General Education Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Rubrics

Each course in General Education addresses several outcomes.  Students who complete the general education program will encounter each outcome at least once at an introductory level. No introductory course can fully meet an outcome. Rather, every course introduces or develops several outcomes. Relevant outcomes are addressed at a higher level within the advanced work of the respective majors.

1. Written Communication - Students will understand the different purposes of writing and employ the conventions of writing in their major fields. Students will produce writing that is well organized, supported by evidence, demonstrates correct usage of grammar and terminology, and is appropriate to the academic context. Assessment rubric for Written Communication
2. Critical or Creative Thinking - Critical Thinking is characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion. Creative Thinking reflects the capacity to combine existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways; and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by a high degree of innovation and risk taking.  Assessment rubric for Critical or Creative Thinking
3. Research and Information Literacy - Students will demonstrate the ability to access, understand, evaluate, and ethically use information to address a wide range of goals or problems. Assessment rubric for Research and Information Literacy
4. Oral Communication - Students will learn to speak in a clearly expressed, purposeful, and carefully organized way that engages and connects with their audience. Assessment rubric for Oral Communication
5. Collaborative Work - Students will learn to interact appropriately as part of a team to design and implement a strategy to achieve a team goal and to evaluate the process. Assessment rubric for Collaborative Work
6. Arts - Students will demonstrate through performance, creation, or analysis an ability to interpret and explain the arts from personal, aesthetic, cultural, and historical perspectives. Assessment rubric for Arts
7. Civic Knowledge - Students will gain knowledge of social and political systems and of how civic engagement can change the environment in which we live. Assessment rubric for Civic Knowledge
8. Ethical Reasoning - Students will demonstrate an understanding of their own ethical values, other ethical traditions from diverse places and times, and the process of determining ethical practice. Assessment rubric for Ethical Reasoning
9. Global Understanding - Students will analyze and understand the social, historical, political, religious, economic, and cultural conditions that shape individuals, groups, and nations and the relationships among them across time. Assessment rubric for Global Understanding
10. Quantitative Literacy - Students will demonstrate the ability to: (1) interpret and evaluate numerical and visual statistics; (2) develop models that can be solved by appropriate mathematical methods; and (3) create arguments supported by quantitative evidence and communicate them in writing and through numerical and visual displays of data including words, tables, graphs, and equations. Assessment rubric for Quantitative Literacy
11. Scientific Literacy - Students will understand how scientific knowledge is uncovered through the empirical testing of hypotheses; be familiar with how data is analyzed, scientific models are made, theories are generated, and practical scientific problems are approached and solved; have the capacity to be informed about scientific matters as they pertain to living in this complex world; be able to communicate scientific knowledge through speaking and writing. Assessment rubric for Scientific Literacy

Learning Outcomes By Course Category