Changes, improvements made to general studies program, more to come

Although the U.S. News & World Report has ranked Elon University’s general studies program among the best in the country, the university continues to draft changes in an attempt to improve its current model.

At the end of the 2011-2012 academic year, Elon faculty passed a proposal to improve the First-Year Core and the wellness programming aspects of the general studies program. These changes will take effect starting the fall of 2013.

“From the proposal to faculty that failed back in October, there was a really strong consensus about what could happen to improve the First-Year Core as well as the wellness programming,” said Jeffrey Coker, director of general studies. “With that in mind, we worked over the winter and spring to see how we could improve them. Then we went back through the various committees all the way up to the faculty to get these passed.”

According to Coker, First-Year Core classes The Global Experience, or GST 110, and Writing Argument and Inquiry (formerly called College Writing), or ENG 110, will now more directly address the goals of the general studies program, while the former two-hour Contemporary Wellness Issues course, or HED 111, will be dropped and replaced by a four-hour course called Perspectives in Personal and Global Health.

“We value health and wellness both as a concept and as a course,” Coker said. “We’re not getting rid of health and wellness. We’re just changing our philosophy about how we can deliver it.”

Coker said the current health and wellness program is a “one size fits all” model. The change in requirements would add more flexibility for students to take other courses as they please. Though the changes will take health and wellness out of the First-Year Core requirement, a math course, ENG 110 and GST 110 will remain.

Other changes associated with the First-Year Core are revisions to ENG 110 and GST 110. Coker said these changes are not overhauls to the courses, but attempts to increase student focus on inquiry, one of three goals in the General Studies mission statement.

[quote] We don’t want students to take a class just to get a check mark on their transcript It’s going to happen, but we want them to try and combine GST with their major or their study abroad program to connect the general studies program to the rest of their education here at Elon. -Jeffrey Coker, director of General Studies [/quote]

By making revisions to Writing Argument and Inquiry, Coker said the general studies program is deepening its commitment to writing.

“The title change for English 110 says a lot,” Coker said. “Right now, it’s called ‘College Writing.’ You can interpret that in a variety of different ways. Writing is a skill you’ll need for the rest of your life, so we’ve changed the title to ‘Writing Argument and Inquiry,’ which we thought portrayed more of what we want students to get out of the class.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming semester, Coker said he believes the main focus will be on the GST capstone seminars for juniors and seniors and the university Experiential Learning Requirement.

Coker said the capstone seminars should be improved to better challenge students to draw from their coursework of their years at Elon.

“Right now, these capstones are great, but many of them don’t really connect the rest of the general studies program,” Coker said. “We are trying to connect the rest of the program in these capstones.”

Currently, students are only required to fulfill a single Experiential Learning Requirement. According to Coker, a single ELR may not be asking enough of students.

“The ELR is at the heart of what Elon really is,” Coker said. “The current requirement is not sufficient for who we say we are as an institution.”

While the preliminary conversations are still continuing, Coker said student surveys found that 90 percent of students do two units of the ELR voluntarily. Discussions this fall surrounding the ELR will address whether students will be required to fulfill two or more of these units.

With more changes to come in the future, Coker said he hopes to encourage students and advisers to think about how to structure GST classes individually in a way that is meaningful to each student.

“We don’t want students to take a class just to get a check mark on their transcript,” Coker said. “It’s going to happen, but we want them to try and combine GST with their major or their study abroad program to connect the general studies program to the rest of their education here at Elon.”