General Education Task Force

At the request of the Doane Plan Committee, on Nov. 3, 2010, Dr. John Burney, VPAA, established the Doane Plan Task Force.  The charge of the task force is to review the purposes, learning outcomes, and structure of Doane's general education program and make recommendations on revisions that will enhance student learning and connect the program clearly to Doane's mission. 

The task force will report its recommendations to the Doane Plan Committee in the 2012 fall semester so they can be considered by the faculty governance system.

Members of the task force include Gerry Allen, John Burney, Alec Engebretson, Kay Hegler, Adam Hunke (student), Kim Jarvis, Linda Kalbach, Kate Marley, Carrie Petr, Jeff Stander, Phil Weitl, and Denise Ellis.

The task force found it necessary to first develop a working Statement on Undergraduate General Education. This statement articulates the college's philosophy of general education and the student learning outcomes which must be intentionally addressed by the general education program.  Notes providing further explanation on the wording found in the working statement were also developed.  During a 3-day summer retreat, the task force formed a working curriculum framework (the Undergraduate Curriculum at Doane) intended to intentionally address the student learning outcomes thus attaining the mission of the college.  This curriculum will be the focus of future activities.

Past activities of the task force, or related to the task force, include: 

• Task force meetings in spring (2/14/12, 2/29/12, 3/13/12, 3/27/12, 4/3/12) 
• One member of the task force and one member of the Doane Plan committee attended the AAC&U Annual Meeting, including an E-Portfolio forum, in Washington, D.C. (1/25-1/28/2012)
• Task force meetings during interterm to work on strategies for strategic plan (1/5/12, 1/12/12, 1/19/12) 
• Doane Lincoln/GI feedback (fall 2011)
• Meet with each academic division for feedback (throughout fall 2011)
• Task force meetings in fall (10/12/11, 10/26/11, 11/9/11, 11/30/11)
• Faculty forums for feedback (8/30/11, 8/31/11)
• Faculty briefing over structure of Undergraduate Curriculum at Doane (8/23/11)
• Joint Doane Plan Committee/Task Force meeting (8/22/11)
• Doane Lincoln/GI briefing (8/9/11)
• Task Force retreat to develop initial structure of general education program in which to realize the student learning outcomes (June 6-8, 2011) 
• Forum for full faculty: Opportunity to provide input on the working statement (4/20/2011)
• Discussion of task force/working statement with Student Congress (4/17/2011)
• Task force update to Doane Plan Committee (4/6/2011)
• Presentation to Student Congress on task force activities/request by task force for input from Student Congress (3/27/2011) 
• Forum for full faculty: Panel of task force members discuss what has been learned about the state of liberal education (3/23/2011)
• Six task force members attend AAC&U General Education and Assessment 3.0 Working Conference (3/3-3/5/2011)
• Meetings of task force to develop working philosophy of general education and student learning outcomes
  (11/10/2010, 12/1/2010, 12/8/2010, 1/18/2011, 1/25/2011, 2/9/2011, 2/23/2011, 3/9/2011, 4/27/2011)
• Initial meeting of task force held jointly with Doane Plan Committee (11/3/2010)  
• Charge to task force given by Dr. Burney (11/3/2010)
• Request from Doane Plan committee for task force submitted to Dr. Burney (9/17/2010)
• Faculty workshop on the state of general education: Input from the faculty on questions related to general education at Doane was obtained. (8/24/2010)