Overlay courses may not be ready until Spring 2013
General education requirements for incoming freshmen will be different from the requirements that have been in place for more than two decades.
These requirements will include new and revised classes that currently meet general education requirements and a new concept of overlay courses, which were all discussed at the Carolina Core Update forum Tuesday in the Russell House Theater.
The new requirements, or Carolina Core, will be implemented starting Fall 2012. However, some new courses need time to go through the approval process and may not exist until January 2013, which is the deadline for general education courses to be resubmitted for inclusion in the Carolina Core.
Students who start next fall, when certain requirements may not exist, can wait until later semesters to take the classes after they come to fruition.
Some of the classes that need approval are overlay courses. An overlay course is defined as "a course that's able to meet more than one requirement simultaneously," according to Joseph Rackers, faculty co-chair of the Carolina Core Committee.
Only certain Carolina Core components can have overlay courses. The eligible components include Information Literacy; Effective, Engaged and Persuasive Communication; and Values, Ethics and Social Responsibility.
Overlay courses take a while to develop because proposers of the classes come from different departments and even different colleges.
"The most important goal is that overlay courses are excellent courses that are beneficial to students and will be really a valuable part of the students' education, rather than how fast the overlay course is developed," Rackers said.
An electronic process has helped streamline course approval, and a new website will allow students to see information about approved courses, such as a prototype course syllabus.
Integrative courses are another aspect to Carolina Core and are major-specific courses students will take when they are in upper division.
While the curriculum will be updated, advisement will continue as it has existed and is separate from Carolina Core, according to Helen Doerpinghaus, administrative co-chair of the Carolina Core Committee.
The Office of the Provost is considering ways to standardize advising across the campus, Doerpinghaus said. She added that advisers will be updated on the Carolina Core requirements on April 17.
"We're trying to move toward more standard ways of scheduling advising sessions, more standard checklists, so every student and adviser touches on important issues when they meet and the provost office providing more information about advisement," Doerpinghaus said.
She added that while advisement is a separate issue from Carolina Core, advisers will need more information on the Carolina Core to be effective.
The Carolina Core revision process began in 2005, and the Carolina Core Committee was created in 2008 under former President Andrew Sorenson. In 2009 the Faculty Senate approved the core components and learning outcomes, and in 2010 the credit hours for each component were approved. Currently, 124 courses have been proposed and exist at some level in the approval process, Rackers said.
"Faculty members are giving these courses a truly fresh look for the first time after a long period of time since the general education curriculum was last looked at at this university," Rackers said. "We think that process is a very healthy one where faculty members have an opportunity to look at what they've been doing, to look at the new learning outcomes in the Core and to react accordingly so they feel that their course is modern and in keeping with the learning outcomes that we're assessing in the core."