OERu/Planning/Idealised 1st year for general education studies

'''Straw dog proposal presented at the 3rd meeting of partners to explore the reuse of existing open textbooks for generating an OERu 1st year of study. This page has now been replaced by the Programme specification for the OERu 1st year of study following the decisions at the 4th meeting of partners.'''

This is a hypothetical exercise to see if the OERu can construct an idealised 1st year for general education studies from existing open textbooks and / or course nominations from OERu partners. The idealised 1st year would also cater for recognition of prior learning with the support of two RPL courses.

What if?

 * What if each OERu partner could commit to assembling one OERu course as their 1st or 2nd course contribution to the OERu collaboration towards a general education component / stream?

Open design questions?

 * What is the ideal component size for a general education stream? (Eg the Pennstate General Education component equates to 1,5 years of study in a four-year bachelor degree.)
 * Should a recommended pathway distinguish between skills components and optional knowledge domains / streams. Is there a minimum or maximum component for skills courses?
 * What steps are needed to ensure that an OERu general education component will map to existing Bachelor of General Studies credentials in the network?
 * How do foundation year studies articulate to degree study?

Possible candidates for a general education 1st year of study (including OERu nominations)

 * The target for a full 1st year of study would be 10 3-credit courses (North America) or 30 OERu micro-courses.
 * Assuming a minimum of 8 FTE courses (3-credit North America) in 3 broad areas of study to provide some measure of choice, the OERu has achieved 20% of a potential 1st year of general education studies.
 * Green shaded areas in the table below indicates an OERu course nomination.



'''The tables below list possible courses which can be assembled from existing open textbooks according to the suggested streams of study for a 1st year general education component. Rows highlighted in green indicate courses which have already been nominated by OERu partners.'''

Skills component

 * Possible courses: Communication skills, digital citizenship, other?

Potential OERu course candidates
This list is intended for OERu 1st year nominations where open textbooks may not be available, but where partners could assemble courses using the pedagogy of discovery where learners are guided to source open access materials to support their learning.


 * Indigenous / inter-cultural studies?
 * Digital citizenship?

Support links

 * Example of the General Education courses at the University of Auckland
 * Bachelor of General Studies - Foundation year pathway at the University of Tasmania
 * Bachelor of General Studies at the University of Southern Queensland
 * PennState General Education Handbook|}