What’s Wrong with Too Many Required Courses
Editorial by New College of Florida President Donal O’Shea
They can have unintended consequences, writes Donal O’Shea. And the trick is to find those that actually improve student learning.
Institutions across the country have been considering carefully scripted general-education courses in lieu of traditional distribution requirements (see “No Math Required,” “Rethinking Gen Ed” and “Gen Ed Redesigns”). Some months ago, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued a report pointing out the efficiencies that would be realized by sequenced general-education courses with prescribed curricula, little student choice and lots of requirements.