Course Approval
- Courses by the same instructor: An instructor may not offer more than two courses (either as the sole instructor or as part of a teaching team) in the Gen Ed program at any given time. Instructors teaching two Gen Ed courses are encouraged to offer them in different terms, with no more than one course per instructor each semester.
- Team teaching: Recognizing that Gen Ed courses are not moored in any specific scholarly discipline, Gen Ed offers a unique opportunity for cross-divisional and cross-school collaborations in developing and implementing courses. Such interactions are encouraged and can be facilitated by the Gen Ed program; however, we must emphasize that it is essential that co-teaching situations include clear rationale for the joint efforts and that all faculty instructors are engaged in all aspects of the course.
- Frequency of offering: To ensure that students have access to a broad range of Gen Ed offerings, courses are approved with the expectation that they should ordinarily be taught at least every other year. Courses that are not offered at least once in four years must be reproposed for continued inclusion in the program. The program is committed to offering a full slate of courses during the academic year, so summer courses are not counted.
- Review and reapproval: Ordinarily, courses are reviewed after their initial offering and considered for reapproval after three more offerings. These reviews are based on their fit with the mission and goals of the Program, as well as rigor in workload and grading. Learn more about the review and reapproval process.
Course Design
- Undergraduate focus: Harvard College students make up the vast majority of students enrolled in any Gen Ed course, and the content and priorities of the course must be primarily for undergraduates. Gen Ed courses cannot be jointly offered at other schools, although students from other schools may enroll in Gen Ed courses. Gen Ed sections may include only Harvard College students; faculty who allow graduate enrollees are responsible for teaching their sections and completing their grading.
- Pedagogical oversight: Faculty are responsible for pedagogical oversight of their courses. To ensure that sections are well aligned with lectures, grading is consistent, and the course runs smoothly, faculty meet regularly with their teaching staff and Head TFs. Faculty are encouraged to utilize the Office of Undergraduate Education’s Instructional Lunch Fund to facilitate meetings over meals.
- Prerequisites: Faculty are encouraged to design Gen Ed courses that are accessible to the widest audience possible; however, we recognize that in the same way that we assume a certain degree of literacy for students, some endeavors may require a certain degree of numeracy or other knowledge in order to achieve the course goals. In such cases, prerequisites may be unavoidable; however, they should be kept to the absolute minimum needed and must be limited to courses that are commonly taken by a large fraction of the student population and early in the student’s time at Harvard.
- Class time: Attendance is required (in lecture, section, lab, etc.) with no online substitutes for class time. This promotes the formation of a classroom community as well as meaningful interaction among students and between students and faculty. Gen Ed lectures are usually 75 minutes twice a week. Once-weekly lecture courses are strongly discouraged in Gen Ed, but if approved, once-weekly lectures must be a minimum of 120 minutes. In addition, TF-led sections or labs ordinarily meet for at least 60 minutes once a week.
- Rigor: Gen Ed courses are meant to be as rigorous as any other in the college, with commensurate expectations for student workload, class time, and grading.
- Engagement: Gen Ed courses engage students substantively both in and outside of class. Students can expect to spend 8-10 hours per week on each Gen Ed course, including class time (lecture & section/lab).
- Feedback on learning: Gen Ed courses provide students with opportunities for practice and feedback throughout the term. Gen Ed courses include some low-stakes assignments (i.e. assignments that are not heavily weighted or are graded based on completion) to provide students with critical feedback and to allow instructors to gauge student learning and progress.
- Scaffolding for major projects/assignments: Gen Ed courses prepare students well for major projects and assignments. Complex projects and assignments are broken into component parts to ensure that students have the skills and knowledge they need to successfully complete the project/assignment.
- Grading: Students are graded fairly and equitably in Gen Ed courses. Clear grading criteria for assignments and assessments help students understand instructors' expectations and ensure consistency across sections.
- Final assessment/assignment: Gen Ed courses give students an opportunity to comprehensively demonstrate their learning in the course. Gen Ed courses have a cumulative final assessment or a final assignment that asks students to synthesize their learning in the course (this should be in addition to assignments that ask students to take course materials as a point of departure for independent research or creative projects).
Course Logistics
- Course scheduling: All Gen Ed courses must be offered on the FAS schedule.
- Class size: Most Gen Ed courses enroll between 50 and 250 students. If you are interested in setting an enrollment limit for pedagogical reasons or for practical reasons (including the availability of an appropriate classroom, the recruitment of qualified teaching fellows, limited lab or library space, etc.), the Gen Ed office will work with you to set an appropriate course cap. To ensure robust discussions in sections, Gen Ed sections generally have an average of 15 students.
- Teaching fellows: We are happy to aid faculty in identifying and recruiting appropriate teaching fellows from across the university. We are not ordinarily able to support undergraduate course assistants for Gen Ed courses.
- Requirements: Departments may elect to count Gen Ed courses for credit in concentrations and secondary fields. Gen Ed courses do not satisfy College requirements in expository writing, language, Quantitative Reasoning with Data, or the divisional distribution requirement.
- Similar courses: If a course approved for Gen Ed grew out of a departmental course or First-Year Seminar, the two courses may not be offered in the same academic year.
- Simultaneous enrollment: Gen Ed courses are not eligible for course-wide simultaneous enrollment waivers. Students pursuing simultaneous enrollment in a Gen Ed course and a non-Gen Ed course must attend the Gen Ed course.