Office of the Provost

New Literacy Initiatives

GECC statement regarding literacy work group recommendations

Literacy work group reports

Presentation slides: Proposal for new content in ConnectED

Feedback form for new literacy initiatives

Note: You must use your VCU eID to access this form. If you do not know your VCU eID, visit the Find my eID webpage.

Background on new literacy initiatives

In his February 2022 State of the Academic Affairs Address, Provost Sotiropoulos presented his vision for adding several new foundational literacies to ConnectED. These are computational literacy and entrepreneurial literacy.

To fulfill this vision, three new work groups comprised of faculty across VCU related to ConnectED received their charges from the Provost’s office at a kickoff meeting on April 1, 2022. These work groups include:

  • Computational Literacy Work Group: Charged with making recommendations to the General Education Curriculum Committee on the definition of computational literacy and the criteria by which courses for this literacy may be developed
  • Entrepreneurial Literacy Work Group: Charged with making recommendations to the General Education Curriculum Committee on the definition of entrepreneurial literacy and the criteria by which courses for this literacy may be developed
  • General Education Structure Work Group: Charged with making recommendations to the General Education Curriculum Committee on how to best incorporate two new literacies while maintaining a broad-based general education curriculum

These work groups worked throughout the summer and fall of 2022, and presented their reports and recommendations to the GEC in Nov. 2022. You can view the complete reports from all three work groups via the links provided above.

In spring 2023, the GECC offered a statement regarding the literacy work group recommendations (see above). The GECC and Provost office invite the VCU community to offer feedback on these initiatives, and will be providing opportunities for discussion in meetings with various stakeholders throughout the spring semester. To request a presentation of the literacy information to your unit, please contact gened@vcu.edu.

Note:

The computational and entrepreneurial literacies remain under development and are not yet a ConnectED requirement for current students. If approved, the target date for its introduction is fall 2025.