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General Education Program

Implementation Plan

This implementation plan is a high-level overview of the work to be completed and will be updated regularly. This plan suggests a Fall 2028 start. This start date should be reviewed after the first year to ensure the university is on track with program proposals and will be able to populate enough general education seats for the incoming Fall 2028 class.

Note: Throughout the plan there are references to previous general education curricula. For example, Gen Ed 12 is the curriculum with inner, middle, and outer core requirements (adopted in 2012). Gen Ed 14 (adopted in 2014) is the current program where the 3 core requirements were changed to 2 tiers. For clarity purposes only, the proposed structure is labeled Gen Ed 28. 

Review Committees:
The most labor-intensive part of changing any general education curriculum is course review. The Council for General Education (CGE) has this charge. However, to manage the workload, a course can be reviewed through one of two options.  

Option 1: Expedited Approval

If an already existing general education course will be proposed for a similar category with only minor changes to content and new learning outcomes, the course can go through the expedited approval process. Criteria for expedited approval includes:

  • The course is proposed for the same general education category such as:
    • Natural Sciences/Alternatives = Scientific Literacy
    • Fine Arts = Creative Arts
    • Science, Math, Technology = Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
    • Mathematics = Quantitative Literacy
    • Humanities = Exploring the Human Condition
    • Social and Behavioral Sciences = Individuals and Society
  • Average DFW rate under 30%
  • Courses maintaining the same number of credit hours
  • There are no pre-requisites on the course
  • Course maintains approximately 75% of the same content

For quality control purposes, each course would be submitted to the CGE via CourseDog and reviewed by 2-3 CGE members.  If there is no consensus on course approval, it will result in a full CGE review.

Option 2: Traditional Review Process

Courses that do not meet the requirements of an expedited review, will go through the traditional review process ending with the Council on General Education. If the CGE develops a backlog of proposals, they may request an Ad Hoc General Education 28 Curriculum Committee from the Academic Senate. This sub-committee structure is similar to AMALI and IDEAS panels of experts. It is recommended that CAS and WKCFA establish an ad hoc committee to review proposals due to the large volume those colleges will have. 

Tentative Timeline for implementation:

This timeline will continue to be updated as the implementation process is finalized. 

  • Summer 2025
    • Work with the Office of the University Registrar to detail how the two options will work in CourseDog
    • Meet with advisors to discuss the new structure and implementation planning
    • Meet with chairs/directors to discuss the new structure and implementation planning
    • Begin outlining how the certificates will work
    • Provide additional guidance for experiential learning and civic engagement
  • Fall 2025
    • Finalize the implementation plan
    • Present the new structure and implementation plan at the General Education Summit
    • Complete Campus Solutions configuration including such items as developing codes, building the structure, adjusting CourseFinder, etc.
    • Determine how we will articulate ELCE courses that are transferred in 
    • Establish an advising sub-committee tasked with addressing issues pertinent to the advising community
    • Communicate the general education changes to the community colleges
  • Spring 2026
    • Begin accepting Gen Ed 28 proposals in CourseDog
    • Begin reviewing all IDS courses
    • Establish a 5-year review plan that coincides with IAI course review
    • Present Gen Ed 28 and the Spring Teaching Institute
    • Begin reviewing community college articulation agreements
    • Stop reviewing proposals for Gen Ed 14
  • Summer 2026
    • CIPD begins offering experiential learning courses and continues offering civic engagement course development workshops
  • Fall 2026
    • Continue to review courses and revised plans of study
    • Department/School plans of study will require editorial changes
    • Update the General Education assessment plan
  • Spring 2027
    • Continue to review courses and revised plans of study
  • Fall 2027
    • Review the AP credit list to ensure articulations are still accurate
    • Continue to review courses and revised plans of study
    • Update transfer articulation agreements
  • Spring 2028
    • Update catalog copy to make the change to Gen Ed 28
    • Update website to go live with the new catalog
    • Provide training workshops for advisors and Preview staff
  • Summer 2028
    • Gen Ed 28 goes live with the release of the 2028-2029 catalog
  • Fall 2028
    • New General Education curriculum begins

IAI Process:

  • New courses:  Any new general education courses developed that align to a particular IAI GECC code can be submitted as a new course for review by the appropriate panel.
  • Current IAI GECC approved courses with minimal changes:  If there are limited changes such as only a change in learning outcomes, no further IAI panel review is needed until the course comes up for review.
  • Current IAI GECC approved courses with significant changes:  These courses will need to be reviewed by the appropriate GECC panel again to ensure they will align with that IAI code and the panel's course approval criteria.  This can be handled in the following ways:
    • It can be submitted as a new course, and the old course terminated in Illinois State's IAI course database; OR
    • Ask the Illinois State IAI Course Submitter, Malinda Aiello, to call the course(s) for ongoing review and submit the revised course for review by the panel under this review process. 

Regardless of if courses are submitted as new or ongoing review, faculty shall first review a panel's descriptor(s) and course approval criteria then make changes and/or additions to teh course syllabus to ensure all required information for panel review has been included and all required topics for panel approval are being adequately covered within the course.  This information can be accessed on the iTransfer website.

Simultaneous General Education Curricula

The general education curriculum is catalog-year based, so students entering in Fall 2028 will fall under Gen Ed 28 requirements.  Those students who were in catalog years prior to 2028 will follow Gen Ed 14 requirements.  Courses will maintain their Gen Ed 14 attribute/code so students who have yet to graduate will know which courses fulfill Gen Ed 14 requirements.  Courses that are currently approved for Gen Ed 14 and are also approved for Gen Ed 28 will have both attributes.  If a student prefers to move to a new catalog year to complete Gen Ed 28, they may do so as long as they consult with their advisor on the impacts of the move as students must follow the same catalog year for general education, graduation and major/sequence/minor requirements.

Potential Changes/Clarifications from Gen Ed 14 to Gen Ed 28

  • 5-Year Review of Courses:  General Education courses will be reviewed on a 5-year rotation to ensure the category description is correct and student learning outcomes are being met.  The review will coincide with the IAI review to reduce the faculty workload.
  • Eliminate pre-requisites:  Unless there is an absolute content-specific need for a pre-requisite, they should be removed.  IAI will not approve courses with pre-requisites other than ENG 101.  Pre-requisites will be reviewed by the Council for General Education.
  • Elimination of major blocked general education courses:  If a course is major blocked, then it is considered a major course and not a general education course.  However, up to 50% of the seats offered can be reserved for any one major.
  • Category exemptions:  Because of the reduction of hours in the overall general education curriculum, there are no category exemptions of LAN 115 substitutions for Quantitative Literacy.  All students will complete a course in each category regardless of major.

Please feel free to send questions to General Education.