Course descriptions are an important tool to help students understand the value of the topics/problems they will study and why the course is relevant. Therefore, the GE Committee suggests that GE course descriptions do the following:
- Speak directly to students using the second person;
- Engage students with thought-provoking questions or concepts;
- Share the guiding questions, context(s) and/or perspectives engaged in the course;
- Provide students with goals or takeaways, telling them what they will learn;
- Serve the goals of Gen Ed by explicitly connecting the course material to the world.
Here is an annotated course description that utilizes these standards and models the kind of descriptions desired for Gen Ed.
GE 1xx Ancestry
Everyone comes from somewhere. We carry our ancestries in our DNA, genealogy, family [1] stories, and more. What do these forms of evidence tell us about who we are, as a species, as a social group, or as an individual? [2] This course looks at ancestry from a range of perspectives: biology, anthropology, genealogy, history, law, and memory—from the origins of human populations to the origins of you. Departing from two central assumptions—that the study of ancestry is the study of identity, as well as the study of evidence—you will broaden your understanding of ancestry to include different kinds of data, ranging from biological to archival, asking what stories these data tell, and what questions they do and do not answer. [3] You will leave this course better primed to uncover implicit assumptions in qualitative and quantitative data, to recognize omissions and limits, and thus be better able to assess a claim’s value and scope. [4] Beyond the acquisition of these analytical skills, this course will prepare you to think differently about ancestry outside of the classroom, extending the work of a single semester into a lifetime of inquiry. [5]
- This is the hook that draws students in. It’s catchy and brief.
- This engages the audience and points to ways in which the course will explore the question.
- This lays out the course plan and perspective.
- This highlights students’ takeaways and speaks directly to them.
- This connects the course to the world - a major goal of Gen Ed.