B.1. The General Education program is appropriate to the mission, educational offerings, and degree levels of the institution

CSU’s General Education Program is appropriate to the University’s mission, educational offerings, and degree levels. A CSU degree requires completion of 124 credit hours, including 42-46 hours in the General Education curriculum and the remaining hours in the student’s academic major and electives. CSU’s General Education curriculum represents a distributive model and is based on the University’s mission to academically prepare students with diverse backgrounds and educational needs for leadership and service in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world. The curriculum’s core is based on English, mathematics, humanities and fine arts, social and behavioral sciences, and natural and physical sciences as described in the 2012-2014 Catalog (page 49-50). CSU students complete General Education courses during the first and second year of their academic programs by selecting from a menu of General Education courses from the areas shown in the table 3.30 below.

Table 3.B.1: CSU General Education Areas

The above distributive model is also based on recommendations and approval by the Ohio Board of Regents’ Transfer Module for Ohio public colleges and universities. In the future, CSU’s General Education curriculum will be reviewed to promote additional rigor within the content while developing more blended approaches and a less distributive menu of courses. This will provide students with a stronger and more application-based, foundation-level knowledge as students prepare to complete the various academic disciplines of their major.

The purpose of CSU’s General Education curriculum is to provide students with a liberal arts foundation for their undergraduate degree programs. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) defines General Education as that part of liberal education that is required for all students attending an institution. AAC&U recommends that in order to stay current and provide students the knowledge and skills required in a changing global learning environment, institutions should follow principles and effective practices for General Education and Liberal Learning as captured in AAC&U’s “Changing Nature of Liberal Education. AAC&U outlines key questions related to the changing nature of General Education as follows:

Table 3.B.2: The Changing Nature of Liberal Education

 

	Liberal Education in the 20th Century	Liberal Education in the 21st Century
What	Intellectual and personal development An option for the fortunate Viewed as non-vocational	Intellectual and personal development Necessity for all students Essential for success in a global economy and for informed citizenship
How	Through studies in art and science disciplines (“the major”) and/or through general education in the initial years of college	Through studies that emphasize the essential learning outcomes across the entire educational continuum —from school through college —at progressively higher levels of achievement (recommended)
Where	Liberal arts colleges or colleges of arts and sciences in larger institutions	All schools, community colleges, colleges and universities as well as all fields of study (recommended)

*Source: AAC&U: The Changing Nature of Liberal Education.
CSU’s General Education Program is consistent with the above framework while meeting the requirements of the Ohio Board of Regents’ Transfer Module which has its own set of student learning outcomes (See http://www.regents.ohio.gov/transfer/otm/otm-learning-outcomes.php).

The CSU faculty have identified five learning outcomes that students must demonstrate upon completion of the General Education curriculum. These learning outcomes include the ability of students to:

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  Communicate effectively
  
• 
  Think critically
  
• 
  Apply the scientific process
  
• 
  Demonstrate an awareness of the roles cultural and social factors play in human achievement; and
  
• 
  Demonstrate competence in their chosen fields of study.
  

The Office of Planning and Assessment, through two of its units-- the Assessment Office and Institutional Research and Faculty Development Office (to be named the Center of Teaching and Learning to enhance a University-wide culture on assessment)-- will lead the campus-wide assessment efforts, beginning with the General Education learning outcomes. Findings from these assessments allows the University to intentionally redesign existing General Education courses. It is proposed that the Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) rubrics is used initially, as recommended by the AAC&U, as CSU faculty work collaboratively to assess and use assessment findings to improve assessment methods to be used in the future. Details of proposed assessments are provided in Criterion Four (Core Component 4.B.).   

Every degree program requires every student to complete a prescribed program of study consisting of required courses in order to complete his/her degree.  In these courses, students must demonstrate the ability to collect, analyze and communicate information effectively.  For example, teacher candidates in the College of Education must complete the Teacher Performance Assessment.  This project requires students to clearly demonstrate effectiveness in planning for instruction, delivery of instruction, collecting data, analyzing data and writing a detailed reflective analysis of their teaching from this analysis. Teacher candidates are expected to make necessary corrections in their teaching for the improvement of classroom instructional effectiveness. As previously described under core component 3A in Table 3.A.1, CSU’s institutional learning outcomes are clearly integrated throughout all programs.

 

Table 3.B.4: CSU's Courses With a Focus on Human and Cultural Diversity

CSU’s goal is to produce graduates who have an appreciation for their own culture as well as other cultures and who are equipped to live and work in a global society. The University has developed a modern language laboratory with a coordinator who reports to the Director of the Center for Global Education. This laboratory enhances existing language programs in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. The Center works collaboratively with the Department of Humanities to identify modern languages such as Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish, and Swahili that the laboratory should support. The laboratory also provides programs in other identified international languages, such as Portuguese and Wolof--a language of Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania--to prepare students planning to travel to countries where those languages are spoken. The Rosetta Stone software was purchased and installed in the modern language laboratory to support the acquisition of skills and fluency in modern languages.

In addition to the above, the Center for Global Education plans to work with the Department of Humanities in the development of a major in International Studies to include area studies programs in African and African Diaspora Studies, Chinese Studies, Asian and/or Brazilian Studies. Programs initiated will support existing courses, seminars, symposia and study abroad activities. Other proposed programs include cultural studies, environmental studies, international development and relations, and international criminal law. 

In 2008, CSU hosted Dr. Qi Son, a Fulbright Scholar from China, who provided instruction on Chinese film and theater. From 2009-2011, CSU students pursuing degrees in various disciplines traveled abroad to study at various universities. The number of CSU students who studied abroad increased from one student to eight students (a 700% increase) between 2009 and 2010, and then dropped from seven students to five students (a 25% drop) between 2010 and 2011. In 2012, CSU established a Center for Global Education and hired a Director to lead the Center. The Center for Global Education will coordinate a wide range of study abroad and international programs, including collaborative research among CSU faculty and faculty in similar disciplines abroad. These collaborations will also facilitate travel opportunities for CSU students, faculty, and staff. The Center will promote recruitment of more international students to attend CSU. As of Fall 2012, CSU is one of the few HBCUs expected to welcome about 50 international students from Brazil during the Spring 2013 semester as a result of strategic recruitment and planning initiated between the U.S. and the Brazilian government. International students will contribute to the ongoing diversification of the CSU student body and enhance cultural interactions among faculty, students and staff on the CSU campus. The table below provides some examples of students and the study abroad program students have participated in over the last three years.

Table 3.B.5: Summary of Study Abroad Program from 2009 -2011

Summer 2009		Summer 2010		Summer 2011
Student (Program)	Study Abroad Location	Student (Program)	Study Abroad Location	Student (Program)	Study Abroad Location
Wilbren Gwen (AYA Science  Education)	University of São Paulo - SP, located in Brazil, South America	Dwight Blueford (Sociology)	University of Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa	Lauren Colvard (Political Science)	University of Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa
		Tianiece Boswell (Intervention Specialist, Education)	University of Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa	Lavonte Heard (Music-Vocal Performance)	University of Miami, located in Salzburgs, Austria
		Lee Ivey (Finance)	Shanghi University, located in China, South East Asia	April Malone (AYA Language Arts)	University of Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa
		Kardene Joshua (AYA Education)	University of Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa	Taisha Tanksley (Business Marketing	Shanghi University, located in China, South East Asia
		April Malone (AYA Language Arts)	University of Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa	Steven Weems (Music –Performance)	University of Miami, located in Salzburgs, Austria
		Dewayne Rivers (Business)	University of  Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa
		Dominique Waters (Vocal Performance)	Oberlin in Italy: Arrezo, located in Italy, Europe.
		Stephanie Wise (AYA Education)	University of Ghana, located in Ghana, West Africa

*Source: CSU Title III (Part B) Quarterly Reports (2009 - 2011 from CSU Title III Office)