Steering panel notes
I. Welcome and Roll Call – Malinda II. Updates a. Fall ’22 Panel Season – Malinda gave an overview on the fall season as follows: All GECC, Major, & Special panel meetings were held via Zoom again this season, however we do intend to return to in-person meetings with Zoom as an option for all GECC panels next season. There were 547 courses submitted & reviewedby the 21 GECC and Major panels with 368 being Ongoing Reviewand 179 being new courses. There is a continuing trend of new courses being submitted by the public universities to the Major Panels due to the statewide audit for participation in the majors. Staff also noted that the number of courses submitted each fall continues to rise with 453 for Fall ’20, 515 for Fall ’21, and 547 for Fall ‘22. The top three submitting institutions for the Fall ’22season are: o University of Illinois Chicago = 35 courses o Sauk Valley Community College = 18 courses o Waubonsee Community College = 18 courses b. Panel & Institutional Course Approval Ratio Reports – Kristaupdated the panels on the ratios for the season. The panels’ratios were all higher this semester with the average approval ratio (including conditional approvals) was over 70%. c. GECC Panel Updates – The panel co-chairs gave brief updates regarding issues discussed during their panel meetings. d. Major Panel Updates – Malinda first explained that the IBHE IAI Panel Manager role is currently unfilled as Amy Spies left the agency and IBHE continues to have several unfilled positions in the academic affairs degree granting division. Due to this staffing shortage, Malinda has been filling this role temporarily on behalf of IBHE. Malinda then proceeded to give updates on all IBHE-assigned major panels, followed by Melvin giving updates for all of the ICCB-assigned major panels. e. Transfer Updates – • Transfer Coordinators – Jennifer gave an update on the recent Transfer Coordinators meeting held in November and reminded everyone that the annual IACAC Transfer Summit will be held at Moraine Valley Community College on February 3, 2023. • IAI, iTransfer website, & iManage System – Krista & Malindagave updates on activities completed during the fall season including writing the Annual IAI FY21/22 Report, which is available on the iTransfer website, and revising the IBHE/ICCB Joint Legislative Report on IAI at the request of IBHE leadership. The joint report will be posted to the iTransfer website after it has officially been submitted to the legislature before the holidays. Malinda briefly described the tasks that will be done during the post-panel season timeframe as follows: • Continue to work with institutions and panel co-chairs on conditional approval course submissions & decisions • Panel membership and attendance reports for IBHE, ICCB, and public universities • Write and distribute the End of Season (EOS) Panel Summary to institutional submitters, transfer coordinators, etc. This will also be posted on the iTransfer website. • Call Ongoing Review courses for the Spring ’23 panel season. Krista also explained that the GECC HFA and SBS panels have a large number (approx. 2,850) of uncalled courses due in large part to the number of submissions the panels receive each semester. Staff will be discussing options for getting the courses reviewed as quickly and as soon as possible. • Room and catering reservations for Spring ‘23 in-person GECC panel meetings • Doodle polls to schedule special panel meetings in January & February as needed • Other misc. tasks as necessary Malinda also announced that she has been asked to do presentations for the following groups this spring: • IL Education Success Network Conference – March ’23 • ISU’s Learning & Professional Development Series – Spring ‘23 f. Board Updates – Nkechi (IBHE) and Melvin (ICCB) gavebrief updates on statewide transfer initiatives and activities happening within their respective agencies. III. Policy Issue Discussions a. Revisit fall ’21 Steering decision re. documentation / catalog changes on courses with removed prerequisites in order to be approved by a panel: Malinda led a discussion regarding the prerequisite issue that was raised in the spring semester. Panel members and institutions have found it to be an onerous process. It is time consuming for faculty members to review the institution’s catalog via URL links supplied during the course resubmission process in order to verify changes made to course prerequisites. There is also the timing issue as institutions have lags in update processes that are caused by varying internal processes. Steering panel members agreed that going forward, a statement from an appropriate administrator at the institution would suffice that the prerequisite is being revised in the catalog through internal processes. ISU did this recently for a course and this could perhaps serve as an example that can be available on the iTransfer website as a resource for institutional course submitters and chief academic officers. The panel also decided that a conditional approval decision may be used instead of returned for courses that have no other issues other than verifying a prerequisite change. Malinda and Krista will also work on a uniform statement/decision for these issues within course review. b. Credit hour ranges for gen ed classes: Malinda led a discussion regarding credit hour ranges on certain courses within the SBS panel. • GECC SBS considering this to accommodate courses such as Anthropology & Archaeology which typically include a 1 hour lab component, as well as non- traditional lab courses such as Micro and Macro Economics. These courses have been submitted with 4 credit hours as the result of a “lab” or extra discussion portion of the courses. After discussions, it was decided that this was okay for these courses as long as the panel does not regulate or require particular detail of these extra credit hour needs for the courses. Courses will need to be updated on the site to allow for this change. (Note: Switching to a credit hour range for certain IAI descriptors rather than requiring justification for submitted courses beyond 3 credit hours was strongly encouraged and preferred by IAI leadership.) c. N & D descriptors for GECC SBS & HFA panels – Malinda led a discussion that arose in the fall SBS panel meeting in which members expressed concerns that diversity is an issue that can also include content beyond the United States. In the Steering panel, Amy from ISU expressed that the institution is specifically going to utilize, beginning the fall 2023, the D code which is defined by IAI as, “D- Courses designed specifically to examine aspects of human diversity within the United States.”For ISU, courses must be focused on diversity within the U.S. in order to meet graduation requirements. The Steering panel recommended, as the SBS panel did, that an additional identifier code may be needed and appropriate to allow IAI approval for courses focused on diversity in the world. Further discussion should continue, perhaps a special meeting in the spring between affected panels, to determine if and how this might be accomplished. A follow-up topic is reviewing courses for appropriate revisions to codes, etc. d. Course numbering as an approval consideration factor (100/200 vs. 300/400) Courses are coming in more frequently with 200, 300 or even 400 course numbers. IAI serves to approve lower-division 100/200 level courses. In the past, Malinda has asked panel members not to consider course numbering as an approval factor and instead focus on determining if the content was lower level and aligned to the panel’s descriptor(s). However, given the requirement for the public universities to participate in all IAI majors in which they offer a bachelor’s degree program, we anticipate course numbering becoming a frequent concern during the course review process. The Steering panel determined that issues of senior college hours, etc. are most appropriate at the institutional level and IAI will not determine if a course number indicates a higher course content level as it will most likely be apparent when a course is not lower-division. e. Prerequisite issue (writing sequence AND speech) for GECC courses: Malinda discussed the rare situation that arose where all three courses in the GECC Communication panel were required as prerequisites for an HFA course. The panel thought this might have been excess, but because it was a first time situation special requirements and accommodations is not needed. Should this occur again, clear justification for this prerequisite would be needed as Steering members agreed that this is considered to be an excessive number of prerequisites and violates the policy on general education. f. Mixed classes – undergrad and grad students taking same course: Malinda asked for verification from panel members that this rare occurrence would not preclude approval of an IAI code so long as the undergraduate requirements for coursework are clear and separately described within the course syllabus. IV. Other Business a. Malinda advised the Steering panel that there is a renewed interest in allowing a computer science course to fulfill the math requirement of the statewide GECC Package. ICCB was invited to attend a meeting organized by the Deputy Governor of the Education Office, PLTW (Project Lead the Way) and STANDfor Children not-for-profit organizations. There are no further details at this time however Malinda will keep everyone informed as more information becomes available. b. Discussion Items from Panel Members: None c. 2023 Steering Panel Meeting Dates & Mode – Malinda • Spring = Wednesday, May 10 at 10:00AM • Fall = Wednesday, December 6 at 10:00AM |