Student Learning Showcase
The Curriculum in Action
Foundation
Foundations for Lifelong Learning
Exploration
Critical and Creative Thinking Across the Disciplines
Integration
Advancing and Applying Liberal Arts and Sciences Learning
The Curriculum
- FYE
- First Year Writing Program
- Mathematics
- Speech (English Studies)
- World Languages (Humanities)
- Personal Wellness
- Campaign Resources
- Counseling Services
- Disability Services
- Recreation Services
- Civic Learning
- Constitution Day
Overview of Program
Foundation: Foundations for Lifelong Learning
Foundation courses are mostly taken in the first year and are intended to help you develop the skills necessary to succeed personally, academically, and professionally as well as increase your familiarity with campus resources. In these five courses, you will focus on college-level reading, writing, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, and speaking and listening (through speech or World Languages).
Benefits:
- Foundational skills
- Cohesive first-year: especially for first-generation and at-risk students
Exploration: Critical and Creative Thinking across the Disciplines
Exploration courses will allow you to experience topics from different viewpoints and use a variety of methods to think about our world - past, present, and future - as well as build upon the skills you develop in the Foundation. In these nine courses, you will be exposed to a number of artistic, civic, diverse, ethical, historical, literary, and scientific perspectives while expanding your approaches to thinking and wellness.
Benefits:
- Building on Foundation skills (plus)
- Creative Thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Digital Literacy
- Information Literacy
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Reading
- World Languages, Speaking & Listening
- Writing
- Breadth of exploration and exposure
- Balance of interdisciplinary and disciplinary
Integration: Advancing and Applying Liberal Arts and Sciences Learning
Integration courses provide the opportunity to combine what you have learned in the General Education program and your major to think about more advanced ideas and problems. In these three courses, you will learn how to take knowledge and skills from different perspectives and apply them in new ways. You will also participate in a high-impact, experiential learning experience, ranging from community engagement and study abroad to independent research and internships.
Benefits:
- Continued development of Exploration learning
- Ability to choose focus
- Potential to take a minor to satisfy requirement (plus)
- High-impact practice
- Civic Engagement
- Experiential Learning/Internship
- Student-Faculty Research Project
- Student-Faculty Creative Project
- Study Abroad
- Team Teaching/Learning Community
- Writing Intensive
General Education Program
Overview of Program
General Education Program Brochure (PDF)
General Education Learning Outcomes
Foundation: Foundations for Lifelong Learning
Foundation courses are mostly taken in the first year and are intended to help you develop the skills necessary to succeed personally, academically, and professionally as well as increase your familiarity with campus resources. In these five courses, you will focus on college-level reading, writing, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, and speaking and listening (through speech or World Languages).
Benefits:
- Foundational skills
- Cohesive first-year: especially for first-generation and at-risk students
Exploration: Critical and Creative Thinking across the Disciplines
Exploration courses will allow you to experience topics from different viewpoints and use a variety of methods to think about our world - past, present, and future - as well as build upon the skills you develop in the Foundation. In these nine courses, you will be exposed to a number of artistic, civic, diverse, ethical, historical, literary, and scientific perspectives while expanding your approaches to thinking and wellness.
Benefits:
- Building on Foundation skills (plus)
- Creative Thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Digital Literacy
- Information Literacy
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Reading
- World Languages, Speaking and Listening
- Writing
- Breadth of exploration and exposure
- Balance of interdisciplinary and disciplinary
Integration: Advancing and Applying Liberal Arts and Sciences Learning
Integration courses provide the opportunity to combine what you have learned in the General Education program and your major to think about more advanced ideas and problems. In these three courses, you will learn how to take knowledge and skills from different perspectives and apply them in new ways. You will also participate in a high-impact, experiential learning experience, ranging from community engagement and study abroad to independent research and internships.
Benefits:
- Continued development of Exploration learning
- Ability to choose focus
- Potential to take a minor to satisfy requirement (plus)
- High-impact practice
- Civic Engagement
- Experiential Learning/Internship
- Student-Faculty Research Project
- Student-Faculty Creative Project
- Study Abroad
- Team Teaching/Learning Community
- Writing Intensive
For Transfer Students
- General Education Program Brochure (PDF)
- General Education Learning Outcomes
- Liberal Arts and Sciences Program (students admitted prior to Fall 2021)
- Interactive Requirements Tool (Coming soon)
- Resources
- Skill Guides
- Tutor Center
- Math Center
- Benefits of Taking a Minor
- For Transfer Students
- Lifelong Learning
- Teaching resources
- Syllabi materials
- Skill Guides
- CTL
- Advising resources
- Interactive Advising Tool
- Benefits of Taking a Minor
- Liberal Arts and Sciences Program (students admitted prior to Fall 2021)
- Advising Integration Pathways (see graphic below)
- MAJ approved courses
- Courses with approved designations
- AUC:
- For Transfer Students
- Archive
The Fitchburg State University General Education Program Area is designed to serve as the centralized site for general education as a discrete yet interconnected university program. It facilitates the overarching goals and maintenance of the program, including systematic assessment of learning outcomes, builds relationships with departments and offices across campus in order to manage implementation, and emphasizes how the program intersects with and supports majors. To achieve this purpose, the Program Area seeks to communicate the value of a liberal arts and sciences general education curriculum to all university stakeholders. It consistently evaluates the program as a whole in order to improve its effectiveness in helping students achieve learning outcomes and ensure that the program is aligned with the University Strategic Plan and Institutional Learning Priorities.
Procedures
- The core membership is comprised of the Program Area Chair, the Dean of Arts and Sciences, the AUC General Education Subcommittee Chair, the First-Year Experience Coordinator, the Director of Assessment, three Department Chairs representing different schools, and three faculty members representing the three tiers of the program.
- Regular meetings are open to any university personnel with a vested interest in the General Education program, especially faculty teaching courses in the curriculum.
- Programmatic modifications to the General Education program are proposed through the AUC governance process. Departments maintain control over developing and scheduling General Education courses, and governance committees maintain control over approving individual courses.
Committee
- Kisha Tracy, Chair, General Education Program Area
- Franca Barricelli, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
- Karina Bautista, Foundation Representative
- Lyndsey Benharris, Chair, Education
- Laura Garofoli, FYE Coordinator
- Cate Kaluzny, Director of Assessment
- Sara Levine, Dean of Arts and Sciences
- Zachary Miner, Exploration Representative
- Reid Parsons, Integration Representative
- Brian Schremser, SGOCE Representative
- Peter Staab, Chair, Mathematics
- Jason Talanian, Chair, EXSS
- Ambassador and Assessment Program 2022-2023
- Chris Cratsley (Quantitative Reasoning, Procedural and Logical Thinking)
- Katherine Jewell (Inquiry and Analysis)
- Kori Ryan (Personal Wellness, Ethical Reasoning, Integrative Learning)
- Steve Edwards (Information Literacy, Reading, and Writing)
- Collin Syfert (Civic Learning, Diverse Perspectives, World Languages Speaking and Listening)
Email:generaled@fitchburgstate.edu
Social Media:
Professor Kisha Tracy, English Studies Department
Anna M. Clementi
