Proposal for a Course to Fulfill a General Education Requirement
Proposals need to be submitted to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Council approval by November 1 for the subsequent summer and fall terms and by March 15 for the subsequent spring term. (General Education Course Proposal Submission Instructions)
Submissions to the Undergraduate Council should be delivered via Curriculog. Word, Rich Text File (RTF), or PDF documents in support of the proposal can be uploaded and attached to the proposal. If you have questions, contact LaShawn Youngblood via e-mail or by phone at 412-624-2036.
Please indicate the requirement(s) for which this course is to be considered on proposal form. Note that a single course may meet no more than three General Education Requirements.
Information required for the proposal includes:
- a complete syllabus and course description;
- a detailed explanation on why the course should satisfy the specific requirement(s) for which it is being submitted; and
- an assessment plan, including a matrix, to evaluate how effectively the course satisfies the chosen General Education Requirement(s); hence, multiple matrices may be required; and
Note to Chairs: You will be given the opportunity to approve the Gen Ed proposal via Curriculog.
1. Provide information on the following items.
- Identify the course learning objectives directed towards the fulfilling the GER for which approval is sought.
- Explain how these objectives are to be realized.
- You should also provide any additional information about the content, goals, or methods of the course that may be relevant. For the criteria of each requirement, see the General Education Requirements at www.asundergrad.pitt.edu/academic-experience/general-education-requirements.
2. The course syllabus should include:
- Course objective
- Organization of course content (thematic, topic, chronological etc.)
- Course requirements
- Required texts and other readings
- Weekly assignments
- Papers/projects (number, type, length and deadlines)
- Exams (number, type and dates)
- Approximate time spent outside of class
Please Note: Students need to be evaluated in a meaningful way before the deadline for Monitored Withdraw, usually by the end of the ninth week of the term.
- Grading Policy:
- Relative weight of each requirement
- Policy on late work, make-ups
- Other
The following statement from Disability Resource Services must be incorporated into the syllabus.
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890/412-383-3346 (Fax), as early as possible in the term. Disability Resources and Services will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.
The Academic Integrity Policy on cheating/plagiarism must be included in the syllabus.
Cheating/plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students suspected of violating the University of Pittsburgh Policy on Academic Integrity, noted below, will be required to participate in the outlined procedural process as initiated by the instructor. A minimum sanction of a zero score for the quiz, exam or paper will be imposed. (For the full Academic Integrity policy, go to www.provost.pitt.edu/info/ai1.html.)
The E-mail Communication Policy must be included in the syllabus.
Each student is issued a University e-mail address (username@pitt.edu) upon admittance. This e-mail address may be used by the University for official communication with students. Students are expected to read e-mail sent to this account on a regular basis. Failure to read and react to University communications in a timely manner does not absolve the student from knowing and complying with the content of the communications. The University provides an e-mail forwarding service that allows students to read their e-mail via other service providers (e.g., Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo). Students that choose to forward their e-mail from their pitt.edu address to another address do so at their own risk. If e-mail is lost as a result of forwarding, it does not absolve the student from responding to official communications sent to their University e-mail address. To forward e-mail sent to your University account, go to http://accounts.pitt.edu, log into your account, click on Edit Forwarding Addresses, and follow the instructions on the page. Be sure to log out of your account when you have finished. (For the full E-mail Communication Policy, go to www.bc.pitt.edu/policies/policy/09/09-10-01.html.)
Turnitin: Faculty who plan to use the Turnitin service to evaluate student papers for potential plagiarism must include the following statement in the course syllabus. Faculty using this service are encouraged to accommodate students who wish to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy.
Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of Turnitin.com page service is subject to the Usage Policy and Privacy Pledge posted on the Turnitin.com site.
Office Hours: The posting of office hours on the office door is University policy, and the responsibility of the faculty member as a courtesy and convenience to students. (Source: www.pitt.edu/~provost/ch3_off_hrs.htm). Most administrative offices are open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. A few offices, such as the College of General Studies, have extended hours. In addition, according to the Academic Integrity Guidelines, under I. Faculty Obligations, Point 2, faculty are "To be available at reasonable times for appointments with students, and to keep such appointments." (Source: www.as.pitt.edu/faculty/policy/integrity.html)
The integrity of the academic process requires fair and impartial evaluation on the part of faculty and honest academic conduct on the part of students. To this end, students are expected to conduct themselves at a high level of responsibility in the fulfillment of the course of their study. It is the corresponding responsibility of faculty to make clear to students those standards by which students will be evaluated, and the resources permissible for use by students during the course of their study and evaluation. The educational process is perceived as a joint faculty-student enterprise which will perforce involve professional judgment by faculty and may involve – without penalty- reasoned exception by students to the data or views offered by faculty.
Senate Committee on Tenure and Academic Freedom, February 1974