Faculty

Faculty

Getting Started with AdvantaGE

AdvantaGE is Mississippi State University’s renewed general education curriculum. Whether you are migrating an existing General Education course or proposing a new AdvantaGE course, the goal is the same: to make clear what students will learn, why that learning matters, and how the course will provide evidence of that learning.

Start with the WHY

AdvantaGE asks faculty to make the relevance of general education visible to students. Early and often, help students understand why the knowledge, questions, methods, and ways of thinking in your course matter—not only within a particular discipline, but in their education, careers, communities, and lives.

Preparing Your Course

Each AdvantaGE course is associated with one of four knowledge domains: Creative Expression, Humanities, Natural Sciences, or Social Sciences. Each domain has its own Domain Learning Outcomes and common assessment rubric.

As you prepare an existing course for migration or develop a new course, you will:

  • Address each of the Domain Learning Outcomes and explain the alignment in the Domain Learning Outcome Alignment field in CIM.
  • Identify a Signature Assignment that produces student work that can be used to assess the Domain Learning Outcomes, and clearly identify it in CIM. The Signature Assignment may be an existing assignment, a collection of assignments, or specified exam questions or items; AdvantaGE does not require adding student workload. The Signature Assignment does not have to be identified or described on the student-facing syllabus.
  • Include the required General Education statement on the syllabus, followed by a course-specific sentence explaining how the course contributes to the student’s general education.

Migration or New Course?

Existing General Education courses moving into AdvantaGE normally use the Technical Change process in CIM when the change is limited to AdvantaGE migration. A Course Modification is required when substantive changes are being made to the course, including a change in course number. New courses seeking AdvantaGE designation follow the regular new-course approval process.

Faculty Resources

The resources on this page are designed to help you move from course idea to submission. Begin with the AdvantaGE Migration Guide and Migration Readiness Guide, then consult the Signature Assignment Supplement for your domain. The supplements explain the assessment criteria associated with each Domain Learning Outcome and can help you determine whether the student work produced by your Signature Assignment will provide the evidence needed for assessment.

A useful test is:

If I gave the student work to someone who did not teach this course, could that person reasonably use the domain rubric to determine whether the student demonstrated each outcome?

Additional information about each of the four AdvantaGE domains appears below.

The resources on this page are designed to help you move from course idea to submission. Begin with the AdvantaGE Migration Guide and Migration Readiness Guide, then consult the Signature Assignment Supplement for your domain. The supplements explain the assessment criteria associated with each Domain Learning Outcome and can help you determine whether the student work produced by your Signature Assignment will provide the evidence needed for assessment.

A useful test is:

If I gave the student work to someone who did not teach this course, could that person reasonably use the domain rubric to determine whether the student demonstrated each outcome?

Additional information about each of the four AdvantaGE domains appears below.

Creative Expression

Every Creative Expression course should help students, regardless of major, experience creative work as a way of exploring, interpreting, and expressing ideas. Students engage with creative processes and learn that experimentation, reflection, revision, and even failure can be meaningful parts of discovery and learning.

Courses designated in the Creative Expression domain address each of the following Domain Learning Outcomes:

  • Through the study of literary, performing, and/or visual arts, employ fundamental discipline-specific principles, terminology, skills, technology, and methods.
  • Identify, explain, and/or demonstrate relationships among societal, cultural, and historical contexts.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of and empathy for the diversity of values, beliefs, ideas, and practices embodied in the human experience.
  • Engage in a creative process through experimentation, reflection, tolerance for failure, and revision.
  • Use appropriate methods and tools to analyze, interpret, and critique creative processes, works, and/or presentations.

Signature Assignment

Each Creative Expression course identifies a Signature Assignment that provides student work that can be used to assess the Domain Learning Outcomes. The Signature Assignment may be an existing assignment, a collection of assignments, or specified exam questions or items; faculty do not need to create additional student work solely for AdvantaGE.

The Signature Assignment must be clearly identified in CIM, along with an explanation of how the course addresses each Domain Learning Outcome and where evidence of that learning will appear in the student work. The Signature Assignment does not have to be identified or described on the student-facing syllabus.

Student work from the Signature Assignment will be assessed using the common Creative Expression assessment rubric. Faculty may continue to grade the assignment using whatever grading criteria or rubric are appropriate for their course; the AdvantaGE rubric is used for program-level assessment of the Domain Learning Outcomes.

For additional guidance, including the assessment criteria associated with each outcome, see the Creative Expression Signature Assignment Supplement.

Humanities

Every Humanities course should help students, regardless of major, explore how people across cultures and time have understood the human experience. Through sustained engagement with texts, ideas, objects, events, and traditions, students learn to interpret human experience, consider perspectives different from their own, and examine the values and assumptions that shape human life.

Courses designated in the Humanities domain address each of the following Domain Learning Outcomes:

  • Describe patterns of human life and thought in historical, literary, philosophical, artistic, religious, and/or related disciplines.
  • Apply specific disciplinary methodologies, epistemologies, and traditions of the humanities.
  • Engage with primary texts, objects, events, or ideas in their cultural, intellectual, and/or historical contexts.
  • Develop arguments about the human experience based on evidence and with discipline-specific modes of citation if appropriate to the assignment.
  • Explain ethical implications of human behaviors in cultural contexts.

Signature Assignment

Each Humanities course identifies a Signature Assignment that provides student work that can be used to assess the Domain Learning Outcomes. The Signature Assignment may be an existing assignment, a collection of assignments, or specified exam questions or items; faculty do not need to create additional student work solely for AdvantaGE.

The Signature Assignment must be clearly identified in CIM, along with an explanation of how the course addresses each Domain Learning Outcome and where evidence of that learning will appear in the student work. The Signature Assignment does not have to be identified or described on the student-facing syllabus.

Student work from the Signature Assignment will be assessed using the common Humanities assessment rubric. Faculty may continue to grade the assignment using whatever grading criteria or rubric are appropriate for their course; the AdvantaGE rubric is used for program-level assessment of the Domain Learning Outcomes.

For additional guidance, including the assessment criteria associated with each outcome, see the Humanities Signature Assignment Supplement.

Social Sciences

Every Social Sciences course should help students, regardless of major, use social-scientific ways of knowing to better understand human behavior, institutions, and the relationships between individuals and society.

Courses designated in the Social Sciences domain address each of the following Domain Learning Outcomes:

  • Use social science terminology, concepts, and theories or methods.
  • Explain how individuals and societal institutions affect each other, and what that means for practice, policy, or community.
  • Identify and investigate a research question or problem using qualitative and/or quantitative data.
  • Apply ethical standards and explain the ethical principles at stake.
  • Recognize and responsibly cite multiple credible sources.

Signature Assignment

Each Social Sciences course identifies a Signature Assignment that provides student work that can be used to assess the Domain Learning Outcomes. The Signature Assignment may be an existing assignment, a collection of assignments, or specified exam questions or items; faculty do not need to create additional student work solely for AdvantaGE.

The Signature Assignment must be clearly identified in CIM, along with an explanation of how the course addresses each Domain Learning Outcome and where evidence of that learning will appear in the student work. The Signature Assignment does not have to be identified or described on the student-facing syllabus.

Student work from the Signature Assignment will be assessed using the common Social Sciences assessment rubric. Faculty may continue to grade the assignment using whatever grading criteria or rubric are appropriate for their course; the AdvantaGE rubric is used for program-level assessment of the Domain Learning Outcomes.

For additional guidance, including the assessment criteria associated with each outcome, see the Social Sciences Signature Assignment Supplement.

Natural Sciences

Every Natural Sciences course should help students, regardless of major, understand how scientific knowledge is developed, evaluated, and used to make sense of the natural world. Students learn to work with scientific evidence, distinguish evidence from unsupported claims, reason from data, and consider the role and responsibilities of science in society.

Courses designated in the Natural Sciences domain address each of the following Domain Learning Outcomes:

  • Effectively communicate scientific principles and/or theories describing the interrelationships among the natural sciences.
  • Solve scientific problems using creative thinking and exploring new methodologies or theories, demonstrating ethical scientific behavior – integrity, safety, and social responsibility.
  • Compile, analyze, and evaluate student-generated data (quantitative or qualitative) relating to the natural sciences.
  • Apply critical thinking skills to examine real-world problems aimed at understanding science’s impact/role in society and in historical and/or contemporary issues.
  • Differentiate between science-based evidence and opinions expressed as fact.
  • Draw reasoned conclusions by analyzing and interpreting scientific information from course-provided materials.

Signature Assignment

Each Natural Sciences course identifies a Signature Assignment that provides student work that can be used to assess the Domain Learning Outcomes. The Signature Assignment may be an existing assignment, a collection of assignments, or specified exam questions or items; faculty do not need to create additional student work solely for AdvantaGE.

The Signature Assignment must be clearly identified in CIM, along with an explanation of how the course addresses each Domain Learning Outcome and where evidence of that learning will appear in the student work. The Signature Assignment does not have to be identified or described on the student-facing syllabus.

Student work from the Signature Assignment will be assessed using the common Natural Sciences assessment rubric. Faculty may continue to grade the assignment using whatever grading criteria or rubric are appropriate for their course; the AdvantaGE rubric is used for program-level assessment of the Domain Learning Outcomes.

For additional guidance, including the assessment criteria associated with each outcome, see the Natural Sciences Signature Assignment Supplement.

Ready to Migrate Your Course?

Once you know where your course fits within AdvantaGE, the next step is to show how the course contributes to the learning goals of its Foundation or Domain.

Migration is designed to build on the course you already teach—not to require you to redesign it from scratch. You’ll identify the relevant AdvantaGE learning outcomes, show where students encounter and demonstrate those outcomes, and identify the Signature Assignment that will provide evidence of student learning.

The goal is alignment, not reinvention.

1. Review your Foundation or Domain outcomes.
Identify the outcomes your course addresses and where students encounter and demonstrate them.

2. Identify your Signature Assignment.
Choose existing student work—or a combination of assignments or exam items—that provides evidence of the required learning outcomes.

3. Complete the AdvantaGE information in CIM.
Explain how the course aligns with the learning outcomes and identify the Signature Assignment that will provide evidence of student learning.

4. Submit your course for migration.
Use the resources below to complete the process and prepare your course for AdvantaGE.