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Implementation

Home | Curriculum Framework | Core Office | Implementation | Timeline | Background

Faculty from across the College of Arts and Science have been researching, discussing, testing, piloting, and planning for the launch of the new A&S College Core in Fall 2025. See the detailed implementation timeline.

 

COMMITTEES AND WORKING GROUPS
Curriculum Implementation Committee
Lab Study Group
Computational Thinking Working Group
World Languages Working Group
Core Art Advisory Group
Exploratory Core
B.S. Degree
  • David Wright, Coordinator (Chemistry; Communication of Science & Technology)
Academic Policies
  • Shaul Kelner, Representative to Committee on Academic Policies (Sociology)
  • Roger Moore, Office of Undergraduate Education (English)
Student Advisory Group

Ad hoc, meeting monthly

Pilot Review Team

Subset of pilot instructors convening in Spring 2024 to thoroughly analyze data on the First-Year Core pilot

Faculty Advisory Board

Representative faculty advisory committee for the A&S Core to convene in 2024–2025

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PILOT PROGRAM

If you are interested in participating in the 2024–2025 pilot program, please let us know by filling out this form.

2024–2025: Expanded First-Year Core Pilot

An expanded pilot program will take place across the academic year, with 20–30 sections of CORE 1010: Being Human offered in Fall 2024, and 20–30 sections of CORE 1020: Science, Technology, Values offered in Spring 2025.

2023–2024: First-Year Core Pilot

Spring 2023

One section each of “Being Human” and “Science, Technology, Values” was piloted in Spring 2023 via the College of Arts & Science Honors Program.

Fall 2023

Ten sections of “Being Human” were taught as interdisciplinary First Year Writing Seminars (INDS 1111).

Instructors:

  • Celina Callahan Kapoor (Medicine, Health & Society)
  • Kent Dolezal (Economics)
  • Victoria Hensley (American Studies)
  • Sarah Igo, observing (History)
  • Luis F. López (Spanish & Portuguese)
  • Anna Marra (French & Italian)
  • Richard McGregor (Religious Studies)
  • Isabella Reinhardt (Classical and Mediterranean Studies)
  • Gretchen Selcke (Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies)
  • Paul Stob (American Studies; Communication Studies)
  • Meredyth Wegener (Neuroscience)

Eleven sections of “Science, Technology, Values” were taught as interdisciplinary First Year Writing Seminars (INDS 1111).

Instructors:

  • Lily Claiborne, observing (Earth & Environmental Sciences)
  • Elizabeth Covington (English; Gender & Sexuality Studies)
  • Christin Essin (Theater)
  • Erika Grundstrom (Physics & Astronomy)
  • Richard Haglund (Physics & Astronomy)
  • Lutz Koepnick (German, Russian & East European Studies)
  • Janet Macdonald (Chemistry)
  • Adam Meyer (Jewish Studies)
  • Emanuelle Oliveira-Monte (Spanish & Portuguese)
  • Renã Robinson (Chemistry)
  • Carrie Russell (Political Science)
  • Benigno Trigo (Spanish & Portuguese)

 

Spring 2024

No pilot courses offered. Faculty review assessment data from Fall 2023, work collaboratively to revise the courses, and prepare for the expanded pilot of 2024–2025.

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COURSE DEVELOPMENT

Collaborative Faculty Workshops

Information coming soon

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CAPACITY TAGGING

In contrast to AXLE, and in line with best thinking in general education curriculum design, only some A&S courses will be tagged with Core Capacities.

Note: Capacity tags indicate a course’s role in general education, not a course’s value. Courses not tagged with capacities are still valuable for majors and minors, for students exploring new areas of study or building credits toward graduation, and for a liberal arts education writ large.

As you review your unit’s existing course offerings, please keep the following points in mind:

Generally speaking, courses that will qualify for tagging:

  • Are designed for non-specialists and will be welcoming to non-majors
  • Are taught at the 1000- or 2000-level
  • Have no or few prerequisites
  • Contribute primarily to general education

In the first round of tagging, we expect roughly one-third of courses currently offered across the college to be tagged with capacities. This is not a hard-and-fast rule but should offer a sense of how many courses to put forward for tagging.

A course can be tagged with one or two capacities, so long as it meets the relevant description and learning objectives. A course need not meet every stated learning objective, but it should meet most of them.

Department chairs, program directors, and DUS's, rather than individual faculty members, will put forward courses to be considered for tagging. The goal is to have faculty in a given unit work collaboratively to decide which parts of their curriculum are most appropriate for general education.

Courses proposed for tagging will be reviewed by the Curriculum Implementation Committee, which will take into account the array of ways that departments handle course numbering and sequencing.

 

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PROGRAM EVALUATION

First-Year Core Courses

The Pilot Review Team will evaluate the first-year pilot courses to ensure that they are effective and accomplishing the academic goals of the A&S College Core. They will engage in quantitative and qualitative methods of evaluation, provide an analysis of their findings, and work with the Curriculum Implementation Committee to make adjustments and improvements to the pilot courses after the Fall 2023 pilot ends and again after the expanded pilot in 2024-25, prior to full implementation in Fall 2025. 

Evaluation will include:

Student experience:

  • Student pre- and post surveys
  • Midterm focus sessions
  • Learning objectives assessment

Faculty experience:

  • Faculty pre- and post surveys
  • Weekly reading/assignment reviews
  • Peer observation

 

Contact: curriculum_as@vanderbilt.edu

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