Call for 2014-15 GUR Link Proposals
The Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) has endorsed piloting GUR links aimed at strengthening the first general education learning outcome around written, oral, and visual literacy and is issuing a call for proposals. Specifically, this competency expects student to analyze and communicate ideas effectively in oral, written, and visual forms. A link refers to two courses designed to complement each other, with students dual-enrolled in the two courses within the same academic quarter. At least one of the two courses must be a GUR or a Writing Proficiency Course.
Purpose: Students would enroll in a link with the goal of receiving integrated instruction in disciplinary content along with academic skills development. The link would also provide an opportunity to enhance the general education experience for students beyond the first-year and to provide more coherence across the GURs.
Example: A link might pair a Communication, Block C GUR writing course, such as English 201 (“Writing in the Humanities”) with a 200 or 300-level course in any discipline. As part of the general education offerings, Writing Proficiency courses at the 300-level are also eligible for these linkages. For example, a link might pair Library 201 (“Introduction to Research Strategies “) with a 300-level WP2 or WP3 course.
Support and Expectations: Faculty selected to participate in the pilot links would receive a one-time $1,000 stipend each to develop a link, plan for assessing the GUR competencies addressed by the link, coordinate the instruction, and provide a brief follow-up report to CUE assessing its results. The link partners will be expected to coordinate their learning objectives as well as scheduling their major assignments in advance of the quarter when the link is offered, but are not expected to evaluate common products. Each course in the link will be offered as a separate class, but coordinated with its partner course before and during the quarter in which the link is offered. The 1-2 page assessment write-up should include numbers enrolled and retained, as well as evidence of learning gains and is due to CUE by the end of the quarter following the link offering. Stipends will be issued after submission of this write-up.
Special Considerations:
- To enable dual enrollment, each course requires a separate Link CRN so it’s important for faculty considering a link to: (1) receive endorsement from department chairs, (2) submit a proposal to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) for review, and (3) confirm the courses to be linked with the Registrar’s office well in advance of posting the courses on Classfinder.
- While the optimal link in terms of faculty coordination pairs two courses with the same enrollment (preferably 25-30), it is possible to link courses with varying enrollment sizes. - At least one of the courses in the link needs to be designated as a GUR.
- To enable broader access to Links, the fewer the prereqs to the individual courses, the better.
Application Process: Faculty interested in developing a link should apply as a pair and senda brief write-up with the following information to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE),cue@wwu.edu
- Faculty partner names and departments
- Course numbers, titles, credits, and GUR categories to be linked
- Academic quarter proposed for the link (can be any quarter in 2014-15)
- Primary intended audience: (a) first-year through jr. year, b) sophomores, or c) sophomores and juniors)
- Academic literacy skills (written/oral/visual) to be addressed
- Disciplinary content focus
- Brief rationale (200-250 words) explaining how you think this particular link will enhance student learning and how you intend to help students understand that there is a deliberate linkage.
Link applications will be reviewed by CUE as they are received, but proposers are encouraged to submit proposals as soon as possible.