General Education Assessment

At SUNY Canton, students enrolled in the Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science (AS) degree must complete seven of the ten Knowledge and Skills Areas of General Education in order to transfer seamlessly to another SUNY college to earn a baccalaureate degree. In order to meet graduation requirements, students enrolled in a SUNY Canton baccalaureate degree program must complete 30 credit hours of general education which must include Mathematics (GER 1) and Basic Communication (GER 10) as well as at least three credits each in at least five of the following academic areas – natural science, social science, American history, Western Civilization, Other World Civilizations, humanities, the arts and foreign languages. (See individual baccalaureate degree requirements for exceptions to this mandate.) All students will fulfill competency outcomes in Critical Thinking and Information Management, which are infused throughout the curricula.

Faculty and students will periodically be required to engage in assessment activities to ensure that the General Education learning outcomes are being met. Assessment of General Education learning outcomes follows a three year cycle, as explained in the resources below:

The links below contain the methodology, rubrics, faculty report forms, GER summary forms, and most recent reports for each GER area.

  • GER 1 & 2 — Basic Communication, Written and Oral
  • GER 3 — Diversity
  • GER 4 — Mathematics
  • GER 5 — Natural Sciences
  • GER 6 — Humanities
  • GER 7 — Social Sciences
  • GER 8 — Arts
  • GER 9 — US History and Civic Engagement
  • GER 10 — World History and Global Awareness
  • GER 11 — World Languages
  • GER 12 — Critical Thinking (infused)
  • GER 13 — Information Management (infused)

Subcommittee Minutes

In 2015, the GER Subcommittee was formed to oversee the development of policies, procedures, and revise methodologies as necessary to streamline the GER assessment process. Minutes were collected from 2015-2017 to chart the progress made in general education assessment. As of 2018, the committee still meets to review methodology updates and GER reports, but these responsibilities will be folded back into the central Academic Assessment Subcommittee as of the 2020 calendar year.

Resources