Baccalaureate Core Curriculum Reform

OSU is in the process of reforming  our General Education program currently known as the Baccalaureate Core, as part of our commitment to diversifying and updating our curriculum to meet the needs of our twenty-first-century learners. This has been a multi-year endeavor in partnership with the Faculty Senate and is rooted in best practices from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the National Association of Career Employers (NACE), and aims to find alignment with Oregon's Core Transfer Map (CTM). 

 

Reforming for Transfer Students

OSU is committed to reforming our curriculum to promote our institution's mission to serve the state, nation, and world. To that end, our curriculum maps to the Core Transfer Map stemming from the 2017 Oregon House Bill 2998. The proposed General Education reform has new and updated requirements that fulfill the needs of a diversifying student body in Corvallis, Bend, and students OUT THERE enrolled in our undergraduate Ecampus programs. 

Curriculum and Program Highlights

The proposed curriculum aims to elevate our general education to meet the needs of our 21st century learners by developing students’ intellectual capacities and resiliency to be critical agents who transform knowledge into action. 

The curriculum is designed to:
  • Foster student potential, particularly those of our historically underserved student populations;
  • Promote innovation, change and adaptation, and complex problem solving; and
  • Create community members in a global society.

Through the re-design, we will introduce students early in their time at OSU to different modes of inquiry while also connecting them with high-impact educational practices through integrative and applied learning courses.  Students will examine perspectives within and across a variety of disciplines to apply skills necessary for navigating complex challenges facing our society and world.  OSU’s signature curriculum will ensure all students will have access to these thought-provoking courses, while still honoring students’ prior learning. 

The overall structure of the curriculum provides students with:
  • Communication and media;
  • Community building and navigating the university;
  • Critical thinking;
  • Data literacy and analysis;
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion related to career fields;
  • Experiential learning opportunities;
  • Scientific inquiry and analysis;
  • Teamwork as a core competency desired by employers;
  • Well-being and resiliency development; and
  • Writing preparation and application in their fields.

Proposed Mission

Oregon State University’s Baccalaureate Core is a universal educational experience for the 21st-century learner that promotes economic, social, cultural, and environmental progress for the people of Oregon, the nation, and the world. The curriculum strives to develop students’ intellectual capacities and resiliency to be critical agents who transform knowledge into action. Through deep and integrative experiences, OSU’s general education meets students where they are in their educational journey and equips them for meaningful, lifelong learning. Our Baccalaureate Core is designed to foster student potential to innovate and change the world by solving complex problems, adapting to change, and becoming community members in a global society.

Proposed Goals for General Education at Oregon State University

  • Foundational Modes of Inquiry and Innovation — students will use multiple modes of inquiry, within and across a variety of disciplines, to develop fundamental skills and breadth of knowledge that promote lifelong learning and creative problem-solving.
  • Social and Environmental Justice — students will examine evidence from a variety of perspectives to grow their cultural and environmental awareness and increase their capacity to enact social and environmental justice.
  • Navigation of a Complex Global World — students will apply skills necessary for navigating a world with multiple perspectives and global interconnectedness.
  • From Here to Career — students will gain professional skills and competencies designed for adaptability, longevity, and integrity in a global workforce.
Main