GEB at Cal Poly

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GEB at Cal Poly Since 2001
A Presentation to the Cal Poly Academic
Senate September 14, 2009
Prepared by Doug Keesey, GE Director Katie Tool,
GE Assistant
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GEB Hiding in Plain Sight?
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What is GEB? General Education Breadth courses
help to ensure that students receive a
comprehensive, whole, fully rounded education.
Consequently, the vast majority of GEB courses
are courses outside the major.   General
Education Unlike major courses which are often
specific and applied, General Education courses
are broad and foundational, equipping students
with a wide spectrum of knowledge and skills that
can be applied in a variety of different
situations. For example, a GEB composition
course teaches students the fundamentals of
writing which are broadly applicable, including
how to write in different ways to different
audiences and for different purposes. Students
need to learn how to write, think critically, and
do science in a wide variety of contexts. Not
only are careers becoming increasingly
interdisciplinary, but students are likely to
change jobs several times in their working lives,
and there is much to life beyond ones job
informed voting, social engagement, intercultural
relations, and sustainability efforts all require
knowledge and skills beyond one technical field.
Foundational GEB courses should function as
support courses for the technical programs by
helping students to succeed in their major
classes, but General Education courses also
provide the broad knowledge and variably
applicable skills that students will need in the
important areas of their lives beyond their
particular careers.   And Breadth Unlike major
courses which focus on the specific content area
of the major, General Education Breadth courses
provide students with breadth of knowledge in
disciplinary subjects outside the major, for
example, a History major might take Energy for a
Sustainable Society (Area F), and an Engineering
major could take Music (Area C).
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Visionary Pragmatism and GE An undergraduate
education should achieve a wholeness that
includes general education and specialized study
in a major. Students should not be required to
study subjects in general education that they
have already studied in their major. Neither
should they be encouraged to "extend" the major
by taking additional courses associated with the
major which also satisfy general education
requirements. Rather, students should be required
to study subjects in general education that
contribute to the breadth and wholeness of their
undergraduate education. For example, students in
the arts and humanities should be required to
complete general education courses that ensure
their understanding of science and technology
conversely, students in science and technology
should be required to complete general education
courses that ensure their understanding of the
arts and humanities.   --from Visionary
Pragmatism  
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The President and GE   the Resolution on the
GEB template is a significant achievement of the
Senate and the faculty who devoted considerable
time and thought to these matters. These actions
reflect a clear recognition that a complete
education--a university education--is more than
mastering specific techniques or technologies, or
sharpening various marketable skills and
proficiencies. For commitment to doing only the
former is to sell our students short it is to
leave them unprepared, unadaptable, for the
changes and uncertainties that lay ahead. There
can be no more practical an education than one
that launches a student on the course of
fulfilling his or her human capacities to reason
and to imagine freely that hones abilities to
express the results of one's thinking in speech
and in writing with logic, clarity, and grace to
understand political and social context to enjoy
an aesthetic awareness of the arts and human
behavior and to anticipate and adapt to change.
These learning goals and objectives are not the
domain of a single discipline or curricular
track. That is why we must acquaint our students
with different lenses, for none has the only or
correct or complete angle of vision. That is why
we must have a GEB program that is coherent,
flexible, solid, and respected. It should reflect
our collective statement about the goals and
objectives of a Cal Poly education, foremost of
which is the preparation of our graduates for a
lifetime of learning.   --President Warren J.
Baker
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GE at a Comprehensive Polytechnic   from the
Cal Poly Mission Statement As a polytechnic
university, Cal Poly promotes the application of
theory to practice. As a comprehensive
institution, Cal Poly provides a balanced
education in the arts, sciences, and
technology   from the Cal Poly Strategic
Plan We are both a comprehensive university and
a polytechnic university and these two
overlapping aspects of the Cal Poly identity
reinforce each other. The range of our programs
provides us intellectual breadth, balance and
institutional strength and is an important reason
for our continued success and durability. An
important arm of our strategy is to continue to
enhance this competitive advantage of our
institutional differentiation.   Regardless of
their major, all Cal Poly graduates will need
much more of their education to tackle the
challenges of the future. Of course, they will
continue to need the depth of knowledge of their
discipline that we have always provided. But
this depth must be integrated with breadth,
balance and literacy in technology, the arts and
sciencesa comprehensive polytechnic education.
Therefore, we will need to develop our programs
further to prepare all of our students regardless
of the major to become comprehensive polytechnic
graduates.   Future Cal Poly graduates should
have integrated breadth, balance and literacy in
technology, the arts and sciences and depth of
their total education to be whole-system thinkers
and leaders. These will be important
differentiators of Cal Poly graduates.  
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Forming a Whole-System Thinker
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• CSU General Education Breadth Requirements
• (Chancellors Office Executive Order No.
  595/1033)
•  
• A minimum of 72 quarter units in GEB
•  
• A minimum of 12 upper-division quarter units
•  
•  
• Area A English Language Communication and
  Critical Thinking
• A minimum of 12 quarter units
•  
•  
• Area B Scientific Inquiry and Quantitative
  Reasoning
• A minimum of 18 quarter units
•  
•  
• Area C Arts and Humanities
• A minimum of 18 quarter units
•  

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Area A English Language Communication and
Critical Thinking Minimum 12 quarter units one
course in each subarea                   Oral
Communication (4 units)                  
Written Communication (4 units)                  
Critical Thinking (4 units)  
A minimum of nine semester units or twelve
quarter units in communication in the English
language, to include both oral communication and
written communication, and in critical thinking,
to include consideration of common fallacies in
reasoning.  Students taking courses in
fulfillment of oral and written communication
will develop knowledge and understanding of the
form, content, context, and effectiveness of
communication.  Students will develop proficiency
in oral and written communication in English,
examining communication from the rhetorical
perspective and practicing reasoning and
advocacy, organization, and accuracy.  Students
will practice the discovery, critical evaluation,
and reporting of information, as well as reading,
writing, and listening effectively.  Coursework
must include active participation and practice in
both written communication and oral communication
in English.  In critical thinking courses,
students will understand logic and its relation
to language elementary inductive and deductive
processes, including an understanding of the
formal and informal fallacies of language and
thought and the ability to distinguish matters
of fact from issues of judgment or opinion.  In
critical thinking courses, students will develop
the abilities to analyze, criticize, and advocate
ideas to reason inductively and deductively and
to reach well-supported factual or judgmental
conclusions.
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Area B      Scientific Inquiry and
Quantitative Reasoning Minimum of 18 quarter
units one course in each subarea          
           Physical Science (4
units)          Life Science (4 units)
Laboratory Activity associated with a science
course Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning
(4 units) 
A minimum of eighteen quarter units to include
inquiry into the physical universe and its life
forms, with some immediate participation in a
related laboratory activity, and into
mathematical concepts and quantitative reasoning
and their applications.  In physical science,
life science, and the laboratory activity,
students develop knowledge of scientific
theories, concepts, and data about both living
and non-living systems.  Students will achieve an
understanding and appreciation of scientific
principles and the scientific method, as well as
the potential limits of scientific endeavors and
the value systems and ethics associated with
human inquiry.  The nature and extent of
laboratory experience is to be determined by each
campus through its established curricular
procedures.   Courses in mathematics/quantitativ
e reasoning shall have an explicit intermediate
algebra prerequisite, and students shall develop
skills and understanding beyond the level of
intermediate algebra.  Students will not just
practice computational skills, but will be able
to explain and apply basic mathematical concepts
and will be able to solve problems through
quantitative reasoning.
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Area C     Arts and Humanities Minimum
of 18 quarter units at least one course
completed in each of these two subareas     Arts
  Arts, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theater    Humanit
ies Literature, Philosophy, Languages Other
than English  
A minimum of eighteen quarter units among the
arts, literature, philosophy and foreign
languages.  Across the disciplines in their Area
C coursework, students will cultivate intellect,
imagination, sensibility and sensitivity. 
Students will respond subjectively as well as
objectively to aesthetic experiences and will
develop an understanding of the integrity of both
emotional and intellectual responses.  Students
will cultivate and refine their affective,
cognitive, and physical faculties through
studying great works of the human imagination. 
Activities may include participation in
individual aesthetic, creative experiences
however Area C excludes courses that exclusively
emphasize skills development.   In their
intellectual and subjective considerations,
students will develop a better understanding of
the interrelationship between the self and the
creative arts and of the humanities in a variety
of cultures.  Students may take courses in
languages other than English in partial
fulfillment of this requirement if the courses do
not focus solely on skills acquisition but also
contain a substantial cultural component. 
This may include literature, among other content.
Coursework taken in fulfillment of this
requirement must include a reasonable
distribution among the subareas specified, as
opposed to restricting the entire number of units
required to a single subarea.
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Area D      Social Sciences Minimum of 18
quarter unitsAnthropology, Economics, Ethnic
Studies, Gender Studies, Geography, History,
Political Science, Psychology, Sociology          
        
A minimum of eighteen quarter units dealing with
human social, political, and economic
institutions and behavior and their historical
background.  Students learn from courses in
multiple Area D disciplines that human social,
political and economic institutions and behavior
are inextricably interwoven.  Through fulfillment
of the Area D requirement, students will develop
an understanding of problems and issues from the
respective disciplinary perspectives and will
examine issues in their contemporary as well as
historical settings and in a variety of cultural
contexts.  Students will explore the principles,
methodologies, value systems and ethics employed
in social scientific inquiry. Courses that
emphasize skills development and professional
preparation are excluded from Area D.  Coursework
taken in fulfillment of this requirement must
include a reasonable distribution among the
subareas specified, as opposed to restricting the
entire number of units required to a single
subarea.    
Area E Lifelong Learning / Self-Development Minimu
m of 4 quarter units  
A minimum of four quarter units in study designed
to equip learners for lifelong understanding and
development of themselves as integrated
physiological, social, and psychological beings.
Student learning in this area shall include
selective consideration of content such as human
behavior, sexuality, nutrition, physical and
mental health, stress management, financial
literacy, social relationships and relationships
with the environment, as well as implications of
death and dying and avenues for lifelong
learning.  Physical activity may be included,
provided that it is an integral part of the study
elements described herein.
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How comprehensive is our students
education?   students in the arts and humanities
should be required to complete general education
courses that ensure their understanding of
science and technology conversely, students in
science and technology should be required to
complete general education courses that ensure
their understanding of the arts and
humanities. --recommendations from Visionary
Pragmatism   Under Cal Polys Current GE
Program   Students in the College of Liberal
Arts take an additional Science and Math course
(Area B elective).   Students in the College of
Liberal Arts and all collegesexcept
Engineeringtake a Society, Technology, and
Ethics course (Area F).   Students in the
Colleges of Agriculture, Architecture, Business,
and Science and Math take an additional Arts and
Humanities course (Area C elective).   Students
in the College of Engineering do not take an
additional Arts and Humanities course (Area C
elective).   Students in the College of
Engineering take one less Society and the
Individual course (D5, such as History, Political
Science, or Psychology) than other students.
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Progress-to-Degree Efficiencies in the Current GE
Program     The total number of required GE units
is at the minimum of 72 allowed by the
CSU.   Except in a few special cases, all GE
courses are 4 units, so there are no 2- or 3-unit
courses leading students to take extra GE units
or leading to scheduling difficulties or course
conflicts.   In most GE areas, there is a wide
range of GE courses from which students can
choose to fit their schedules (and their
particular interests).   GE D1 double-counts as
satisfying the CSU-mandated 40404 requirement
(U.S. history, U.S. government, California
government).   Numerous GE C4 courses
double-count as satisfying the CSU-mandated GWR
(Graduation Writing Requirement).   Numerous GE C
and D courses double-count as satisfying Cal
Polys USCP requirement (United States Cultural
Pluralism).
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• CSU GEB Learning Outcomes
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• Background
• CSU General Education Breadth requirements have
  been designed to complement the major program and
  electives completed by each baccalaureate
  candidate, to assure that graduates have made
  noteworthy progress toward becoming truly
  educated persons. These requirements are
  designed to provide the knowledge, skills,
  experiences, and perspectives that will enable
  CSU students to expand their capacities to take
  part in a wide range of human interests and
  activities to confront personal, cultural,
  moral, and social problems that are an inevitable
  part of human life and to cultivate both the
  requisite skills and enthusiasm for lifelong
  learning.  Faculty are encouraged to assist
  students in making connections among disciplines
  to achieve coherence in the undergraduate
  educational experience. 
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• Courses approved for GE-Breadth should be
  responsive to the need for students to have
  developed knowledge of, or skills related to,
  quantitative reasoning, information literacy,
  intellectual inquiry, global awareness and
  understanding, human diversity, civic engagement,
  communication competence, ethical
  decision-making, environmental systems,
  technology, lifelong learning and
  self-development, and physical and emotional
  health throughout a lifetime. 
•  
• CSU GEB Student Learning Outcomes
• Each CSU campus shall define its GE student
  learning outcomes, to fit within the framework of
  the four Essential Learning Outcomes drawn from
  the Liberal Education and Americas Promise
  (LEAP) campaign, an initiative of the Association
  of American Colleges and Universities.  
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• LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes Framework
• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the
  Physical and Natural World
• Intellectual and Practical Skills
• Personal and Social Responsibility
• Integrative Learning 

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Cal Poly GEB Learning Objectives   Area A1
Expository Writing   Educational Objectives for
Students After completing the first foundation
course in writing, students are expected to have
achieved facility in expository writing and
should have an enhanced ability to EO1 explore
and express ideas through writing EO2 understand
all aspects of the writing actincluding
prewriting, drafting, revision, editing, and
proofreadingand their relationship to each
other EO3 assess the writers audience and apply
the appropriate organizational approaches and
language EO4 recognize that writing and
rewriting are necessary to the discovery,
clarification, and development of a students
ideas EO5 write essays that are clear, unified,
coherent at all levels, and free of significant
errors in grammar and spelling EO6 read
critically to derive rhetorical principles and
tactics for the students own writing EO7
understand the importance of ethics in written
communication.   Criteria for Courses The course
proposal and extended course outline must clearly
indicate how the course will include at least
4,000 words of original writing for evaluation
and provide both instruction and practice in CR1
the writing process (including prewriting,
drafting, revising, editing, and
proofreading) CR2 structuring effective
paragraphs which focus on a single issue and
reflect both unity and coherence CR3 the major
organizational approaches to expository writing
(e.g., comparison and contrast, process,
classification and division) CR4 writing
expository essays (which incorporate narration
and description) that are appropriately adjusted
to the writers audience CR5 precise and
concrete usage with the appropriate levels of
diction, voice, imagery, and figures of speech
adapted to the intended audience CR6 the use of
standard grammar and punctuation CR7 close
critical reading critically assessing students
own and others papers.
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ULOs and GE Courses
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GE Governance Structure   general education
will henceforth be viewed and treated as a
coherent program rather than a disaggregated set
of course requirements. For this reason, the
membership of the committee responsible for the
program is constituted similar to that of a
department or program faculty and the processes
through which the general education program
handles courses, curriculum and other policy and
operational issues, are similar to the way other
academic programs and departments handle these
same matters.   --President Warren J. Baker  
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GE Course Proposal Review   Cal Poly's General
Education and Breadth program is the
administrative responsibility of the GEB
Committee. This administrative function is meant
to be consistent with normal university
procedures involving curriculum and to parallel
the process used by departments in making
programmatic proposals. Just as a department
makes curricular and programmatic recommendations
via a dean to the Academic Senate, the GEB
Committee, after appropriate consultation with
affected units, makes curricular and programmatic
recommendations to the Academic Senate via the
provost. The provost submits the GEB proposals to
the Academic Senate for review and
recommendations. The ultimate decisions and
responsibilities for the General Education and
Breadth program, as with any program, lie with
the president. --President Warren J. Baker
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GE Course Advocacy and Appeals Process   GE Area
Chair (individual consultation)   GE Area
Committee (joint discussion)   GE Governance
Committee (joint discussion)   Provost (appeal)  
Academic Senate (joint discussion)   President (ap
peal)   GE Course Proposal Review
Statistics (Number of GE Course Proposals
Submitted Number Approved)
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• GE Assessment and Improvement
• through the ULO Project
•  
• The overall vision
•  
• The three divisionsGE, the major departments,
  and Student Affairsare partners in helping
  students to achieve the University Learning
  Objectives. As students take GE and major
  courses and engage in co-curricular activities,
  they should be able to perceive the entire
  curriculum as a coherent and mutually reinforcing
  learning experience. The ULO Consultants will
  work to coordinate the educational efforts of all
  three divisions and, in relation to each ULO, to
  advise them on
• assessment
• pedagogy
• curriculum.
• Based on knowledge of best practices and on
  evidence of student learning gathered through
  direct and indirect assessment, the Consultants
  will identify specific ways to improve student
  attainment of the ULOs. Pedagogical suggestions
  will be conveyed electronically and through CTL
  workshops.
• Curricular suggestions will be conveyed to the
  appropriate curriculum committees, most
  intensively during academic program review.

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GE Assessment and Improvement through the ULO
Project    The ULO Committees are composed of
primarily faculty but also staff from across
divisions GE, major departments, and Student
Affairs. It is the Committees charge to help
draw together and coordinate ULO work being done
by the different divisions. The Committees also
serve as a central repository for information on
the teaching, learning, and assessment of the
ULOs. To take one example, How well are Cal
Poly students writing? How is this measured?
Have there been measurable improvements?   The
ULO Committees, with campus-wide input, devise
scoring rubrics so that the assessment of student
learning will be valid and reliable across the
different divisions and throughout a students
academic career. In this way, we can track
students development as they achieve growth in
the attainment of the learning objectives. For
purposes of accountability, we can also determine
the value added by a Cal Poly education.   The
ULO Committees analyze the assessment data and
then close the loop, advising the three divisions
on where specific pedagogical and curricular
changes can be made in order to improve student
learning. Importantly, the Committees, working
with the Center for Teaching and Learning, offer
faculty development workshops, which serve as a
central venue for conversation across divisions
and which provide teaching strategies for faculty
on how to implement changes.   Once faculty have
made changes, the ULO Committees coordinate
another round of assessment to determine how much
student learning has actually improved, as
measured against the baseline established during
the previous assessment. The assessment process
is thus ongoing and sustainable.
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ULO Consultants   The ULO Project continues in
2009-10 with five Consultants leading campus-wide
assessment efforts to measure and improve student
attainment of the university learning
objectives   Diversity Dan Villegas
dvillega_at_calpoly.edu     Ethics Pat Lin
palin_at_calpoly.edu     Lifelong Learning/ Info
Competency Navjit Brar nbrar_at_calpoly.edu  
  Oral Communication Lorraine Jackson
ljackson_at_calpoly.edu     Writing Brenda
Helmbrecht bhelmbre_at_calpoly.edu  
You are invited to join the ULO effort of your
choice by contacting any one of these
Consultants.   For more information, see
www.ulo.calpoly.edu
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Where to next?