BRICKS workshops to help faculty reimagine courses for general education reform

The Reimagining General Education leadership team is offering two workshop series that will help faculty reimagine courses for inclusion in BRICKS, OHIO’s new general education requirements. Supported by a Konneker grant, these workshops will provide educators with a broad understanding of BRICKS, its intentions and its learning outcomes.

“We are excited to offer the BRICKS workshop series this summer,” said Katie Hartman, chair of University Curriculum Council’s General Education committee. “We encourage faculty who are looking for guidance about how to create new courses or adapt existing course for BRICKS to apply.”

Participants will learn about tools and techniques for adapting learning experiences using backward design and authentic learning, as well as effectively assessing student achievement of learning outcomes.

Faculty can register for one of two series: May 11–22, and June 8–19. During each series, each one-hour workshop will be offered remotely via Microsoft Teams at least twice in order to accommodate schedules.

After completing each series, faculty will be invited to submit proposal(s) for BRICKS course adaptions. These adaptions require specific information listed on the BRICKS Workshop memo. Small stipends of $200 will be given per complete submission (maximum of two submissions per person).

“BRICKS will replace OHIO’s 40-year-old tier-based general education program,” said Hartman. “Our goal is to use the workshop series to start to build the list of courses approved for BRICKS. After completing the workshop series, faculty participants will have the information they need to submit new course or course adaptation proposals.”

Read more about the BRICKS workshops and apply. Each workshop series is limited to 25 participants.