A new core curriculum is being planned in order to provide more integrated courses for future Longwood students.
On Saturday, September 15, the Academic Core Curriculum Committee (ACCC) presented their ideas for a new core curriculum at the Board of Visitors meeting.
The new core curriculum will be an upgrade to the general education portion of the current curriculum and is hoped to feature more integrated courses.
“It’s been a long time coming. We did an academic strategic plan back in 2012 that talked about general education reform. We had our accreditation review….while we passed successfully, we realized that through our self-study that there were some things that we could improve in general education,” says Dr. Larissa Fergeson, the vice-chair of the ACCC.
The reasons for reform of the curriculum vary from irrelevant goals for the current century tofaculty workload related to teaching general education courses.
During the meeting, the concern for student feedback was brought up by a board member. So far the ACCC has not collected any feedback from current students, but collected surveys from past seniors and LSEM students concerning what they would like to see in the new curriculum.
The ACCC states that the new core curriculum will hopefully reducefaculty workload and bring about fully funded and professionally staffed center that address student development in core competencies.
One board member brought up the need to focus on how the new core curriculum will help students connect general education to their future workplace. Additionally, another board member believed that the new core curriculum needed to focus on shaping community leaders and transforming the community.
The ACCC discussed the two models of general education, distributive and integrative. According to a 2009 AAC&U survey presented by the ACCC, 64 percent of schools fell between the distributive and integrative models. Around 18 percent fell within the integrative model and 15 percent fell within the distributive model. Longwood’s current general education falls within the distributive model, with some integrative influence. The new core curriculum is hoped to be a mix of the two models.
Three levels of the core curriculum were proposed to the board. The goals of the “foundation” level include diverse cultural perspective, writing and speaking for different audiences and creative artistic expression. The second, the “perspectives” level, includes goals such as using evidence to construct arguments and using information to ask good questions. The third, the “capstone” level, includes goals like ethics of personal decision-making and using civil discourse.
“The idea is that we would move toward a more integrated curriculum where students might take a core class in common at the foundations level or at the perspectives level or at the capstone level. Those courses would be distinctive to Longwood and could not be transferred in. But our committee is just at the ideas stage and hasn’t determined any of the details yet. We are still evaluating and seeking feedback from stakeholders on campus,” says Fergeson.
The current core curriculum outlines 14 goals and 50 outcomes for students, while the new core curriculum proposes three goals and 18 outcomes. Unlike the current general education of having SCHEV core competencies assessed separately from general education, the new proposal is to have these assessed within the core curriculum instead.
The new core curriculum also proposes that speaking and writing intensive courses will be assessed within the core curriculum instead of within the major. It also proposes that some core curriculum courses will be counted towards a major, instead of the current standard of Goals 1-13 not being able to be counted towards a major.
The current general education model requires an internship, but the proposed core curriculum presents the idea of having internship requirements decided by the major. The ACCC is also considering changes to foreign language requirements.
As far as the program structure, the ACCC is considering Longwood-distinctive courses that cannot be transferred in which would begin in the “perspectives” level of the curriculum. Transfer students have been taken into consideration, and the ACCC acknowledges that it would require looking at and possibly revising articulation agreements for transfer students.
As far as budget impact, the ACCC is considering the possibility of charging students by semester instead of credit hours. This would mean that it would cost a student the same price to take 18 credits a semester as it would for a student to take 15 credits a semester.
The concern for additional faculty was addressed by the ACCC with the possibility of hiring lecturers for some new courses and make general adjustments.
Other budget impacts include faculty workload. The ACCC acknowledged the need to consider research and scholarships, as well as faculty salary. Removing advising responsibility from faculty will also be considered.
This week, the goals and outcomes of the proposed core curriculum will be presented to the Faculty Senate for approval.
The future plans for the core curriculum include holding workshops with faculty, staff, and students in order to gain feedback on the program structure and revising the program structure based on the feedback.
Next semester, the ACCC plans on beginning faculty and course development. The new program structure will then be sent to the Faculty Senate for approval.
By Fall 2017, the ACCC plans on starting the new core curriculum for its first year. Incoming transfer students and all other students except for incoming freshmen would still be under the old curriculum. The ACCC hopes to have incoming transfers under the new core curriculum by 2018 and that all incoming students for 2019 will be under it.
“Well I think there’s lot of good things about our current general education program. But I think that program was put in place in 2002. And so there’s been a lot of changes in the world since 2002. Our students have changed. And I think that it’s an opportunity to revisit general education for the 21st century. So, I think it’s timely. It’s important that we do it and hopefully it will be more fun,” says Fergeson.
The Board of Visitors will hold another meeting in December to discuss the progress on the new core curriculum.
