Core Education Committee

Voting members present: Andrea Allan, Vipin Arora, Aidas Banaitis, Abigail Crowell, Liz Delf, Kelsey Emard, Daniel Faltesek, Matthew Kennedy, Lori McGraw, Brian Mills, Kari-Lyn Sakuma, Paula Weiss
Voting members absent: Holly Mitchell
Ex-officio members present: Core Education – McKenzie Huber; Curriculum Management – Stephanie Baugh; Difference, Power, and Oppression – Tenisha Tevis; Ecampus – Karen Watte; General Education Assessment – Heath Henry; WIC - Ashley Holmes
Guests: Kristin Nagy Katz, Caryn Stoess, Andrew Valls

Course Reviews

• GEOG 241 Transforming Environmental Conflicts                 DPO-Foundations
  • Some discussion of Learning Outcome (LO) 3
    •  it was decided that with the comments in CIM and the final paragraph in the essential assignment, LO3 is satisfied.
  • Proposal could be slightly improved to highlight the ways that community members dismantle systems of oppression, and more self-reflection of students’ own identities (will add to CIM comments), but the course meets the LOs and Criteria of the category and is well-designed.

Action: Motion to approve with recommendation added to CIM comments; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ENGR 102 Design Engineering and Problem Solving              Beyond I
  • Previously sent back for:
    • A more complete Cascade syllabus with course content.
    • More detail on how LO1 is assessed.
    • Clarity on how teamwork for LO2 produces career relevant artifacts
    • Learning resources in Ecampus syllabus.
  • Cascades syllabus is now a copycat of the Corvallis and Ecampus syllabus.
    • How will Ecampus attend the professional development event?
      • Answered: engineering offers virtual career events for Ecampus students
  • Teamwork for LO2 was addressed.
    • Ecampus syllabus states that no textbooks are required; overall it is clear that the course meets the LOs.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• NR 201     Managing Natural Resources for the Future          Beyond I
  • Course specific LOs support and enhance Core Education LOs.
  • The assignments referenced in the learning outcome matrix are not reflected in the evaluation of student performance in the syllabi
  • Content is referenced in the matrix that is not listed in the course content of the syllabus.
  • Methods of assessment were not listed in the course content in Corvallis and Cascades syllabi (assignment due dates, etc. were not listed), discussion of whether this is actually part of syllabus minimum requirements, it was determined that yes they need to list activities in course content.

Action: Motion to send back to harmonize the CIM form/learning outcome table and the rest of the syllabi (course content and evaluation of student learning assignments); meet university minimum syllabus requirement for listing when assignments are due in the course content table (Cascades, Corvallis); seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• MTH 241   Calculus for Management and Social Science        Quantitative Literacy
• MTH 245   Math for Management, Life, and Social Sciences   Quantitative Literacy
• MTH 251   Differential Calculus                                        Quantitative Literacy
  • Audible to evaluate and vote on 241, 245, 251 together
    • We previously sent them back for:
      • an explanation of how the essential assignment for LO 3 requires students to explain the limitations of the method
      • Ecampus redevelopment proposals
      • Textbook access code needs to refer students to the bookstore per HB2919
  • The Ecampus redevelopment proposals have not been submitted; HB2919 was addressed; limitations to method are acknowledged, though not much detail provided

Action: Motion to approve conditional upon Ecampus proposal being received for MTH 241 and partial redevelopment proposal for MTH 245 and 251; with update to Corvallis syllabus description of LO3 to match the other two syllabi for MTH 241; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• MTH 211   Foundations of Elementary Mathematics              Quantitative Literacy
  • Unclear explanation of non-Open Educational Resource (OER), $200 for Corvallis book, their argument is that students will use it for other classes, Cascades uses OER.
  • LO3 doesn’t discuss limitations; is this too discipline specific?
    • Used only in one major (Education).
      • Lengthy discussion about whether this is discipline specific - it is discipline specific (it is focused on application in K-12 education) and intended for only one major, it is a discipline-specific and major class and therefore is not appropriate for the Core Education Quantitative Literacy category.

Action: Motion to rollback to say that this is a major-specific and discipline-specific course and thus does not fit the Core Education Quantitative Literacy category; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• ANS 121   Intro to Animal Sciences                                   Scientific Inquiry
  • Reviewers concerned with whether this is basic science.
  • Do the labs require students to utilize the whole spectrum of scientific process beyond just observation?
  • Also needs an Ecampus redevelopment proposal.

Action: Motion to rollback to request clarification on how the labs require students to utilize the whole spectrum of the scientific process beyond just observation, work with Heath Henry on some typos/minor edits, and to submit an Ecampus redevelopment proposal; seconded. The motion passed with 11 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 1 abstention.

• GEOG 201 Foundations of Geospatial Science and GIS          Scientific Inquiry
  • Discussion of what qualifies as basic science vs applied science.
  • Using instrumentation does not immediately make a class applied, this class focuses on fundamental concepts and processes of laws of universe such as time, gravity, electromagnetic fields, earth systems, parallax, fundamental basics of physics, they must learn physics to develop the instrumentation.
  • Labs are non-determinist and utilize the whole spectrum of the scientific process

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• AEC 122   Intro to Climate Change Econ & Policy                                    Social Science
  • All reviewers though this course was great and clearly met LOs.

Action: Motion to approve; seconded. The motion passed with 12 votes in favor, 0 votes in opposition and 0 abstentions.

• PPOL 201  Intro to Public Policy                                                           Social Science
  • This is the fourth time the committee has reviewed this class.
    • The committee has asked for a fundamental revision after the third review.
    • Significantly more examples have been provided in this submission.
    • Course is a policy/institution course about how governments implement policies, seems to assume that policy is inherently about human behavior, all topics are policy, unclear if class meets LO1 and LO2.
    • Reviewers disagree over whether it meets the category LOs.
    • The committee will assign a third reviewer for next week and then hold a vote.

Action: Postpone until next week after getting a third review.

• ED 105     What School Taught Me About Sex                                       Social Science
  • Delayed to next meeting.
• H 256       Silence equals death: HIV stigma to global social movement      Social Science
  • Delayed to next meeting.

Minutes by Kelsey Emard

Formatted by Caitlin Calascibetta