First Workshops Beginning February 21st!

The Mason Core Instructor Certification Program (MC-ICP) is a joint effort of Mason Core and the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning, recognizing faculty who are investing their time in gaining skills and teaching expertise. This certification particularly focuses on the strategies necessary for teaching non-majors and ensuring student success as part of Mason Core.  

With a blend of live workshops (in-person and on Zoom), asynchronous engagement, and individual projects, you can work on your own timeline to earn each one of our three certifications.

Participating in MC-ICP also allows instructors to 

• Learn about strategies, assignments, and approaches that can make teaching more effective and engaging  
• Connect with a wider community of faculty teaching general education courses 
• Document their teaching for reappointment or promotion processes 

MC-ICP is open to all George Mason University instructors who have taught one or more Mason Core courses in the past two years. Instructors may complete one or multiple levels as they have time and interest. All instructors who complete the program will receive a certificate and a special email signature-file recognition icon. In addition, their academic unit leaders will be notified directly of their achievements. 

Certified Mason Core Instructor – Workshop Pathway 

High Impact Practices (HIPs) Part 1

FEBRUARY 21, 2025 | 10AM-12PM

This will be the first opportunity for the Certified Mason Core Instructor, and this two hour workshop includes the first two required workshops for faculty completing MC-ICP via the Workshops Pathway: Teaching Foundations and Relevant Assignment Design.

The next two workshops will build on these foundations. The second workshop in the sequence, High Impact Practices (HIPs) Part 2 on March 5, focuses on engagement and assessment. The final workshop in the Certified series is Solving the Puzzle: Engaging Non-Majors in Mason Core Courses on March 7. This workshop builds on what was learned in the previous workshops and shows you what is different about teaching gen ed courses. Completing all three workshops will meet the requirements for the Certified Mason Core Instructor level of the MC-ICP. 

Spring 2025 is your last chance to submit student artifacts in the Arts, Literature, and Social and Behavioral Silence categories. We appreciate your ongoing commitment to Mason Core, and the data we receive from the assessment process helps to further refine Mason Core to better serve our students.

If you are teaching a course in any of these categories and have not yet submitted artifacts, please plan to participate. You should have already received communication regarding the February 18th Mason Core assessment information session, held from 10:00 to 11:00 am.  Please contact Chris Lee (cleen@gmu.edu) if you did not receive the link.  

In Fall 2025, we will begin collecting student artifacts for the following categories: Global History, Natural Science, and Writing Intensive. To support our collection efforts and ensure that submitted materials adequately address the learning outcomes, we will be holding pre-assessment workshops. More information to come, but keep reading to find out about assignment alignment, a key aspect of Mason Core Assessment. 

As we assess Mason Core course categories, we've received questions from instructors about determining which assignments best illustrate student learning outcomes. To support faculty in both assessment and course development and revision, we wanted to review the basics of assignment alignment specific to Mason Core’s assessment needs. 

All courses within a Mason Core category are required to meet each of the category’s required learning outcomes through appropriately aligned assignments. This alignment helps students see the relevance of their coursework and supports their intellectual growth across disciplines.  

An Overview of Assignment Alignment  

• Assignments must align to the outcome’s verb.
  • For example, an outcome that uses a verb at the “Apply” level of Bloom’s taxonomy (e.g. demonstrate) should not be aligned with an assignment that uses a verb at the “Remember” level (e.g. define). 
• Assignments must respond to all aspects of a specific learning outcome. 
  • Some learning outcomes have multiple verbs; thus, some assignments might require multiple parts to ensure that all significant aspects of the outcome are included. 
• Assignments do not have to be high-stakes, summative assignments, nor does one assignment need to meet all required learning outcomes. 
• Assignments must be required of ALL students and should lead to an individual, documentable artifact for each student. 
  • Group work that includes one submission for the group or assignments/quizzes/exams that allow students to choose from a list where not all options directly align to the outcome do not meet this requirement and therefore should be avoided. 

By ensuring your course’s assignments align with our Mason Core learning outcomes, instructors not only support coherence in the curriculum but also enhance student learning and engagement in meaningful ways. 

Keystone Concepts in Teaching is a higher education podcast from the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University focused on discussing and sharing impactful teaching strategies that support all students and faculty.

New this semester, faculty teaching both in the US and at Mason Korea have the ability to enter a raffle after listening to each episode this Spring to win a variety of prizes, including teaching books and gift cards! 

Revising a course or developing something new for Mason Core consideration? In addition to our proposal workshops, we recommend faculty review our course development and proposal resources available on our website.  

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