How general or specific do the GER student learning outcomes and means of assessing the outcomes need to be?
Here’s a good way of thinking about the levels of generality for the three main elements of GER assessment. The GER category objectives are written broadly enough (by the Council on Undergraduate Education) so that any appropriate course within that category, no matter what department it is in, should be able to meet the objectives. The GER student learning outcomes are specific to a particular course but are to be written generally enough that they could be applied across multiple sections of that course taught by different professors. The means of evaluating the outcomes should be specific to an individual section or to a professor teaching different sections of the same course; they should be a specific assignment or test question. On the Course Action Form, the various means of evaluation that are included are examples (just as the attached syllabus is only an example) of what could be used in a section. So the levels of generality are as follows: objectives are general to all cour
