USING SOTL TO MAP THE

TERRAIN OF GENERAL

EDUCATIONA CAMPUS STORY

Lisa Hunter, John Draeger, and Susan McMillen

SUNY Buffalo State

ISSoTL Annual Conference

Hamilton, Ontario

October 26, 2012

INTRODUCTION

SUNY Buffalo State (2010-2011 Statistics)

~12,000 students (undergrad & grad)

> 160 undergraduate Programs

1197 full-time faculty/staff 582 part-time faculty/staff

General Education Program = Intellectual Foundations

Distribution Model

Oversight of Faculty Resides in Departments

Collaboration

ISSoTL 2011

The Current SoTL Study

FIG – Faculty Interest group

HOW DIFFERENT IS TAKING A

GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE THAN

TAKING A COURSE IN YOUR MAJOR?

0 0

21

11

115

66

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

I haven‟t taken any gen ed

courses.

I haven‟t taken any courses for

my major

No difference Somewhat different

Extremely different

n=213

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF GENERAL

EDUCATION?

162

132

171

157

0 50 100 150

To make students more well-rounded and employable

To develop skills like writing, critical thinking, and speaking

To help students make connections outside their major

To expose students to new areas

n=213

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE

CHALLENGES WHEN TAKING A

GENERAL EDUCATION CLASS?

40

104

46

71

136

25

0 50 100 150

There are no challenges

I lack interest

I lack background knowledge

Class sizes are too large

I don‟t care as much about gen ed courses

Other

n=213

I LACK INTEREST

“Sometimes you feel like you‟re just taking the course because you have to take it, not „cause you actually want to”

“Staying focused because sometimes they‟re not gonna be as interesting as you want them to be”

“It‟s not really that intriguing or it‟s just general ed--it‟s just--it‟s not something that students look forward to”

“I didn‟t care as much”

“I lack motivation”

I LACK BACKGROUND

KNOWLEDGE

“It‟s definitely a thing that you‟re not strong in”

“You experience classes which are harder than your major

classes”

"[general education courses] required

more work from me just because I had

to do more studying. It wasn't like my major

courses that kind of come easy to me."

CLASS SIZES ARE TOO LARGE

“Unfamiliar faces in the classroom”

“Big lecture classes are a serious downfall for me. They don‟t

require attendance. It‟s based off of like three test grades. It‟s

huge classes with a lot of information, no peer like interaction, no

professor interaction really”

“Huge classes”

I DON‟T CARE AS MUCH ABOUT GEN

ED COURSES

“Major courses are taken more seriously than general education courses are because you need to take it and you need to do well in order to graduate. Sometimes depending on what general education courses students take, they look at it like it‟s a joke, which shouldn‟t be”

“And like you‟re not going to necessarily continue having classes with the professors in your general education classes so you don‟t need to build yourself any sort of like reputation around them?

“I feel like people get stuck taking things they don‟t want to and then they don‟t try and then that lowers their GPA”

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF TAKING A

GENERAL EDUCATION CLASS THAT YOU HAVE

PERSONALLY EXPERIENCED?

40

102

114

80

140

33

0 50 100 150

None

Exposes me to areas outside my major

Helps me make connections to my major

Helps me develop skills like writing, critical thinking, or speakingHelps make me more well rounded and employable

Other

n=213

EXPOSES ME TO AREAS OUTSIDE MY

MAJOR

“It‟s like you‟re not just related to your own field”

“I learned things that I never thought that I would learn before”

“I think it‟s just you learn more about things you may not have

thought you were interested in”

“So I think it just kind of opens up your eyes

to different things, different aspects of learning”

HELPS ME MAKE CONNECTIONS TO

MY MAJOR

“So all the general education classes I took some way or another

are going to kind of help me in teaching”

“Everything that I‟ve done in like my IF classes, I‟ve tried to relate

it back to my art form”

HELPS ME DEVELOP SKILLS LIKE

CRITICAL THINKING, WRITING, OR

SPEAKING “[a course] is based on critical thinking and so it taught me a lot of

stuff that prepared me for the following semester”

“You don‟t have to see on mindset always”

“Look at things from different perspectives”

“So it really did in a sense open me to things

that I wouldn‟t have considered otherwise”

HELPS MAKE ME MORE WELL

ROUNDED AND EMPLOYABLE

“We‟re gonna be interacting with different people and it helps you because then you have more in common with other people”

“And it‟s like the classes, they do help you, but students don‟t see that until the end”

“It does develop you for what‟s gonna happen after college or what you‟re gonna do in your career field”

“Knowledge is power and the more you know, the

more valuable you truly are as a person and as an asset

to society”

OTHER

Choosing a major/minor

“It also like helped me explore to see if I wanted to take a minor or not”

“I came in undeclared…so I would definitely say that that helped me kind of

either lean towards a particular major or eliminate majors”

“It just helped me figure out exactly what I wanted to do”

Meet new people

“Better working skills as a group”

“Made friends in other disciplines”

CONCLUSION

Broad Themes Collaboration

Program Structure

Number of choices

Requirement details (double dip, two-prefix rule)

General Education Faculty

Pedagogy

Assignments and Evaluation

Interaction with Students

Students in General Education Classes

Expectations

Effort

Interest

Motivation