Core Education Committee

Voting members present: Aidas Banaitis, Geoffrey Barstow, Kelsey Emard, Daniel Faltesek, Colin Johnson, Lori McGraw, Brian Mills, Rene Reitsma, Randy Rosenberger, Kari-Lyn Sakuma, Paula Weiss
Voting members absent: Abigail Crowell, Matthew Kennedy
Ex-officio members present: Assessment & Accreditation – Heath Henry; Core Education – McKenzie Huber; Ecampus – Karen Watte; Difference, Power & Oppression – Natchee Barnd; WIC – Sarah Perrault
Guests: Pat Ball, Stephanie Baugh, Kristin Nagy Catz, Andrew Valls

Course reviews

• COMM 111Z Public Speaking (Media, Comm, Society) – second review
  • Responded to committee concerns.
  • Noted that OSU needs more Open Educational Resource (OER) support.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 1 abstention.

• SUS 103 Intro to Climate Change (Scientific Inquiry and Analysis)
  • Credit hour issue has been addressed.
  • They want students to sign up for Tophat, get the Tophat workbook and the textbook – fees add up to about $100.
  • Lab component – titles for the labs, but no descriptions were provided. What are the labs? Where are the field trips going? Also unclear what the Ecampus students are doing for their labs.
  • Their essential assignment is marked as a performance; why?
    • A lab can be marked as a performance.
  • Unclear how their essential assignment meets Learning Outcome (LO) 3.

Action: Motion to send back and request justification for cost of materials; the content of the labs (on campus and Ecampus); and how the essential assignment for LO3 functions and how it is assessed; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• BI 221 Principles of Biology: Cells (Scientific Inquiry and Analysis)
• BI 222 Principles of Biology: Organisms (Scientific Inquiry and Analysis)
• BI 223 Principles of Biology: Populations (Scientific Inquiry and Analysis)
  • All BI 22X courses have similar issues.
  • For transfer purposes, all three need to be in Core Education
  • Course materials are expensive.
    • The reviewer felt they provided a good explanation for why they selected those materials.
  • LO3 – they have a good discussion, but the assignment is not listed in the graded assignments. Is it part of the final term project? Is it an ungraded assignment? Where is this assignment that assesses LO3 and how much is it worth?
  • Other parts of the course looked good.

Action: Motion to send back all BI 22X to clarify connection to LO3; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

Policy

• Learning Outcome Assessment
  • Essential/Signature Assignment
    • PHS 104
      • Curriculum Council rolled it back because the course did not have one specific essential assignment.
      • The originator resubmitted with a revised essential assignment.
        • LO3 Essential assignment description in CIM: Student achievement of this outcome is measured through evaluation of their active engagement in lecture engagement and a short reflection exercise. For the given example, grades are assigned using a rubric analysis of whether students actively participate in both the discussion and the reflection exercise where they must draw conclusions around the topic of our current cultural dynamic which often denies and disparages scientific facts in the pursuit of political or religious goals; and their comments must be consistent with observations and examples they draw from their life experiences.
        • LO2 Essential Assignment description in CIM: Student achievement of this outcome for this particular laboratory assignment is measured through evaluation of a returned laboratory report. Grades are assigned using a rubric analysis of whether students’ accumulated data sets, observations, and findings fit known conclusions. If inconsistencies in results are noted, students are allowed to track down the errors and resubmit a corrected result.
    • What should reviewers be looking for in essential assignments and what should be passed along?
      • Engagement is not learning and is not assessable.
      • Tracking things during the course is not how the assessment office conceived of this student work being submitted.
      • Essential Assignments should be specific. The Committee will roll back PHS 104 and request that they be more specific about their essential assignments.

Course reviews

• REL 216 Newer Religions of the World (Arts and Humanities – General)
  • A one-week membership to Netflix is a requirement for the course – this feels like an odd requirement. Can OSU provide this movie via Canopy? Is there another way to access this movie?
    • How is this different from requiring students to get a subscription to Tophat?
      • HB2119 – Prohibits the selling of anything outside of the university bookstore.
        • Is there a way for this to be listed in the bookstore?
        • Isn't the requirement that the college "prominently displays the estimated cost for all required course materials"...not that they facilitate the purchase of everything?
  • Discussion will continue at the next meeting.
• ATS 201 Climate Science (Scientific Inquiry and Analysis)
  • The class is well done, but the labs, especially Ecampus, are lacking content details.

Action: Motion to send back and request more details on the labs; seconded. The motion passed with 10 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 1 abstention.

• HDFS 233 Introduction to the field of early childhood (Beyond OSU I & II)
  • The LOCR does stipulate that a course can meet both categories I and II.
  • Seemed very relevant.
  • The LOs have asterisks, but they don’t seem to be related to anything, which feels confusing.
    • The asterisks are from the LOCR document.
  • Pre-requisites: Says they should take Transitions first, but how is it confirmed?
  • Does not clarify if it is credit or non-credit.
  • They note that sharing any documents or course materials online will result in a punishment of a failing grade.
  • The essential assignment for LO1 is unclear.
    • The essential assignment is a resume; it does not feel sufficient.
      • A culminating reflection is included so there are additional components to the assignment.
  • The essential assignment for Beyond OSU II is an interview also includes a reflection.
  • Discussion will continue at the next meeting.
• CHEM 121 General Chemistry (Scientific Inquiry and Analysis)
  • Will be discussed at the next meeting.
• BHS 345 Biological Basis of Neuropathology (WIC – new course proposal)
  • Will be discussed at the next meeting.
• The committee agreed to meet for a brief meeting on March 21, 2024, from 10:00-10:30 AM.