Core Education Launch – Summer 2025

Core Education Curriculum Reform and Implementation

The summer of 2025 marks a new era in general education at Oregon State University. After years of collaboration among faculty, students, and community partners, OSU has crafted a forward-thinking general education program designed to empower the next generation of global leaders.

The Core Education Curriculum will be implemented starting June 23, and students enrolling in this term and beyond will begin their academic journeys at OSU by gaining knowledge and skills through two major curriculum areas: the Foundational Core and the Signature Core.

Re-envisioning Education

OSU has undergone a multi-year curriculum reform in which faculty, students, staff, alumni, community partners, and administrators came together to develop a state-of-the-art, 21st-century-focused general education program. The Core Ed curriculum underscores students’ potential to become global innovators and critical agents of societal change. By integrating real-world problem-solving and social responsibility, Core Education embodies OSU’s land-grant mission to serve communities locally and globally.

The new curriculum incorporates high-impact practices intended to support student learning and prepare them to meet challenges, solve problems, adapt to a rapidly changing world, and become proactive members of society, advancing their fields of study. These practices—defined as strategies that promote deeper learning, meaningful engagement, and a positive impact on historically underserved student populations (Kuh & O’Donnell, 2013)—are central to Core Education. As stated in the Core Education mission, the curriculum also “addresses the ever-changing needs of our learners and graduates in our global society and promotes critical thinking, information literacy, social and environmental justice, interdisciplinary teamwork, and communication.” (Core Education)

Uniqueness of Core Education

The Core Ed curriculum is defined by two main areas: the Foundational Core and the Signature Core, which offer students a variety of learning opportunities. The Foundational Core helps students build essential skills and broad knowledge, fostering lifelong learning and creative problem-solving, while preparing them to engage with complex topics in academic and professional settings. The Signature Core empowers students to apply critical thinking to create positive change in their field and society, while strengthening the skills needed to navigate a complex, interconnected world.

The Foundational Core includes the following categories:

Writing Foundations (4 credits)

Arts and Humanities – Global and General (6–8 credits; 2 courses)

Quantitative Literacy and Analysis (4 credits)

Communication, Media, and Society (3 credits)

Social Science (3–4 credits)

Scientific Inquiry and Analysis (8 credits; 2 courses from two different designators)

Difference, Power, and Oppression Foundations (3–4 credits)

The Signature Core includes the following categories:

Transitions (2 credits)

Beyond OSU Career Integration (0 credits)

Difference, Power, and Oppression Advanced (3–4 credits)

Seeking Solutions (3–4 credits)

Writing Elevation (3 credits)

Writing Intensive Curriculum (In Major)

A standout feature of Core Education is the Beyond OSU Career Integration component, which equips students with NACE-aligned competencies for lifelong career success. This component offers students opportunities to explore and apply career-related practices, including career readiness and advancement. It focuses on building core skills for workplace success and lifelong career management, based on the NACE Career Competencies.

Preparing to Launch Core Education

The Core Education reform process dates back to 2002, when OSU initiated a review of the Baccalaureate Core Curriculum. Since then, the OSU community has worked intensively to design, develop, and implement the new general education curriculum. Ecampus has been no exception—each Ecampus team (e.g., Course Development) has actively strategized its work to support this transition. Specifically, the Instructional Design (ID) Team at Ecampus has launched iterative course design initiatives to inform, test, and evaluate the course design process and resources. These initiatives include:

Difference, Power, and Oppression Working Group: A group of four instructional designers (IDs) met regularly during Winter 2025 to review the DPO learning outcomes, criteria, and rationale and to draft a DPO Course Design Guide. This guide provides questions and considerations IDs can use during course intakes, development, and resource support.

Outcomes and Alignment Working Group: Two IDs led the creation of a guide and template to support the alignment of Core Education outcomes (CSLOs) with course assignments. The template includes a spreadsheet to document the alignment of exam questions with outcomes, offering instructors a clear and structured strategy for maintaining consistency.

Seeking Solutions Professional Learning Community: A group of eight IDs tasked with designing Seeking Solutions courses launched a professional learning community (PLC) in late Fall 2024 and continued into Spring 2025. The PLC reviewed the learning outcomes, criteria, and rationale and developed a detailed Course Design Guide to assist the ID team in planning course intakes and providing follow-up support to instructors.

Core Ed Outcomes and Alignment Review Group. A group of five IDs served as peer reviewers for a guide on the Alignment of CSLOs to the Essential Assignment(s) in Canvas. This resource guides IDs step-by-step through the process of linking the appropriate CSLOs to the course Essential Assignment(s) so that samples of student work can be used for Core Education category assessment. With this guide, IDs can support course developers in making the alignment visible in Canvas.

Core Education Course Development Guide. This guide provides the ID team with a comprehensive guide on the development of Core Education, Baccalaureate Core, and Writing Intensive Courses.

Although the course design guides are fully drafted and available to the ID team, the working groups continue to communicate regularly for updates and improvements.

The OSU community—especially Ecampus’s dedicated teams—has worked tirelessly to bring Core Education to life. Their collaborative spirit and innovation have been instrumental in shaping this transformative curriculum. I’m very proud of the initiatives we’ve undertaken, and it has been an honor to lead them. This blog highlights my colleagues’ work and the Ecampus leadership team’s guidance, especially the Course Development and Training Unit leaders, who have fully supported the initiatives.

I invite you to explore the full Core Education Curriculum or contact Karen Watte karen.watte@oregonstate.edu for online course development.

References

Oregon State University. (2025). Core Education

Kuh, George D. & O’Donnell, K. (2013). Ensuring quality & taking high-impact practices to scale. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges & Universities.