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General Education
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  • General Education Backback to Main menu
    • Why are General Education Classes Important?
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    Communication and Literacy
    • Writing
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    Citizenship and Community
    • Cultural Knowledge
    • Civic Knowledge and Engagement
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    Admitted Prior to Fall 2025

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Student Learning Outcomes

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Transferable Learning Outcomes

These represent the core outcomes of general education and should be embedded in every course.

  1. Integrative learning. Students will demonstrate the ability to synthesize knowledge and skills from different disciplines and/or experiences, transfer knowledge to personal, professional, or other real word contexts, and communicate insights through reflective and adaptive thinking.
  2. Critical thinking and information literacy. Students will demonstrate critical thinking skills and information literacy by effectively locating, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing credible information from a variety of sources to make reasoned judgments and solve complex problems.
  3. Intercultural Awareness. Students will demonstrate awareness of cultural differences and the ability to analyze the significance of various cultural perspectives, while developing skills needed to navigate complex intercultural contexts.

Content-Specific Learning Outcomes

These represent distinctive course requirements and outcomes that students must complete.

Fundamental Skills

  1. Writing (6 credits). Students will develop and express ideas in writing in various genres and styles that demonstrate consideration of audience and purpose, content, sources and evidence, and syntax and mechanics.
  2. Oral communication (3 credits). Students will prepare and deliver purposeful presentations designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners' attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.
  3. Quantitative literacy (3 credits). Students will use numerical data to solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts, justify conclusions supported by quantitative evidence, and communicate those arguments in a variety of formats (using words, tables, graphs, mathematical equations, etc., as appropriate).
  4. Data literacy (3 credits). Students will learn to evaluate data sources, extract data from multiple sources, clean and transform these data for analysis, and perform basic analysis such as elementary statistics or visualization to uncover valuable insights through data and make data-informed decisions. Students will follow best practices to build robust data pipelines that can be used to answer questions across various fields including the sciences, business, and fields concerning societal issues[1][2].

Breadth of Knowledge

  1. Social science (3 credits). Students will explore human society and social relationships through systematic study and analysis by applying scientific methods and theories to understand various aspects of human behavior, institutions, cultures, and interactions within societal contexts.
  2. Humanities (3 credits). Students will examine the cultural, historical, and philosophical aspects of human society through critical analysis and interpretation and focus on the exploration of human creativity, values, beliefs, and expressions across different civilizations and time periods.
  3. Natural and physical science (4 credits). Students will investigate the physical and natural world through systematic observation, experimentation, and analysis, applying scientific methods and principles to demonstrate understanding of natural phenomena, processes, and laws governing the universe. Students must complete a lab as part of this requirement.
  4. Arts (3 credits). Students will explore creative expression, aesthetics, and artistic practices across various disciplines with a focus on cultivating skills, knowledge, and appreciation for artistic forms, techniques, and traditions.

Individual and Social Responsibility[3]

  1. Cultural knowledge (3 credits). Students will demonstrate an understanding of varied cultural perspectives and traditions, and critically analyze how culture creates and transforms individual experiences and social relations. Students will engage in dialogue across differences, fostering an understanding of how approaching diversity with respect and empathy can promote human dignity. Courses should explore how various systems, laws, and practices—both historical and contemporary—can affect individuals and communities in meaningful ways.
  2. Civic knowledge and engagement (3 credits). Students will demonstrate an understanding of issues related to citizenship, community involvement, and ethical responsibility, by critically analyzing diverse civic, governmental, and social systems and institutions.


[1] This requirement will be fully phased in as more courses are developed to satisfy the requirement. Until Fall 2028, students can satisfy this requirement with an approved data literacy course, or any approved natural or social science general education course.

[2] Several campus units possess expertise in data literacy. These units encompass, but are not limited to, those involved in previous data literacy programs (from at least four colleges) or those who have taught data analytics courses. Furthermore, data literacy learning objectives can be taught using a diverse range of data. For instance, one could envision developing a course that meets these objectives while utilizing data related to personal finance, geography, population demographics (e.g., political, sociological, economic, biomedical), and various other fields.

[3] Courses from across the sciences, humanities, and arts are envisioned to satisfy these requirements.

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Student Learning Outcomes assess:

  1. How are students different as a result of their education?

  2. What should students be able to know and do by the time they have completed this academic program?

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