Preparing for the Review of a General Education Course

This page provides resources required to prepare a general education course course dossier. General Education courses represent the foundational knowledge, skills, and competencies that students at IU Indianapolis will need to know and be able to do in order to succeed in upper-division courses and to be prepared as well-rounded college graduates. The Undergraduate Affairs Committee (UAC) is the faculty-led and sanctioned body charged with approving General Education courses and ensuring their alignment with the Indiana College Core (previously known as Statewide Transfer General Education Core (STGEC)).  Presently, UAC has approved nearly 300 IU Indianapolis courses as part of the General Education inventory on our campus.

Next Cycle Gen Ed Core Courses Review Schedule 

The review schedule lists all of the general education courses and the semester that data collection should occur, the dossier due date, and the semester of review for each course. Check this schedule to find out or confirm when your course will be reviewed. For any questions, please contact your school representative in the UAC. 

Review Templates and Rubrics

• General Education Review Template -This template provides a way to compile all information needed for a course dossier in one document (except where noted) and to submit it for review as one document.
• General Education Review for Course with Mile Marker Assignment Template -This template provides a way to compile all information needed for a course dossier with a Mile Marker Assignment in one document (except where noted) and to submit it for review as one document.
• General Education Expedited Review for Course with Mile Marker Assignment Template - This template provides a way to compile all information needed for a course dossier with a Mile Marker Assignment in one document (except where noted) and to submit it for review as one document. The expedited version does not include student work samples.
• Review Rubric for Mile Marker Course Dossier.  This guide has the criteria that reviewers will use to review general education Mile Marker course dossiers. Use it to make sure your Mile Marker course dossier contains all the needed elements that will be reviewed.
• Review Rubric for Course Dossier. This guide has the criteria that reviewers will use to review general education course dossiers. Use it to make sure your course dossier contains all the needed elements that will be reviewed.

Review Templates and Rubrics (For Reviews Starting Spring 2026)

• Revised General Education Review Template: This template integrates the mile marker and non-mile marker options and provides a way to compile all information needed for a course dossier in one document (except where noted) and to submit it for review as one document.
• Revised General Education Expedited Review Template: This template integrates the mile marker and non-mile marker options and provides a way to compile all information needed for a course dossier in one document (except where noted) and to submit it for review as one document. The expedited version does not include student work samples.
• Dossier Review Rubrics: These rubrics are used by reviewers to assess course dossiers. Please use these rubrics to self-assess your dossier before submission.
  • Review rubric for course dossier
  • Review rubric for expedited course dossier
  • Review rubric for course dossiers that were revised and resubmitted based on review committee's letter. If you have resubmitted your dossier with revisions, you are required to use this rubric to explain the changes made to the review committee.

Sample Course Dossiers

Sample course dossiers are available both for courses that use and do not use mile marker assignments. Please contact the CTL (iuictl@iu.edu) to receive access to sample dossiers. Student work and some course evaluation information have been removed from these dossiers. Requirements for dossiers have changed over the years, so the most recent dossiers will reflect more current guidelines. 

Resources

About General Education

• “Mile Marker” Assignment Base Line Criteria - A more streamlined course review process option that involves using a "Mile Marker" assignment is now available. Read this document for a description and examples of a “Mile Marker” assignment as well as a list of the items needed for the general education review when using this option for the course dossier.
• Preparing for the Review of a General Education Course Presentation Recording, 1-29-2022 (23:45)
• Preparing for the Review of a General Education Course Presentation PPT, 1-29-2022
  • The presentation slide deck and the recording refer to the current Gen. Ed. dossier requirements. Please note that the references to STGEC now indicate the Indiana College Core. For any questions about the presentation or the slides, please contact iuictl@iu.edu or your UAC rep.
• Revised Alignment Form for IU Indianapolis General Education Core. This form is used to propose that a course be approved to be part of the IU Indianapolis General Education Core. The form that was submitted when a course was first approved may be helpful when preparing a course dossier because it contains a table that shows the alignment between student learning outcomes, IU Indianapolis Principle(s) of Undergraduate Learning, Indiana College Core competency domains and learning outcomes, and Mechanism for Assessing Student Learning to Determine that Outcomes Has Been Achieved. The revised form shows the alignment with the Profiles in Learning for Undergraduate Success (PLUS) rather than with the Principles for Undergraduate Learning (PULs).
• IU Indianapolis Undergraduate Affairs Committee Roster. The Undergraduate Affairs Committee (UAC) is a standing faculty oversight and advisory body for the IU Indianapolis campus comprised of associate deans and faculty members engaged in leading undergraduate curricula from across all schools conferring undergraduate degrees. It oversees curricula and policies associated with the IU Indianapolis General Education Core, including the review and coordination of undergraduate curriculum changes involving general education courses. Check the committee roster to find out who is your school representative. If you have questions about the review of general education courses, they may be able to help.
• IU Indianapolis General Education Core. Information about the IU Indianapolis General Education Core can be found on this site.
• IU Indianapolis General Education Core 7 Competency Domains and Learning Outcomes.  This document lists the 7 IU Indianapolis General Education Core Competency Domains and describes the learning outcomes associated with each of them. It may be especially relevant for courses in the IU Indianapolis Cultural Understanding Competency Domain, the only domain that is unique to IU Indianapolis and does not have an equivalent statewide general education competency. The learning outcomes for the Cultural Understanding Domain include outcomes from both the Social and Behavioral Ways of Knowing and Humanistic and Artistic Ways of Knowing statewide competencies.
• Indiana College Core. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education prepared this document which describes the framework for the Indiana College Core (previously known as the Statewide Transfer General Education Core (STGEC)), including the categories and competencies of the framework and the statewide learning outcomes for each competency. For your course portfolio, the course learning outcomes need to be aligned with the appropriate statewide learning outcomes, which are typically the same ones identified in the Alignment Form that was submitted when the course was first approved as a general education course.

• Ongoing review of General Education Courses will be used by the UAC to: (1) promote student learning and success across the undergraduate student experience, with a particular focus on foundational courses; (2) ensure that General Education courses have learning outcomes evidence of learning aligned with the Indiana College CoreS; (3) recognize promising teaching and learning practices that might be adapted and scaled to other courses, programs, and departments at IU Indianapolis and elsewhere; (4) identify ongoing sources of professional development needs that can be addressed through a variety of sources (e.g., CTL; Gateway to Graduation); and (5) model the spirit of peer review, continuous improvement, and innovation as a hallmark of a comprehensive-yet-flexible General Education program.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Writing and Assessing Student Learning Outcomes. This Center for Teaching and Learning resource may be helpful if you need to write or revise course student learning outcomes.
• National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA). The mission of NILOA is to discover and disseminate ways that academic programs and institutions can productively use assessment data internally to inform and strengthen undergraduate education, and externally to communicate with policy makers, families and other stakeholders. This site may be helpful if you are interested in digging deeper into how to use student learning outcomes for assessment.
• Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success (PLUS). The profiles are institutional learning outcomes that every undergraduate student at IU Indianapolis, IU Columbus, and IU Fort Wayne should attain. The former institutional learning outcomes, the Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs), were extensively reviewed, revised, and renamed the Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success and approved by the IU Indianapolis Faculty Council on May 1, 2018.

Assessment of Student Learning

• Direct and Indirect Measures of Student Learning. The definitions and examples of direct and indirect measures of student learning are provided in this handout created by Michele Hansen.
• AAC&U Value Rubrics. The VALUE Rubric Development Project developed 16 VALUE rubrics for the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes and all of the rubrics may be downloaded from this site.
• Designing a Transparent Assignment. This checklist created by Mary-Ann Winkelmes as part of the TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching) project might be helpful if you are redesigning assignments in your course.
• DQP Assignment Library. The purpose of this website is to provide a searchable online library of collegiate-level course assignments in a wide variety of academic disciplines that link to one or more proficiencies in the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP). If you are considering creating a signature assignment or revising an assignment for your course, you may find helpful examples on this site.