Faculty Resources

Faculty Resources for General Education

The General Education (GE) program at Stanislaus State provides a comprehensive set of resources to support faculty in GE teaching, curriculum development, and assessment.

GE Overview

General Education develops foundational communicative, quantitative, and critical thinking skills. It promotes an understanding of history and culture, fosters appreciation for the arts and humanities, and encourages a broad knowledge of social issues and scientific inquiry.  Attaining a General Education means that students understand that all learning is connected and enriches all aspects of life: personal, civic, and professional. The current GE Program requires students to complete 43 semester units, including nine upper-division units of selected courses within six broad categories. In addition to the General Education Requirements, undergraduate students must also complete all Baccalaureate Degree Requirements, including the Upper Division Writing Proficiency (WP), the United States Constitution and California State and Local Government, the Sociocultural Inquiry, the Skills for Student Success, and the Life-long Learning.

Although specific GE requirements (or “patterns”) have evolved over time, the program’s core purpose remains constant. Its enduring goals are to:

• Goal 1: Develop the intellectual skills and competencies needed to participate effectively in society and a global community.
• Goal 2: Build broad knowledge across the biological and physical sciences, the humanities and creative arts, and the social sciences.
• Goal 3: Foster the ability to integrate knowledge, make informed ethical decisions, and assume civic responsibility.

The program is further defined by sixteen learning outcomes (see the Goals and Outcomes page for details).

 GE Course Development & Approval

Faculty can access guidelines and processes for proposing new GE courses or revising existing ones. The GE program is grounded in three overarching goals and sixteen learning outcomes, with clear alignment between GE areas and these outcomes to ensure coherence across the curriculum.

• The GE program is built around three overarching goals and sixteen learning outcomes; for more details, refer to the Goals and Outcomes page.

• Executive Order (EO) 1100 Revised outlines the current General Education Area Descriptions (please add the link from our webpage after we updated Goals and Outcomes page here).

• It also includes clear alignment between GE areas and learning outcomes, ensuring coherence across the curriculum. Refer to the GE Areas and Outcomes Alignment page for details.

• The GE Subcommittee follows a structured course evaluation process to review and assess GE course proposals, refer GE Subcommittee Course Evaluation Process.

• The program outlines a structured GE (2018 re)certification process.

GE Assessment & Reporting

Faculty can access assessment plans, rubrics, templates, and submission timelines on the Office of Assessment webpage to support Academic Program Review and ongoing assessment efforts.