General Education Requirements Council (GERC)
About the General Education Requirements Council (GERC)
The General Education Requirements Council (GERC) is a council under the purview of Faculty Senate. The purpose of the GERC is: to consider all courses and policies that relate to the University’s general education requirements; to evaluate, on a regular basis, the University’s general education courses for appropriateness, rigor, and assessment; and to make general education curricular recommendations based on these evaluations to the UCC. The General Education Objectives are to be reviewed on a staged 5-year cycle, moving to a 7-year cycle in 2027.
Does each iteration of a general education course need to undergo assessment?
Instruments from all delivery methods of a course and from all sections of a course should be included in the pool that is used for sampling.
What is the time period to be covered in the November assessment reports?
Each November report should address results from the previous academic year (e.g., November 2023 report includes 2022-23 academic year: Fall 2022, Spring 2023, and Summer 2023)
Do General Education Assessment results need to be reported every year?
Yes.
If a course is not offered in a given coverage year, is a report needed?
One report per course number should be filed each year. If the course had not been taught during the coverage year, the report should clearly indicate that.
The department is making some changes to the approved assessment plan for its general education course. What does GERC expect in these cases?
It depends on the type of changes intended.
GERC does not need to review:
Change in assessment instruments to be used.
Change in textbook(s) to be used.
Change in when the department will be discussing/implementing the results.
GERC, and often UCC, does need to review:
Change in sampling method(s).
Change in the learning outcomes that are being addressed, as in the case of Objectives that require a course meet 4 of 5 learning outcomes, for example.
Removal of a course from the general education program. (See instructions for removing a gen ed course.)
Course renumbering.
Change in course title.
GERC does not need to review my department's changes to the approved assessment plan. Shall I record these changes somewhere?
Yes. Please record this type of change on the approved assessment plan that is stored on Google Drive and can found on the Approved Assessment Plans webpage. If you need editing access to your course assessment plan, please contact gercmail@isu.edu.
GERC needs to review my department's intended changes. How do I proceed?
The steps are outlined on the Changing an Approved Assessment Plan webpage.
Is there a reason why I couldn't plan to use course grades as indicators of assessment for this process?
Normally, course grades indicate student-based assessment, rather than course-based or learning outcome-based assessment. It is likely that GERC would not have approved the use of course grades in your assessment plan. Please refer to the approved assessment plan for this course.
GERC Chair Announcements
September 8, 2025
Dear Department Chairs and Assessment Coordinators,
I hope your semester is off to a great start! I am writing with some exciting updates from GERC for this upcoming year and to remind you about our ongoing assessment program and the general education teaching award.
First, we have a new name! GERC, the General Education Requirements Committee, is now GERC, the General Education Requirements Council. I hope this significant name change does not cause confusion or raise any concerns. We are still the GERC everyone knows and loves.
Secondly, the State Board of Education has updated the GEM learning outcomes for Objectives 1 through 6 to include a focus on “durable skills.” They have not provided significant guidance on this, but each objective now must demonstrate durable skills in addition to the other core competencies. This means that the assessment plans for all of our general education courses need to be updated to demonstrate how they will assess students’ mastery of the relevant durable skills for each objective.
GERC will be providing some more information on this change soon. Once we do that, we are here to help as you revise your assessment plans. Those revisions must be submitted to GERC for approval. This is also an excellent opportunity to review and update your existing plan to make sure it is still in line with how your courses are being taught and that the data collected is useful and accurate. We also provide updated
forms and guidance on assessment plans and reporting to help with this process.
Additionally, Shu-Yuan Lin, Provost Fellow in Assessment, is available to answer questions regarding the course assessment. The Center for Learning and Instructional Excellence is also hosting a workshop on durable skills on October 30th, and I encourage you to attend that for more information on how to add durable skills to your courses and assessments.
I also want to remind you of some upcoming deadlines as the fall semester begins. Assessment reporting using the current assessment plans will continue as normal, on the schedule below. Please submit your reports in a timely manner so that GERC can review them quickly and provide any necessary feedback.
Annual assessment reports are due by November 3rd, 2025. Your reports should include data for the 2024-25 academic year (Fall 2024, Spring 2025, and Summer 2025). Please submit only one report per course that addresses all sections of the course, including in-person, online, hybrid, and any early college course
sections. We need to assess all the various modalities across the full academic year. GERC encourages you, where possible, to break down the data by modality so that we can assess each type of delivery. This is recommended for this year, but will be required in subsequent years.
See Course & Program Assessment Process, Departmental Obligations: 3. Annual Course Reports for details. If you need help with assessment reports, please contact me or your GERC
representative.
Objectives 7 and 8 are scheduled for objective reviews this academic year, and those Five-Year Reports are due January 16, 2026.
See Course & Program Assessment Process for instructions, template to use, and sample reports. More information will be available soon.
Members of the departments with courses in Objectives 7 and 8 will be invited to serve on the review committee for the objectives as a whole in the spring semester.
GERC also plans to continue to recognize our outstanding general education faculty with the Excellence in General Education Teaching Award. We will be sending out more information on this in the coming weeks. But, briefly, GERC recognizes one faculty member for teaching excellence in each of the nine general education objectives.
Additionally, we forward the winners from Objectives 1-6 on to the state-wide competition. Please consider nominating someone from your department for this award.
Lastly, I want to thank you for your ongoing work with the General Education Requirements Council in managing ISU’s General Education program. This program depends on you to be successful, and we appreciate the hard work you do to make that happen!
I hope you all have a wonderful semester, and please reach out if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.
Many thanks,
Edward Kammerer, Chair
General Education Requirements Council