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FACULTY QUALIFICATIONS

COURSEWORK SPECIFICATIONS

CORE UNITS SPECIFICATIONS

DEGREE SPECIFICATIONS

 TRANSCRIPT ARCHIVE

Core Units Specifications

Faculty schools who offer an Associate of Arts degree or a Bachelor of Arts degree in any discipline must incorporate the following credits/classes/preps into their programs. These are the core-learning units we deem essential to any degree.

ESSENTIAL SET OF CORE-LEARNING UNITS

Logic (comprehensive exam). This comp fulfills the Logic branch of the Trivium of classical humanities. The OpenLATCH Education Foundation requires that students take the OLEF comprehensive for this class through the accreditation agency. The foundation will not archive the credits for this class unless the student passes the comprehensive.

Grammar (comprehensive exam). This comp fulfills the Grammar branch of the Trivium of classical humanities. The OpenLATCH Education Foundation requires that students take the OLEF comprehensive for this class through the accreditation agency. The foundation will not archive the credits for this class unless the student passes the comprehensive.

Western Epics (comprehensive exam). This comp covers these works of literature: the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Oresteia Trilogy, the Aeneid, Dante's complete Divine Comedy, and Milton's Paradise Lost. The OpenLATCH Education Foundation requires that students take the OLEF comprehensive for this class through the accreditation agency. The foundation will not archive the credits for this class unless the student passes the comprehensive.

Writing Portfolio (at least 6,000 words total, comprising at least 5 essays demonstrating a variety of rhetorical stances). This portfolio fulfills the Rhetoric branch of the Trivium of classical humanities. The OpenLATCH Education Foundation requires that students submit the portfolio to OLEF for objective, third-party evaluation according to a common rubric. The foundation will not archive the transcript for an AA or BA degree unless the student passes this portfolio evaluation. This portfolio must be submitted before the beginning of a student's fifth term (40th week) in any program.

GENERAL SETS OF CORE-LEARNING UNITS

In addition to the Essential Set of Core-Learning Units detailed above, a faculty school offering a degree program must incorporate into its program at least 24 credits from four of the following categories, and the spread of credits through the categories must roughly balanced. Faculty can determine the specific titles of the classes and the themes the classes focus on, as long as the title and theme of each class clearly falls within the scope of these general categories.

PHILOSOPHY/SCIENCE/PSYCHOLOGY. Faculty schools must submit their list of Philosophy/Science/Psychology classes for approval unless they are articulating these classes from a faculty school that has already received accreditation from us. Classes can be land or online.

MATH/LOGIC/DATA. Faculty schools must submit their list of Math/Logic/Data classes for approval unless they are articulating these classes from a faculty school that has already received accreditation from us. Classes can be land or online.

WRITING/LITERATURE/TEXTS. Faculty schools must submit their list of Writing/Literature/Texts classes for approval unless they are articulating these classes from a faculty school that has already received accreditation from us. Classes can be land or online.

CIVICS/CULTURE/HISTORY. These classes must touch upon some important aspects of human society. Faculty schools must submit their list of Civics/Culture/History classes for approval unless they are articulating these classes from a faculty school that has already received accreditation from us. Classes can be land or online.

BUSINESS/FINANCE/ECONOMICS. Faculty schools must submit their list of Business/Economics classes for approval unless they are articulating these classes from a faculty school that has already received accreditation from us. Classes can be land or online.

These classes must address thematic issues in these categories by using Great Books or primary texts to set an historical context and then by capping the class using current material illustrating how the perennial issues manifest themselves in today's culture and intellectual landscape.

For Associate of Arts degrees, at least 12 credits must fall under the General Set guidelines and be approved by the OpenLATCH Education Foundation as such, the Grammar and Logic comps must be successfully completed, and the writing portfolio must be successfully submitted.

For the Bachelor of Arts degrees, at least 24 credits constituting the degree must fall under the General Set guidelines and be approved by the OpenLATCH Education Foundation as such, all three comprehensives must be passed, and the writing portfolio must be successfully submitted.