Faculty of Physical Education andRecreation
Undergraduate Programs Committee
Meeting: January 16, 2012
1. Approval of Agenda
2. Approvalof Minutes from last meeting.
3. ReplacingPERLS 105 (Introduction to the Management of Sport, Physical Activity and RecreationPrograms) in the BSc Kinesiology degree.
The general consensus of thecommittee is to remove PERLS 105. The faculty of Science (and department ofPsychology) have ok’d PER adding PHYS 124 & 126 and/or PSYCO 104 as degreerequirements. Suggestions were to add PHYS 124 & 126 as degree requirementsto the BSc Kinesiology degree. As Physics 30 is a prerequisite for the program,the committee likes the idea of adding in a Physics course in order to justifythe prerequisite. PEDS 206 is currently a degree requirement for kinesiologystudents and is similar in content to PHYS 124. A suggestion was made for PEDS206 to be replaced by PEDS 306. In the future, PEDS 206 could be tailored moretowards BPE students, and thus help to differentiate the degrees. Making PEDS306 a required course would change the enrollment number substantially, thus,Dr. Causgrove Dunn was going to look into the financials and the workload ofinstructors if this change were to be made. A comment was made that since thecommittee plans to take out an arts course that it should be replaced with anarts course, thus perhaps replacing PERLS 105 with PSYCO 104 would be a betteroption. In addition, PSYCO104 is a prerequisite to the Physiotherapy program.Since many BSc Kin students plan to go into the physiotherapy program,replacing with PSYCO 104 may be a good option.
4. BPEstudent survey was conducted.
84% of 4th yearstudents, 50% of 3rd year, 34% of 2nd year, and 25% of 1styear students responded to the survey. A majority of the students (50%) in BPEthat planned to use their degree towards admission to another program indicatedthe program they wanted to go into was MSc in Physical Therapy. This is animportant finding as it is typically thought that only the BSc Kins wereplanning to go into Physical Therapy. Both degrees are accepted for admissioninto Physical Therapy. 78% of respondents indicated that they were happy withthe content of their BPE degree. Of the students that were not happy with thecontent, the main reasons for dissatisfaction were: that there were too many‘filler courses’ and/or repetitive course content, practicum was too long ortoo late, and that they wanted more career counseling. Courses that were notuseful as indicated by the students were (in order of responses, greatest toleast), PERLS 105, 204, 304, 104, Dance 200, PAC classes, PEDS 401, 307. Themost useful courses were courses that were degree requirements. The greateststrength of the BPE program was the atmosphere/sense of community, along withthe diversity of the courses and ability to specialize degree. Many studentsalso indicated that the professors were a strength of the program. The hands onexperience was also mentioned as a strength.
In sum: need for moreexperiential learning opportunities, need for a curricular review to ensure therelevance of course content, need to look at practicum – should we be lookingat shorter practicum opportunities more often?, need for more careercounseling. Also, a name change is desired. Going forward: committee to reviewconcentrations with possible revisions in the number of concentrations, topicsof concentrations, and content (courses).
5. Certificatesin the PER faculty.
There has been some suggestionsby the Vice Dean to look into creating more certificates for students in thefaculty. The committee would like to know what the difference is betweencertificates and concentrations. What are the views on campus, in the communityregarding the usefulness of certificates. It is important that certificates notbe devalued, just as it is for concentrations/majors not be devalued. Who outthere values certificates – need to involve the agencies who recognizecertificates. Dr. Janice Causgrove Dunn to investigate.
6. Somemore ideas going forward for the committee:
Surveys have been conducted foreach of the undergraduate degree programs. Present surveys of degree program tofaculty counsel. Form groups around similar courses and review courses in thatcontent area – would like to reduce redundancy in courses. Look at possiblyadding 1 credit seminars early on in degree to help students get more ‘handson’ experience. These seminars would be content rich and help students pickcourses later. Reducing course redundancy may impact graduate students, as itmay lead to a decrease in spring/summer courses offered. This should beconsidered.
Another idea was suggested –look at putting in a grant for support in designing assignments. Coursedesigners would help faculty so as not to burden instructors. If there is anincrease in assignments for courses look at adding TA support for marking. Thiswould potentially impact graduate students as well, and the budget.
Adjournment.
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