As higher education seeks to define and justify itself in a "post-pandemic" world, it is important to understand the role of centripetal and centrifugal forces. The centrifugal approach suggests engagement facing outward and away from the classroom, from curricula, and from campus in favor of service learning, internships, political…

This article explores the function and value of considering Black Studies coursework as part of the general education curriculum. In the current cultural antiracist moment, it is important to consider the role academia plays not only in historicizing its own complicity in institutions of racism but also in offering contemporary solutions to such.…

With general education coursework making up a significant portion of associate and bachelor's degree curriculum, conveying the content and importance of student competencies to stakeholder audiences has never been more essential. Accreditation pressure and accountability measures are influencing a focus on improving the presentation of…

Professional development in higher education is traditionally viewed as occurring through participation in workshops, attending conferences, and completing learning modules. But sometimes professional learning occurs in informal and unintended ways. This article contributes to the collective understanding of informal professional learning in…

In this essay, I explore the idea that "academic" advisers are "academics" who play a major role in connecting the general education curriculum to the students' experience as well as connecting the faculty to the students' holistic experience of the curriculum. The National Academic Advising Association Concept of Academic…

The current study surveyed students' knowledge of and perceptions about general education requirements at a large research-intensive university. Findings revealed that students harbored misconceptions about general education requirements and illuminated the reasons why students were choosing to take required general education courses at other…

The purpose of a general education program is to produce generally well-educated adults who can function as informed citizens and engage in the popular intellectual debates of their time. The skills and frames of reference that are necessary for thoughtful, independent opinions are themselves the objects of debate, but there are points of…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs ) are much less in the news today--but that does not mean that they are no longer important. Rather, their importance now derives from what they demonstrated about the fractured nature of college curricula. Almost all MOOCs were one-offs--a single instructor/performer and a well-bounded subject. MOOCs almost…

This essay examines the current general education curriculum (gec) structure at a large institution where the gec program has been remodeled often to meet student needs. Assessment of this structure has been limited. Faculty and adviser perceptions of the gec's role in the larger curriculum, strengths, areas for improvement, and impact on student…

This article examines the relationship between academic specialization and student exposure to a range of academic domains of knowledge. It uses a concentration measure--the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index--to investigate whether students who choose single majors or double major are more or less concentrated in nine domains of knowledge most…

I propose an approach to service-learning that encourages and enables students to engage with human rights and social justice in ways that are democratic and effective. I describe a teaching process in which civic action can be critically reflected on not just to promote engagement and build knowledge but ultimately to encourage and equip students…

The article provides a comprehensive examination of the use of ePortfolios to assess and improve the General Education Program in a public university in the southeastern United States. The implementation process, six years of assessment data, findings from the recent reaffirmation of accreditation conducted by the Southern Association of Colleges…

This article reports a study that examines the efforts of one school--Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--to improve student writing in first-year learning communities by promoting so-called process-based writing pedagogy outside of writing classes. Administrators encouraged instructors of subject-matter classes to integrate the…

Many universities positively impact student retention rates by aligning state competencies and undergraduate coursework with specific learning outcomes known to contribute to success. Faculty from teaching and nursing conducted interdisciplinary focus group research to gather student perceptions concerning whether skills obtained through core…

The debate over the best delivery of general education, whether through a canon of Great Books, a core curriculum of specific courses and course sequences, or a distribution requirement of course types providing for greater student choice, has existed for generations. Today, the debate plays out in practice across the top-rated colleges and…