SMU’s Writing Center in the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (A-LEC) is open this summer from June 1 – July 31! Appointment times are:
Book an appointment with a Writing Center Faculty Member in Canvas.
February 15, 2023
Dear Faculty and Staff –
The Office of General Education would like to inform the campus community of updates and important reminders relating to the Common Curriculum, our solid foundation of a liberal arts education. Today’s reminders and updates fall into five categories: COVID-19 graduation requirement exemption, revised Common Curriculum rules, next steps related to Writing in the Major, AP credit automation, and Common Curriculum course proposal deadlines.
A one-time exception to two Common Curriculum Proficiencies & Experiences for COVID-19 cohorts
The Council on General Education reviewed a report on undergraduate student progress by admit cohort related to each Common Curriculum requirement. The report showed students are progressing well through general education requirements (Foundations and Breadths); however, the Council identified progress concerns within the Proficiency & Experience Graduation requirements.
Students who meet these requirements via course or individual activity by the conclusion of Spring 2023 will be documented as having satisfied the condition on their Degree Progress Report. If either CE or CIE is incomplete by the end of Spring 2023, it will appear waived for graduation. Learn more about this one-time exception.
The Council on General Education does not intend to make additional exceptions to the graduation requirements for future cohorts.
Revised Common Curriculum AP, IB, and Transfer Credit Policies for Fall 2023 Catalog
The concern was that current rules privilege high-credit transfer students to the disadvantage of first year and first-year transfer students. Modifications will be made in the Fall 2023 Catalog to regulations related to (a) Quantitative Reasoning, (b) Second Language, and (c) the ability to fulfill up to three Breadth requirements using external credit. Read more about the specific CC rule changes to the Fall 2023 Catalog.
In all cases where petitioning is required, no petition will be necessary if a direct equivalency has been established at SMU through the transfer process. The Council will monitor what percentage of undergraduate students use dual credit to satisfy requirements and what percentage of students satisfy requirements at SMU.
Reminder and next steps regarding Writing in the Major
Last semester, we shared that the Council on General Education changed how the Common Curriculum’s Writing in the Major (WiM) Proficiency and Experience was tracked on the Degree Progress Report (DPR) and replaced it with program-level Writing in the Major student learning outcome.
Instead of DPR level-tracking, each academic program will be required, via the Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness program evaluation process, to write and assess one learning outcome that best represents the conventions of writing in their discipline. If an academic department already has, as part of its annual program assessment, an undergraduate learning outcome for writing, no additional actions are needed. If your department does not have an undergraduate learning outcome for writing for your current undergraduate major(s), the department will need to develop one and report it as part of annual program assessment, starting in Summer 2023. Departments may deliver the instructional content to support the Writing in the Major learning outcome in a single course, or the content may be delivered across multiple courses. Departments may assess writing in their major through course-based assessment, or through end-of-program assessment at the end of the degree. More information about learning outcomes and assessment for Writing in the Major will be given during faculty training on Planning, the new system we will use to report program assessment results. This training will take place in March. More information will be coming soon.
In addition to developing a learning outcome for writing in the major, departments must develop their own, major-specific rubrics that reflect the learning goals for writing in their major or discipline. There is no standard WiM rubric for program-level assessment, but departments are asked to develop their own discipline-based writing outcome. Departments may consider using the former WiM rubric as a starting point when developing these rubrics.
If you need assistance as you work to develop Writing in the Major outcomes for your program, please reach out to Dayna Oscherwitz, Associate Provost for Institutional Planning and Effectiveness.
Automation of AP credit to satisfy specific graduation requirements
Thanks to the Registrar’s Office, the Office of General Education has now automated AP credit (of scores 4 or 5) to satisfy particular Proficiency and Experience graduation requirements. Therefore, students admitted after fall 2020 need not complete individual petitions to meet applicable graduation requirements. Retroactive updates will be made to affected students; future students admitted for Fall 2023 beyond will receive this credit automatically. Read more about which AP credit satisfies particular Proficiencies and Experiences.
Common Curriculum course and activity proposal deadlines
The Council on General Education invites course and approved activity proposals for Common Curriculum general education and graduation requirements. Submissions are accepted twice a semester. The remaining spring 2023 deadline is March 22, 2023 (for review on March 31). Literary Analysis and Interpretation (LAI) and Civics & Individual Ethics (CIE) are particularly interesting. Accepted proposals will be tagged at the course level and go into effect for summer 2023. Don’t hesitate to contact the Office of General Education for questions or proposal development support.
Thank you all for your investment and commitment to this shared responsibility of general education.
Sincerely,
Peter Kupfer
Chair, Council on General Education
Dustin Grabsch
Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education & Academic Success
The following communication was sent to all undergraduate students on the Common Curriculum from the Office of General Education.
Subject: Changes to your Writing in the Major Proficiency and Experience
November 10, 2022
Dear SMU Common Curriculum Students:
We are writing to you with important information about changes to the Writing in the Major (WiM) Proficiency of the Common Curriculum (CC) that were made to make it easier to administer and fulfill.
On September 9, 2022, the Council on General Education approved a proposal to change how the Common Curriculum’s Writing in the Major Proficiency and Experience is tracked on your Degree Progress Report and replace it with program-level Writing in the Major student learning outcome.
What does this mean for you? Ultimately, this Common Curriculum change merely moves tracking from the student level (e.g., on the DPR) to the program level (e.g., program evaluation process). Therefore, you will notice the WiM Proficiency and Experience will no longer appear on your DPR.
Writing in your academic discipline remains important to your undergraduate education at SMU. The knowledge, skills, and abilities SMU expects of our graduates will remain the same, without students having to worry about finding a particular course tagged for the WiM graduation requirement. These learning outcomes will be achieved across one or several of your major-required courses.
Questions related to this change can be directed to your academic advisor, faculty advisor, or the Office of General Education at theccmail@smu.edu.
Sincerely,
Dustin Grabsch
Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education & Academic Success
November 7, 2022
Dear Members of the SMU Community:
We are writing to you with important information about changes to the Writing in the Major (WiM) Proficiency of the Common Curriculum (CC) that were made to make it easier to administer and fulfill.
On September 9, 2022, the Council on General Education approved a proposal to change how the Common Curriculum’s Writing in the Major Proficiency and Experience is tracked on the Degree Progress Report and replace it with program-level Writing in the Major student learning outcome. Below we share the rationale for this forthcoming change, how it will impact CC students and academic programs moving forward, and support that will be offered through this process.
SMU faculty have consistently expressed concern about the challenges of isolating the teaching of Writing in the Major to a single course, since many programs distribute the teaching and practice of writing across a program. For the same reason, students on the Common Curriculum have struggled to find sufficient opportunities to satisfy the Writing in the Major requirement, even when they have spent several courses learning to write in accordance with the parameters of their discipline. For this reason, effective Fall 2023, we will replace individual tracking of the Writing in the Major Proficiency through course-level tags, and we will instead track it through program learning outcomes and program-level assessment.
On October 21, 2022 the Council approved an implementation plan for this assessment and tracking change, and as a result of this plan, effective Fall 2023, the Writing in the Major Proficiency and Experience graduation requirement be removed from the Degree Progress Report for student-level tracking.
In lieu of DPR level-tracking each academic program will be required, via the Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness program evaluation process, to write and assess one learning outcome that best represents the conventions of writing in their discipline. This will require each program to develop assessments and measures appropriate to their disciplines – many of which can be used from WiM-tagged courses. In this way, students will receive the instruction they need regarding discipline-specific writing, and departments will be able to deliver discipline-specific writing instruction without having to confine that instruction to a single course. Academic programs that distribute the teaching of writing across the program sequence (which is best practice) would no longer need to place the proficiency tag on every course that delivers writing instruction to ensure students receive the tag. Instead, they can concentrate on developing student proficiency in discipline-specific writing in the way that makes the most sense for their program.
This approved change and implementation plan honors the true intent of the Writing in the Major Proficiency and values the tremendous work done by faculty to develop WiM-tagged courses, learning outcomes, and assessments. During the transition to this new method of tracking and assessing Writing in the Major, the Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness will work closely with faculty and programs to write discipline-specific learning outcomes for Writing in the Major and to develop appropriate measures to assess this writing.
Questions related to this change can be directed to the Office of General Education at theccmail@smu.edu.
Sincerely,
Sheri Kunovich
Associate Provost for Student Academic Engagement & Success
Dayna Oscherwitz
Associate Provost for Institutional Planning and Effectiveness
Dustin Grabsch
Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education & Academic Success