University Seminar

Academic Skills Core Assignment

 “Planning for General Education”

 

Goal of the Assignment: To identify and plan for timely completion of the General Education and other University requirements at Northeastern Illinois University, and to demonstrate a minimum level of computer skills proficiency by making use of the Internet, University website, and Blackboard.

 

Relationship to General Education Goals:

Goal 2: The skills required to gather, analyze, document, and integrate information.

 

Structure of the Assignment:  For this assignment you will need to do the following:

 

1. Identify your proposed major and minor; post them on Blackboard under “DISCUSSION BOARD: MAJOR/MINOR”[1]

 

2. After posting, find someone else in the class

a.       Who shares your intended major;

b.       Who shares your intended minor;

and contact that person/those people to work with you as partners.

 

N.B. You can have one partner for your major and another one for your minor.

 

3. Post your partner(s) on Blackboard under “DISCUSSION BOARD: PARTNERS” so we can ensure that everyone is paired.

 

4. With your partner, identify required classes, options and electives.

c.       You should use the university catalog (in book form or the online catalog);

d.       You may also:

                                                                              i.        Ask for a review sheet in the major/minor department office;

                                                                            ii.        Interview a professor or staff person in the major/minor department for recommendations on Gen. Ed. classes.

 

N.B. Some degree programs (e.g., in the College of Education) have a very specific list of Gen. Ed. classes they want you to take.

 

5. Download the planning grid posted on Blackboard under “COURSE DOCUMENTS: PLANNING GRID” and fill out a plan for completing your Gen. Ed. coursework. Hand in to your classroom teacher.

 

N.B. Check the University catalog for all university requirements (e.g., English, Math); don’t forget to include these in your plan—while these courses are not part of the Gen. Ed. program, they are, nonetheless, required by the University before you can graduate. In some cases, you cannot begin work on your major until you have completed them. It is best to fulfill these requirements as soon as possible so they do not hold up your specialization and progress to degree.

 

For this assignment only, the points will be calculated as follows:

 

A	23-25 Points
B	20-22 Points
C	17-19 Points
D	14-16 Points
F	13 Points or fewer

 

See the Scoring Criteria for a breakdown of points.

Scoring Criteria for Academic Skills

 

1. Identify your proposed major and minor; post them on Blackboard under “DISCUSSION BOARD: MAJOR/MINOR”. All postings must be completed. (3 points: 1 for major, 1 for minor, 1 for timeliness)

 

2. After posting, find someone else in the class
1. Who shares your intended major;
2. Who shares your intended minor;

and contact that person/those people to work with you as partners.

 

3. Post your partner(s) on Blackboard under “DISCUSSION BOARD: PARTNERS” so we can ensure that everyone is paired. (3 points: 1 for major partner, 1 for minor partner, 1 for timeliness)

 

4. With your partner, identify required classes, options and electives.

 

5. Download the planning grid posted on Blackboard under “COURSE DOCUMENTS: PLANNING GRID” and fill out a plan for completing your Gen. Ed. coursework. Hand in to your classroom teacher.

(19 points: 4 for natural sciences, 4 for social sciences, 3 for humanities, 2 for fine arts, 1 for English [including any ELP and READ DEV], 1 for math [including any prerequisites], 4 for accuracy [i.e., correspondence with any major and minor requirements])

 

TOTAL POINTS = 25

 

Requirement	Performance
	Emerging	Average	Exemplary
Major/Minor Postings (3 points)	1	2	3
Partner Postings (3 points)	1	2	3
Planning Grid (19 points)
Natural Sciences	1	2   3	4
Social Sciences	1	2   3	4
·           Humanities	1	2	3
·           Fine Arts	0	1	2
·           Other Requirements	0	1	2
Accuracy	1	2   3	4
Total Points