Abstract:

In today’s global university, general education courses and programs have been charged with the seemingly daunting task of developing 21st century competencies in students across departments. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills defines these competencies as: content knowledge in 21st century contexts, critical thinking and innovation skills, information, media, and technology literacies, and career readiness. The UNESCO initiative Education 2030, outlines global education goals for 2030 that focus on 21st century skill development, further highlighting the foundational role that general education programs will play in supporting necessary 21st century skill development across global institutions. While these initiatives and the goals they represent are important, a key question remains: How can institutions design programs that develop such important and diverse skills?

This study explores this complex question through a detailed case study of the development and pilot of a general education capstone course. In advocating that general education programs should advance core competencies in critical thinking, communication, and multifaceted literacies, this study argues that specialized courses within general education should foster and assess student skill development across their general education process. To unpack this argument, this study examines a capstone general education course specifically designed for last semester students at DeVry University in the United States. The course, LAS (Liberal Arts and Sciences) 432: Society, Ethics, and Technology, is intended to allow students to synthesize and demonstrate mastery of the general education common learning outcomes of the institution. In 2017, the course underwent a large-scale redevelopment process to align with new university general education common learning outcomes. The course requires students to work in diverse teams to utilize core general education competencies to deconstruct ethical problems in modern environmental technologies and make forecasting recommendations based on research and creative problem solving. Through this 21st century-based project, the course seeks to measure competency skills that are transferable across programs of study and modern professions. Moreover, this course includes clear and integrated assessments that focus on measuring core competencies to assess curriculum design in a holistic way and plan future relevant and intentional program development.

To illustrate the significance of this course, this study begins by examining the literature on alignments between general education programs and 21st century skills in higher education that inform curriculum design. Second, this study provides developed descriptions of course structure, objectives, and assignments to facilitate course and programmatic goals. Third, this study considers assessment metrics for determining the success of newly designed general education common learning outcomes through internal university architectures. Finally, this study concludes with utilizing early assessment data to develop a plan for future assessment practices within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at DeVry University. By engaging these complex components, this study places general education programming at the core of 21st century skills and advocates for the holistic development of general education programs to support learning goals across the space of the global university.

Keywords:

Curriculum, general education, pedagogy, assessment.