GE Programmatic Student Learning Goals and Learning Outcomes

The university has established specific learning goals for each area of General Education. These learning goals have been approved by the university community through the Academic Senate and originate with its General Education Committee. It is expected that all instructors of GE courses implement these learning goals into their courses. 

To review the university's GE learning objectives and the related expectation of GE instructors, see UPS 411.201

The Goals of General Education

Goal 1: Students will demonstrate and apply their understanding of fundamental concepts, methods, and theories in natural sciences and mathematics, arts and humanities, and social sciences.

Outcomes:

1. Students will define, explain, and apply fundamental concepts.
2. Students will demonstrate how a given theory is supported by fundamental concepts.
3. Students will identify and explain the features of a particular method and explain how to utilize it.

Goal 2: Students will seek and acquire relevant information and apply analytical, qualitative, and quantitative reasoning to previously learned concepts, new situations, complex challenges, and everyday problems.

Outcomes:

1. Students will analyze, interpret, and utilize verbal or numerical information.
2. Students will formulate and explain how to implement a conclusion or plan of action by applying previously learned concepts.

Goal 3: Students will develop ideas and communicate them competently and ethically, verbally or nonverbally, both orally and writing in a variety of contexts.

Outcomes:

1. Students will communicate ideas effectively and appropriately in a well-organized fashion, taking purpose, context, and audience into account.
2. Students will present the ideas of others with integrity, providing appropriate attribution or academic citation.

Goal 4: Students will develop skills to collaborate effectively and ethically as leaders and team members.

Outcomes:

1. Students will encourage and value the contributions of others.
2. Students will collaborate effectively.
3. Students will engage in civil discourse and provide constructive feedback.
4. Students will demonstrate ethical reasoning.

Goal 5: Students will develop and apply critical awareness, intercultural skills, and informed appreciation that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in their immediate and larger communities.

Outcomes:

1. Students will identify and understand complex cultural, geographical, historical, and social contexts, and articulate how human experiences, including their own, are influenced by these contexts.
2. Students will critically engage multiple perspectives, communicating their interconnections and recognizing and addressing biases and inequities.
3. Students will demonstrate awareness of appropriate intercultural skills.
4. Students will identify the value in diverse perspectives and demonstrate an ability and a willingness to support antiracism, civil discourse, justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion and to promote a sense of belonging.
5. Students will demonstrate a critical understanding of how the intersections of power, privilege, and oppression play out in local communities and global context.