TESC Overhauling Gen Ed Reqs. Not enrolled, watch out!

[cooperalex2004]

TESC has announced that they are changing the general education requirements effective with the new catalog (July 1, 2013). If you pay your enrollment fee after that date you will be locked into a totally new set of general education requirements. I'll say it now and hope people get the message, enroll before that date or you will complete your BA (and maybe other programs) under the new requirements.

Read the full article here:
Insights | Thomas Edison State College

What happens is that instead of the current requirements for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Nat Sci/Math, you'll end up with a greater number of individual requirements. Whether this will apply to all programs or just to the BA degrees is unclear, it is an inititive set up by the Heavin School of Arts at TESC but says that all bachelor's degrees are affected. The capstone is part of the area of study so I'd expect that to remain on the BA degrees as well. If anyone is planning to complete a BA and wait until after July 1st to pay for enrollment, be ready to follow this plan and not any one else's degree plan from this site since they all use the old methods of general education. I don't want anyone to plan their way out of a degree due to changes that are coming. The changes may look weird to some, but I will add that my state (Minnesota) made a similar move in 2002 where every single public and private school now follows a common "10 goal area" plan (http://www.mntransfer.org/students/plan/s_mntc.php) so this is a step toward that type of system and away from the old very generically categorized system. If you enroll before that date you will be grandfathered in, so if anyone is looking at TESC for a BA degree then please consider whether you will follow the plan below or want to use the old plan.

Here is the breakdown from the link above:

The New General Education Curriculum Structure
Students applying to the College after July 1 can expect their undergraduate general education requirements to be distributed across the following four categories (60 credits total):

1.) Intellectual and practical skills (15 credits)

This category will include course work in communication, information literacy, quantitative literacy and technological competency. This group also contains familiar foundational courses: English Composition I (ENC-101) and English Composition II (ENC-102), Statistics (STA-201) and Living in the Information Age (SOS-110). Credit requirements are as follows:


3 credits in composition (ENC-101 English Composition I)
3 credits in writing intensive course work (ENC-102 English Composition II)
3 credits in math
6 credits in intellectual and practical skills electives

2.) Human cultures and the physical and natural world through study in areas including the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages and the arts (18 credits)

Requirements in this category will encompass courses in the sciences, social sciences and humanities including interdisciplinary courses such as Global Environmental Change (ENS-314), War and American Society (HIS-356) and Philosophy of Religion (PHI-370). Credit requirements are as follows:
3 credits in social sciences
3 credits in natural sciences
3 credits in humanities
9 credits in human cultures and the physical world electives

3.) Personal and social responsibility (9 credits)

Requirements encompass diversity, global literacy, responsible global leadership and lifelong learning course work. This category includes: Cultural Diversity (SOC-322), Elements of Intercultural Communication (COM-335) and Ethics and the Business Professional (PHI-384). Credit requirements are as follows:

3 credits in diversity/global literacy
3 credits in responsible and ethical leadership
3 credits in personal and social responsibility elective

4.) Integrative and applied learning synthesized across general and specialized disciplines. Courses in this category will be integrated throughout general education and capstone courses (18 credits).

Course work in this category will encompass critical analysis and reasoning. These competencies will be demonstrated across interdisciplinary general education courses as well as in the students' area of study and capstone courses.


The revised general education requirements described above will not apply to students who enrolled at the College prior to July 1, 2013, though students will have the option to complete their course work under the new curriculum standards if they wish.

[cooperalex2004]

Admins, any chance at making this a sticky post? This will be really imporant in the coming months for TESC students.

[chiquitacobbe]

Wow, does this only apply to new applications? I enrolled last year for my AAS and will have to pay again in July for my next year should I choose to continue on for my BA. Am I grandfathered in still on the 2011-2012 catalog requirements? Or no?

[cooperalex2004]

Wow, does this only apply to new applications? I enrolled last year for my AAS and will have to pay again in July for my next year should I choose to continue on for my BA. Am I grandfathered in still on the 2011-2012 catalog requirements? Or no?

You should be grandfathered in as long as the BA appears on your list of evaluations. If it doesn't then you need to ask the school to add it. Even if you decide not to complete the BA, since you are enrolled it won't cost anything to put it on your list of degrees in progress and will lock you into the requirements of today rather than these. This is the same scenario that made a lot of people upset last year with the capstone being added to the BA. The key at TESC or most any other school is to enroll and get locked into the program (catalog) effective on that date. I urge everyone looking at a TESC BA to carefully read the new requirements and not to let July 1st pass you by and lock you into something you may not have planned for. If you plan for the change then that is fine, I just would hate to see a bunch of people waiting who won't meet the new requirements.

[chiquitacobbe]

Thanks I will contact them ASAP. I think I want to try and have them add AAS ESST as well as a BA. I can have three degrees listed no? The reason I still want to add the extra AAS is the capstone requirement for ESST and if I can get that waived before they add the class I will be golden.

[cooperalex2004]

Thanks I will contact them ASAP. I think I want to try and have them add AAS ESST as well as a BA. I can have three degrees listed no? The reason I still want to add the extra AAS is the capstone requirement for ESST and if I can get that waived before they add the class I will be golden.

You may have to complete the first AAS before starting on the second, but that is a question for TESC. As for the BA, I think you can add that no matter how the AAS thing works out.

[Daithi]

This really sucks. Courses that focus on "diversity, global literacy, ethical leadership and social responsibility" are generally the kind of courses I try to avoid. Some of the new requirements look like they might not even have a CLEP/DSST option, so it looks like I'm going to have to enroll in TESC a little sooner than I had planned.

[Prloko]

* Bump. As cooperalex already empasized, enroll before the deadline if you plan on using any old degree plans, this change is huge!

[brucet3]

This really sucks. Courses that focus on "diversity, global literacy, ethical leadership and social responsibility" are generally the kind of courses I try to avoid. Some of the new requirements look like they might not even have a CLEP/DSST option, so it looks like I'm going to have to enroll in TESC a little sooner than I had planned.

Best line all day.... "Courses that focus on "diversity, global literacy, ethical leadership and social responsibility" are generally the kind of courses I try to avoid."

You should have signed it Michael Scott. :o

[cookderosa]

this hurts my brain, I'll have to think about this more tomorrow.