Transitions

Please refer to Alix Gitelman's email sent on January 24, 2024 for context. 

Implementation of the Transitions course (OSU-Corvallis and Ecampus)

The planning and implementation of Transitions is underway. Committees have been developing policies, implementation requirements, and curriculum. 

  • The Core Education Implementation Steering Committee was delegated the task of defining and providing guidance and policies specific to the Transitions requirement. The content below outlines the pathway forward for the university. For questions, please reach out to the Director of Core Education, McKenzie Huber. 
  • The Transitions Taskforce, led by Dr. Tasha Galardi, is a team of experts at OSU in content areas related to the Transitions course (mental health, financial literacy, inclusive communities, student success, setting career goals, well-being, and more). 

Central and College-led Transitions Sections 

  • The university will adopt a central designator for Transitions, offered at both the 100 and 300 level.
    • We intend for the designator to be CORE. 
  • Colleges may create college-level designators along with the central university designator.
  • There shall only be these college-level and university-level designators (i.e., no department/program designators).
  • The course number and name shall be the same across the colleges/central (100/300).
    • The course title is Transitions.
  • All Transitions courses, regardless of college, must adhere to the course learning outcomes and criteria specified in the LOCR document.

Category and Course Logistics

  • A coordinator role for the Transitions course, centrally staffed in Core Education, will work to ensure enough sections of Transitions with appropriate staffing are available each term, at each level, and in each modality.
  • Transitions courses may be offered in large lecture sections but must have recitation sections with no more than 35 students. Alternatively, Transitions can be offered in sections of no more than 35 students.
  • Content modules and course materials are being created by experts on the Transitions task force. The following modules must be included as designed:
    • mental health, building an inclusive community, and financial readiness/literacy.
  • We strongly recommend course instructors also make use of the following modules:
    • Technological tools and university resources
    • Academic success behaviors
    • Healthy behaviors, personal well-being
    • Career exploration
    • Belonging
    • Purpose of Core Education and its connection to OSU and our mission
  • The instructor of record must be a member of the academic faculty.
  • Recitations can be run by instructional faculty or qualified professional advisors with appropriate training.
  • Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA) may run or lead recitation sections with the required training (training will be obtained as part of the GTA regular load of responsibilities). 
  • If Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULA) are used to support recitation sections, they may do so only if an instructor (advisor, GTA) is in the “room” and only for the following elements of the course:   clubs and activities, belonging, University resources, and relating successful strategies.
  • ULA may not grade or assess the work of other undergraduate students, and they also must have appropriate training.

Course Accessibility

  • No student shall be required to take more than one Transitions course.
  • No Transitions course offered through a college designator shall disadvantage students who transition between colleges. The course requires two credits of work directly related to university preparation. Any additional college-specific content should be taught through college-specific introductory courses (e.g., a 1-2 credit co-requisite).
  • All Transitions courses must be open to all OSU students at the appropriate level and in the appropriate location/modality, regardless of college or term.

Course Proposals and Training

Course Adaptation and Design Institute (CADI)  

  • All Transitions courses offered via a college must be submitted through the Statement of Intent. 
  • At least one faculty from each college submitting a Statement of Intent must attend the CADI unless the faculty assigned to design their college's Transitions courses and/or modify the central course has already attended a CADI.
  • The College designated Transitions courses may be submitted to CIM following CADI participation. 

Transitions Instructional Training

  • Training to teach a Transitions course, including lectures and recitations, is required for all faculty, GTAs, and ULAs. 
  • The Center for Teaching and Learning will develop the training in collaboration with the Transitions Task Force. 
  • The training will be available during the 2024-25 academic year. 
  • We do not know the format, delivery, and time commitment for the Transitions Training at this time. 

Core Education Committee Transitions-based Policies 

Policy from the Core Education Committee meeting on January 25, 2024

There is a need for a policy because the structure and content of the Transitions courses are distinct and are required, by the Faculty Senate, to be similar across all experiences. The Core Education Implementation Steering Committee made a number of decisions about how transitions would be provisioned, which are reflected in these policies. Critical judgments regarding curriculum in these policies were made by a Task Force of faculty experts on student development.

  • Policies:
    • All Transitions courses will be titled “Transitions”.
    • The catalog description of all Transitions courses will match that of the centralized offering.
    • Transitions courses will not include course-specific learning outcomes outside of the Core Ed category learning outcomes; any course-specific Learning Outcomes will be placed in a separate co-req class.
    • Transitions courses will be exactly 2 credits.
    • Ten week-long modules have been centrally developed by subject experts for use in Transitions courses; all Transitions courses must include the three centrally developed modules on Mental Health, Building Inclusive Community, and Financial Literacy as they are written; inclusion of additional centrally developed modules is strongly encouraged or rationale must be provided in the proposal in the university curriculum management system for how all category Learning Outcomes and criteria are met.
    • The Mental Health module will be offered in the first five weeks of the term.
    • Transitions courses must use learning resources that are freely available to students and may not require the purchase of any learning materials.
    • All recitations in Transitions courses will be one hour per week.

Transitions Implementation FAQs

The Steering Committee is working with OSU-Cascades leadership to implement the courses at the Cascades Campus. 

The Transitions category is offered at two distinct levels to benefit our newly admitted students, whether they come to OSU right out of high school or through a transfer pathway. The category itself has four learning outcomes, two of which are the same across the two levels. The 300-level has two learning outcomes written using a higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy than the 100-level outcomes, and these are intended to promote action by the students enrolled in the 300-level

The implementation committees will be working to determine how to advise students into the appropriate level of Transitions. 

Core Education College Designees may begin submitting Statements of Intent (SOI) for Transitions now. Upon submission of the SOI, faculty will be invited to attend the Course Adaptation and Design Institute (CADI) and Ecampus course designs. 

The Transitions Taskforce, led by the Center for Teaching and Learning Faculty Fellow Dr. Tasha Galardi, is a team of OSU faculty and staff with expertise related to the required content of the Transitions course. The task force has been working to design weekly modules related to content areas such as mental health, financial literacy, inclusive communities, well-being, student success, career development, and more. Dr. Galardi and two instructional designers are creating central courses for the university's central designator and required modules the colleges will embed in their courses. 

The Steering Committee and the Office of Budgets and Fiscal Planning considered projected future enrollments, the 35-student course capacity requirement for Transitions, and the cost to deliver courses by varying faculty types. Based on this modeling, the Steering Committee determined the most cost-effective way to deliver Transitions was through large lecture sections with accompanying recitations that meet the 35-student capacity limits.