (W) RELI 3386 – Literary Analysis & Interpretation (LAI) RUSS 3341- Civics and Individual Ethics (CIE); Human Diversity (HD)
SOCI 3301- Writing (W) WL 3311- Technological Advances and Society (TAS); Human Diversity (HD) WL 3319- Human Diversity (HD)
WL 3323 – Human Diversity (HD)

Removed:

ADV 3305- Writing in the Major (WIM) ANTH 3301- Writing in the Major (WIM) APSM 4305- Writing in the Major (WIM)
APSM 4315- Writing in the Major (WIM) ARHS 4310- Writing in the Major (WIM) ARHS 4399- Writing in the Major (WIM)
ASAG 3380- Writing in the Major (WIM) ASCE 3330- Writing in the Major (WIM) BIOL 3170 – Writing in the Major (WIM)
BIOL 4110- Writing in the Major (WIM) BIOL 4306- Writing in the Major (WIM) BIOL 4364- Writing in the Major (WIM)
BIOL 4380-Writing in the Major (WIM) CCPA 3328- Writing in the Major (WIM) CCPA 3355- Writing in the Major (WIM)
CCPA 3365- Writing in the Major (WIM) CEE 3302- Writing in the Major (WIM) CHEM 4110- Writing in the Major (WIM)
CHEM 4397- Writing in the Major (WIM) CISB 4397- Writing in the Major (WIM) DANC  4375- Writing in the Major (WIM)
DANC 4373- Writing in the Major (WIM) ECO 4330- Writing in the Major (WIM) ECO 4342- Writing in the Major (WIM)
ECO 4360- Writing in the Major (WIM) ECO 4365- Writing in the Major (WIM) ECO 4376- Writing in the Major (WIM)
EDU 5327- Writing in the Major (WIM) ENGL 2314- Oral Communication (OC) ENGL 2315- Creativity & Aesthetics (CA)
ENGL 3310- Writing in the Major (WIM) FILM 1304- Creativity & Aesthetics (CA) FILM 2301- Writing in the Major (WIM)
FREN 4375- Writing in the Major (WIM) GEOL 3330- Writing in the Major (WIM) GEOL 4320- Writing in the Major (WIM)
GERM 3311- Writing in the Major (WIM) HIST 3309- Writing (W) HIST 4300- Writing in the Major (WIM)
JOUR 3313- Writing in the Major (WIM) JOUR 3362- Writing in the Major (WIM) JOUR 3382- Writing in the Major (WIM)
MATH 3311- Writing in the Major (WIM) ME 4152- Writing in the Major (WIM) MUHI 4302- Writing in the Major (WIM)
MUHI 4345- Writing in the Major (WIM) MUHI 4347- Writing in the Major (WIM) MUTH 3350- Writing in the Major (WIM)
PHYS 4311- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 3327- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 3330- Writing in the Major (WIM)
PLSC 3334- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 3340- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 3342- Writing in the Major (WIM)
PLSC 3352- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 3358- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 3360- Writing in the Major (WIM)
PLSC 4333- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 4344- Writing in the Major (WIM) PLSC 4370- Writing in the Major (WIM)
PLSC 4381- Writing in the Major (WIM) PSYC 3301- Writing in the Major (WIM) SOCI 3301- Writing in the Major (WIM)
SOCI 4313- Writing in the Major (WIM) SOCI 4314- Writing in the Major (WIM) SOCI 4376- Writing in the Major (WIM)
SOCI 4377- Writing in the Major (WIM) SOCI 4384- Writing in the Major (WIM) SPAN 4302- Writing in the Major (WIM)
STAT 3341- Writing in the Major (WIM) STAT 4385- Writing in the Major (WIM) STRA 4370- Writing in the Major (WIM)
THEA 3382- Writing in the Major (WIM) WL 3383- Oral Communication (OC)

Questions or concerns about the course search update can be directed to theccmail@smu.edu.

 

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Office of Engaged Learning Office of General Education Student Academic Engagement & Success University Advising Center

Engage Dallas launches 2-in-2 campaign to encourage more students to complete Common Curriculum graduation requirements

Engage Dallas launched a new 2-in-2 campaign with postcard mailings to all incoming first-year and transfer students this week.

The campaign encourages undergraduate students to complete their Community Engagement and Civics & Individual Ethics Common Curriculum graduation requirements through their Residential Commons during their first two years at SMU.

All incoming students were encouraged to start the Engage Dallas Canvas Course in the Campus Life Online Orientation Modules in Mustang StartUp orientation experience.

Students can sign up today to begin earning service hours through Engage Dallas by registering to participate in the following fall events–

Engage Dallas is a place-based community engagement initiative via SMU’s Residential Commons to address community needs focusing on South and West Dallas.

For questions about Engage Dallas, please email engagedallas@smu.edu or visit their website.

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Office of General Education Student Academic Engagement & Success Student Academic Success Programs Student Success & Retention

Summer Forge program launched with a full, 20-student cohort

This summer, SMU launched a new academic support program called Summer Forge. Summer Forge provides invited undergraduate students with financial, academic, and social support to accelerate their path to on-time graduation.  

Invited students receive up to 8 paid semester credit hours over May, Summer, and/or August terms. The initial cohort for Summer Forge includes 20 students attempting over 80 credit hours during the summer terms. The average participant takes 6 hours that fulfill either major or Common Curriculum requirements. 

Animating the university’s commitment to improving retention and graduation rates, Summer Forge is a collaboration between the Office of Student Success and Retention, SMU in Four, Office of Financial Aid, and Student Academic Success Programs. Ivy Phillips, a Success Counselor in the Office of Student Success and Retention, initially identified the students based on various criteria, in addition to their commitment to complete classes in the Fall 2024 semester at SMU. 

Throughout the summer, Summer Forge participants are offered tailored campus resource referrals and coached on strategies to support a successful academic summer term. Becca Umobong and Sarah Cartwright, members of the Student Academic Success Programs team, are available to provide academic counseling and support. Lydia Allen in the Writing Center is also available to assist students with writing, and A-LEC has tutoring services across course content areas. 

Please get in touch with Brittaney Wilson, General Education and Academic Appeals Coordinator, with any questions about the program. 

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Academic Center for Excellence Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center First-Generation Initiative Hilltop Scholars Mustang Scholars National Fellowships Office of General Education President’s Scholars Student Academic Engagement & Success Student Academic Success Programs University Advising Center University Honors Program

Writing Center is open Summer 2023

SMU’s Writing Center in the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (A-LEC) is open this summer from June 1 – July 31!  Appointment times are:   

  • Mon – Thurs 2:30-5 (in person at the A-LEC)
  • Tues & Thurs 4-6:30 (ZOOM)
  • Fri 2:30-4:30 (in person at the A-LEC);  Sun 5-8 (ZOOM)     

Book an appointment with a Writing Center Faculty Member in Canvas.

 

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Office of General Education SMU in Four Student Academic Engagement & Success University Advising Center

Degree Planner after-action report and advisor incentives announced

Degree Planner was introduced to students at the end of the Fall 2022 semester as a tool that supports the SMU in Four – SMU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) –SMU’s comprehensive approach to improving retention and four-year graduation rates. 

The Degree Planner in the my.SMU Student Dashboard is a powerful tool that can provide students with a personalized, pre-populated degree plan to help them on their journey to graduation. This degree path provides a sequence of courses that will fulfill degree requirements and can be adjusted regularly to fit their future plans. This differs from the Degree Progress Report (DPR), the authoritative source for graduation requirements. 

Initial adoption efforts focused on the 5,348 Common Curriculum students who matriculated in the fall 2020 semester or after (213 Spring 2023 graduating seniors were excluded). Students received outreach on Degree Planner’s purpose, support with completion, and notification of their progress in a variety of ways: 

  • 1,201 students completed their Degree Planner for all remaining terms.  
  • 1,484 students completed their Degree Planner for the Fall 2023 semester. 
  • 8 Degree Planner Support sessions were held (4 in Caruth, 2 in Hughes Trigg, 1 in Meadows, and 1 Zoom Session)  
  • 7 Blog posts were written introducing Degree Planner, sharing progress, announcing raffle winners (on 2/2/23, 2/13/23, & 3/16/23 ), and general information on Degree Planner  
  • 7 Student emails were sent   
  • 130 Winners were selected in raffles to win prizes for completion of Degree Planner.  
  • To-do tasks were added to students’ My.SMU accounts. These to-do tasks were updated and removed weekly. 

We want to reward the following advisors with $100 Amazon gift cards for having the highest number of advisee completions University-wide: 

  • Dorie Beitchman 
  • Misti Compton 
  • Maria Crouch 
  • Christopher Logan 
  • Jennifer Malone 
  • Barbara Morhle 
  • Jeanene Renfro 
  • Caroline Rydquist 
  • Alyssa Wong 

Special Acknowledgement is also given to Janet Stephens and Alyssa Wong for their efforts in encouraging student completion and advertising our student support sessions.