Guidelines

Courses in the Arts category should address central and important questions about creative activity, whether in the visual arts, literature, music, film, theatre, or dance. Courses may be taught from a particular disciplinary perspective, but they must be addressed to a non- specialist audience.

• Course materials and expectations should not presuppose prior familiarity with the discipline in question.
• Courses should be constructed with a view to both breadth and depth, allowing the student to establish appropriate contexts and at the same time to learn skills of critical analysis.
• Courses should encourage students to develop tools for independent critical thinking, while maintaining high standards of analytical and scholarly rigor.
• Reading and study will focus on primary sources and on their contexts.
• Courses may include an element of creative work – for example, the writing of short stories, dramatic writing, or the making of a sculpture or a performance, or the composition of a song cycle. In this case, students should be asked to reflect critically upon their own creative practice. The extent of reading expectations should be adjusted accordingly when an element of creative practice forms part of the course.
• All courses must comprise four units.
• At least four of the five Learning Objectives outlined in the Arts category must be met (Analysis, Making, Connectivity, Context, Engagement).
• Reading assignments should be appropriate for a four unit course and to the type of material being discussed: for example, about 150-200 pages of fiction per week, or one Shakespeare play, or 100-120 pages of contextual material. These assignments should take into account the time needed for other forms of study that the student will be expected to carry out in preparation for class, such as watching films.
• In addition to the course examinations, there must be at least three graded assignments, two of which must involve critical/analytical writing. Creative projects should be accompanied by a written reflection on this project in an appropriate form (which might take the forms of a brief critical essay, an artist’s statement suitable for website or gallery wall, program notes, sleeve notes, or a blog chronicling the process and challenges involved). Examinations are not to be considered an assignment.
• All mid-term and final examinations will be in written form (i.e. not multiple choice). We look forward to courses that allow students to take full advantage of the rich and vibrant cultural environment of Los Angeles.

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-A, The Arts

Courses in Humanistic Inquiry should address central and important questions about the human condition, creative achievements of the mind, or influential and long lasting actions or events in human history. Courses can be taught from a particular disciplinary perspective, such as literature, history, philosophy or linguistics. However, all courses must be addressed to a non-specialized audience, and course materials should not presuppose prior familiarity with the discipline in question.

• Courses must engage with topics discussed at reasonable depth and rigor. Courses are encouraged to cover a wide range of topics within their subject matter, but there is no requirement to avoid a single-author focus, as long as the single author in question has had a foundational impact on the relevant field.
• Courses in this category should encourage students to develop tools for independent critical thinking, while maintaining high standards of analytical and scholarly rigor.
• Courses in this category should utilize primary sources of scholarship in the relevant discipline, employing significant textual resources that students would need to understand and critically analyze. The use of secondary literature should be minimal.

In addition, courses in this category must meet the following requirements:

• All courses must be 4 units.
• All courses must include at least one significant written assignment during the term plus a final written assignment, and are strongly encouraged to include a midterm exam as well. All sections should require at least fifteen pages of out-of-class analytical writing, exclusive of examinations.
• All courses must require a reasonable amount of reading material from week to week, depending on the difficulty of the relevant texts.

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-B, Humanistic Inquiry

Social Analysis courses are to be selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• Courses must require that students complete at least one analytical paper or report using social science tools and skills.
• Courses are required to take a social analytic approach, roughly reflecting the idea of social science as the study of society through the examination of how people behave and influence the world.
• Courses will come primarily, but not solely, from Dornsife departments and USC professional schools employing social science expertise; drawing on disciplines such as anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology.
• Some courses will take an explicitly problem-driven approach, exploring a specific social issue, rather than having a single disciplinary focus. However, all courses must be designed to meet the category’s learning objectives.

In addition, Social Analysis courses are expected to include the following:

• As a 4-unit course, courses should require a total of 12 hours of work weekly by all students.
• Courses will require students to complete a minimum of 12-15 pages in written assignments over the course of the semester, exclusive of examinations.
• Courses will require a final examination. A midterm examination is strongly recommended. All examinations are expected to be in essay format as opposed to true/false or multiple choice formats.
• Courses will require roughly 100 pages of reading per week, although the number of pages may vary with the difficulty of the reading content.
• All courses in the Social Analysis category are intended to provide students with a rigorous intellectual experience with high academic expectations and demanding standards of performance in relationship to grading and course content.

Process for Course Approval

All Social Analysis courses must be reviewed to ensure they are designed to meet the category’s learning objectives and the University’s expectations of rigor. To propose a course, faculty must submit (1) a course syllabus and (2) a course review cover sheet. Faculty may submit (and the review committee may request) additional materials, such as sample assignments and readings, if needed to complete a thorough review of the course design. 

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-C, Social Analysis

Understanding the nature of scientific inquiry and the operation of the biological, physical, and technological world is essential for making personal and public policy decisions in a technological society. Courses in Life and Physical Sciences train students to understand the basic concepts and theories of science and the scientific method, with a major emphasis on the impact science has on society and the environment. Students learn about the process and methods underlying scientific inquiry, learn how to obtain accurate experimental results, are trained in the formulation of empirically-testable hypotheses, and then develop a basis for understanding the distinction between unsupported assertions versus conclusions based on sound scientific reasoning. As a result, all students should acquire substantive knowledge in science and technology, understand the processes by which scientists investigate and answer scientific questions, and be able to articulate the basic principles used to explain natural phenomena.

Based on this description, courses should be designed to facilitate the students’ ability to do the following:

• Use and understand the scientific method to analyze ideas and obtain knowledge, with particular reference to quantitative methods.
• Appreciate the difference between scientific laws, theories, hypotheses, and speculation.
• Think critically about historical and contemporary issues in science and technology, and how they have and do impact society.
• Draw conclusions from empirical scientific data and be able to logically and clearly communicate experimental results and observations to others.
• Where possible, a section of laboratory or field experience should be required in which students collect, analyze, and then be able to present their data.

What makes a Life Sciences course?

• Courses that deal with living systems may include a broad range of disciplines including: Anthropology, Biomedical Engineering, Biological Sciences, Earth Sciences, Exercise Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology.
• These classes may involve field, hands-on, laboratory-based problem solving.
• A life sciences course will explore aspects of biological, evolutionary and/or environmental science with both descriptive and quantitative elements.
• Life sciences classes are placed in the context of research approaches and specifically how

USC scientists are contributing to our understanding of living systems.

Requirements for a General Education Laboratory

A laboratory component should have twenty-four hours each semester in which a significant part includes students engaging in “hands-on science”. This should involve activities related to the scientific methods of observation and the preparation and testing of hypotheses, including the collection of descriptive or numerical data in the field or laboratory, analysis of data, and the performing of experiments. Some courses may require additional laboratory experiences or field trips, discussion groups and problem solving sessions, or working with faculty in non- classroom settings. At a minimum all hours considered toward a General Education Laboratory must provide students with the opportunity to engage actively in scientific endeavors.
 

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-D, Life Sciences

Understanding the nature of scientific inquiry and the operation of the biological, physical, and technological world is essential for making personal and public policy decisions in a technological society. Courses in Life and Physical Sciences train students to understand the basic concepts and theories of science and the scientific method, with a major emphasis on the impact science has on society and the environment. Students learn about the process and methods underlying scientific inquiry, learn how to obtain accurate experimental results, are trained in the formulation of empirically-testable hypotheses, and then develop a basis for understanding the distinction between unsupported assertions versus conclusions based on sound scientific reasoning. As a result, all students should acquire substantive knowledge in science and technology, understand the processes by which scientists investigate and answer scientific questions, and be able to articulate the basic principles used to explain natural phenomena.

Based on this description, courses should be designed to facilitate the students’ ability to do the following:

• Use and understand the scientific method to analyze ideas and obtain knowledge, with particular reference to quantitative methods.
• Appreciate the difference between scientific laws, theories, hypotheses, and speculation.
• Think critically about historical and contemporary issues in science and technology, and how they have and do impact society.
• Draw conclusions from empirical scientific data and be able to logically and clearly communicate experimental results and observations to others.
• Where possible, a section of laboratory or field experience should be required in which students collect, analyze, and then be able to present their data.

What makes a Physical Sciences course?

• These courses deal with the natural world, typically defined by courses in Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Physics/Astronomy.
• These classes all involve field-work and/or laboratory-based problem solving.
• Physical science understanding is placed in the context of research approaches and specifically how USC scientists are contributing to our understanding of the physical world.

Requirements for a General Education Laboratory

A laboratory component should have twenty-four hours each semester in which a significant part includes students engaging in “hands-on science”. This should involve activities related to the scientific methods of observation and the preparation and testing of hypotheses, including the collection of descriptive or numerical data in the field or laboratory, analysis of data, and the performing of experiments. Some courses may require additional laboratory experiences or field trips, discussion groups and problem solving sessions, or working with faculty in non- classroom settings. At a minimum all hours considered toward a General Education Laboratory must provide students with the opportunity to engage actively in scientific endeavors.
 

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-E, Physical Sciences

A course in the quantitative reasoning category analyzes, formulates, or employs a mode of thought amenable to symbolic or diagrammatic representation. The objects of inquiry may arise from natural or social phenomena, or from creative or artificial processes that can be modeled formally or analyzed empirically.

All courses should be crafted to meet the following conditions:

1. Through exercises, problem sets, projects, and tests, students must demonstrate proficiency in the three fundamental learning objectives enumerated above:
   a.  critical thinking
   b.  logical integrity, and
   c.  application to appropriate phenomena or processes.
2. An emphasis should be placed on the use of reasoning beyond a straightforward description of processes or events.
3. Where appropriate, opportunities should be afforded students to apply these methods to problems relevant to their own field.
4. The types and balance of student work found in a given course is expected to vary greatly depending upon the discipline and approach, but the volume of work should be equivalent to a mathematics course with weekly problem sets and periodic tests. The emphasis should be placed on regular, evaluated assignments.

Additionally, a course in this category should fall within at least one of three overlapping areas, and should satisfy the enumerated objectives particular to its type: 

A. Formal Reasoning

Courses in this area teach students to understand the structure of a logical system and to distinguish between the axioms upon which this system is founded and their implications. A course in this area should help students to gain familiarity with deductive reasoning, to understand the relationship between objects of analysis within the system, as well as to apply this knowledge to analyzing and formulating other problems in this and other areas.

A1.  To understand the structure of a logical system and to be able to distinguish between the axioms upon which a logical system is founded and the implications of such axioms.

A2.  To gain familiarity with deductive reasoning, and minimally to understand the possible relationships (e.g., implication, necessary and sufficient conditions, equality, equivalence) between units of analysis (e.g., propositions, variables), as appropriate to the given logical system.

A3.  To demonstrate the ability to assemble a logical argument formally.

Examples of this area include symbolic and other forms of logic. Many areas of mathematics are also primarily concerned with this area.

B. Abstract Representation

Courses in this area should teach students how to create and use symbolic or diagrammatic representations of natural, social, or artificial processes, systems, or phenomena.

B1.  To understand the components (e.g., assumptions, identities, behavioral equations, notions of static or dynamic equilibrium) and structure of a formal model of a process, system, or phenomenon.

B2.  To gain experience with constructing formal models of complex processes, systems, or phenomena.

B3.  To learn to use formal models to evaluate conditional, predictive, or factual claims about processes, systems, or phenomena.

Examples of this area include certain branches of linguistics and systems analysis, and may also include semiotics, and certain aspects of music theory.

C. Empirical Analysis

Courses in this area should teach students to understand and manipulate quantitative and/or statistical data in order to gain insight into or model a natural or social phenomenon. They should also train students to make useful and rational inferences based on these data and to evaluate their significance. Some of the key objects of learning for courses in this area should include probability, uncertainties, correlations and causation. A course in this area should also help students develop these skills to formulate rational models to understand problems and processes in this and similar areas.

C1.  To understand the use and meaning of summary statistics of data sets.

C2.  To learn how to apply basic axioms of probability to analysis in environments characterized by uncertainty.

C3.  To understand the distinction between causation and correlation.

C4.  To learn how to use methods of statistical inference to answer questions about natural, social, or artificial processes, systems, or phenomena, as well as to evaluate the success of a formal model in characterizing a given process, system, or phenomenon.

Examples of this area include a broad array of statistics courses in a variety of disciplines.

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-F, Quantitative Reasoning

Courses approved for the GE-G requirement:

• Should expect students to do a substantial amount of reading (about 100 pages a week) and
• A substantial component of writing (at least 15 pages of analytic, essay-form work, exclusive of examinations) over the semester.
• At least one third of the weekly schedule should include attention to inter-group conflicts, including at least two dimensions of difference as articulated above.
• At least one significant writing assignment should require students to engage questions of equity as they have shaped the contemporary situation of the culture/s examined.
• Syllabi submitted for approval should indicate clearly when these assignments of reading and writing are required during the course.
• Each course must also include some attention to both the U.S. and international contexts, though a course may focus primarily on one or the other. At least one week of the course should address the context not otherwise covered in the syllabus.

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-G, Equity in a Diverse World 

Courses in this category should normally:

• Cover materials from a substantially long period that includes both originating works and institutions as well as later works influenced by them
• Require students to study primary sources.
• Address the ways in which new cultural and historical contexts affect the development of ideas, cultural practices, institutions, etc.
• Explore the different perspectives by which works and ideas have been analyzed in different eras or in different countries and cultural contexts.

GE Courses Approved to Satisfy GE-H, Traditions and Historical Foundations