Sacramento State fall 2011 freshmen can opt to fulfill general education requirements by taking nine-unit courses that combine subject areas rather than taking individual three-unit courses.

The general education pilot program, also called Sacramento State Studies, is made of “learning collaboratives,” each of which combines three three-unit general education classes to total nine units, said Sheree Meyer, associate dean for undergraduate studies.

Anthony Sheppard, chair of the Faculty Senate, said the program offers a new way to fulfill lower division general education requirements.

Meyer said each collaborative course is still being designed and it is unknown how many collaborative courses the university will offer.

She said the pilot program specifically targets first-time freshmen.

“Start with first-year students because we really want to give our first-year students every advantage and option and have programming that gets them involved in the university and engaged in their courses,” Meyer said.

Meyer said combining the general education courses into nine-unit collaboratives enables faculty members to work together to develop lectures and field experiences. She said three professors will teach one collaborative because each is essentially three classes molded into one.

Sheppard said professors will coordinate course content into complementary modules.

“Imagine a hypothetical collaborative that looked at art, culture, and history – perhaps one week students might study certain historical events as they have been depicted in works of art and literature,” Sheppard said.

The pilot program will also allow students to see how a course they are taking in one general education section connects with another in a different section, Meyer said.

“The GE pilot program and other GE reforms have risen in part to help students connect the dots and furthermore create a more exciting, more integrated GE option,” Meyer said.

The current general education curriculum is divided into five major areas, A to E, and each has its sub-areas. One of the pilot program’s criteria is that one collaborative would fulfill three sub-areas. For instance, one nine-unit course can cover area E and sub-areas C1 and D1.

Students will still have to take English and math courses through the current general education curriculum because testing requirements and class sizes do not allow these two subjects to be taught in larger collaborative classes.

Meyer said students will receive three grades after completing a nine-unit collaborative, just as though they were taking the classes separately.

She said the pilot program will consist of 150 students for each collaborative. To create smaller class sizes, instructors might break the class into groups and/or have an online hybrid component, Meyer said.

Sheppard said the total seats in the pilot program will be limited to approximately 20 percent of incoming freshmen.

The learning style in the pilot program was done not to improve the current general education curriculum, but to see how things could be done differently, Meyer said.

“The pilot provides an option for (those) whose schedules allow for it,” Meyer said.

She said courses in the collaborative will be scheduled together, which makes it easier to build a class schedule.

The current general education curriculum, Sheppard said, can make deciding which classes to take quite complicated for students because of the array of classes available. He also said the program might not be an option for students whose majors have high-unit requirements.

Senior business major Jabulile Rankins said she prefers the current general education curriculum because it gives students a broad sense of knowledge by trying a bit of everything.