New General Education (GEN) Goals & ELOs

Goals: 

1. Successful students will develop an understanding of the purpose and structure of the GE. 

2. Successful students will begin to develop critical skills and habits to navigate the academic environment. 

3. Successful students will articulate academic and program goals and find opportunities to express those goals within the GE from various disciplinary perspectives. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students will be able to: 

1.1. Describe the integrative nature of the structural elements of the GE. 

1.2. Demonstrate comprehension of the purpose of the GE. 

2.1. Use technology effectively to accomplish academic and personal goals. 

2.2. Demonstrate basic familiarity with the ePortfolio system. 

2.3. Critically consider implications of information and technology use. 

3.1. Articulate one's academic identity, motivations, and curiosity. 

3.2. Develop a plan to investigate a personal, societal, or global question within the GE from various disciplinary perspectives. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will demonstrate the intellectual and cognitive skills that prepare them to be engaged citizens and leaders for life by reflecting on a range of important modes of human thought, inquiry, and expression. 

2. Successful students will be interculturally competent global citizens who can engage with significant aspects of the human condition in local, state, national, and global settings. 

3. Successful students will demonstrate skills and abilities needed for engaged citizenship and personal and professional growth. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students will be able to: 

1.1. Reflect on their developing academic motivation as well as emerging professional or disciplinary identities. 

1.2. Critically evaluate their experiences as engaged citizens and leaders with significant questions spanning a range of important modes of human thought, inquiry, and expression. 

2.1. Reflect on their developing intercultural competency. 

2.2. Critically evaluate one's understanding and awareness of the global context and recognize opportunities to contribute to and shape the larger world. 

3.1. Reflect on personal development in the areas of curiosity, imagination, adaptability, and intentionality to achieve personal and professional goals. 

3.2. Critically evaluate skills needed to maintain personal well-being and resiliency. 

Please note: Courses proposed in this category should fulfill either the Historical Studies Goals and ELOs OR the Cultural Studies Goals and ELOs. 

Goals - Historical Studies: 

1. Successful students will critically investigate and analyze historical ideas, events, persons, material culture, and artifacts to understand how they shape society and people. 

Expected Learning Outcomes - Historical Studies: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Identify, differentiate, and analyze primary and secondary sources related to historical events, periods, or ideas. 

1.2. Use methods and theories of historical inquiry to describe and analyze the origin of at least one selected contemporary issue. 

1.3. Use historical sources and methods to construct an integrated perspective on at least one historical period, event, or idea that influences human perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors. 

1.4. Evaluate social and ethical implications in historical studies. 

Goals - Cultural Studies: 

1. Successful students will evaluate significant cultural phenomena and ideas to develop capacities for aesthetic and cultural response, judgment, interpretation, and evaluation. 

Expected Learning Outcomes - Cultural Studies: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Analyze and interpret selected major forms of human thought, culture, ideas, or expression. 

1.2. Describe and analyze selected cultural phenomena and ideas across time using a diverse range of primary and secondary sources and an explicit focus on different theories and methodologies. 

1.3. Use appropriate sources and methods to construct an integrated and comparative perspective of cultural periods, events, or ideas that influence human perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors. 

1.4. Evaluate social and ethical implications in cultural studies. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze, interpret, and evaluate major forms of human thought, cultures, and expression, and demonstrate capacities for aesthetic and culturally informed understanding. 

2. Successful students will experience the arts and reflect on that experience critically and creatively. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Analyze and interpret significant works of visual, spatial, literary, and/or performing arts and design. 

1.2. Describe and explain how cultures identify, evaluate, shape, and value works of literature, art, and design. 

1.3. Evaluate how artistic ideas influence and shape human beliefs and the interactions between the arts and human perceptions and behavior. 

1.4. Evaluate social and ethical implications in literature, visual and performing arts, and design. 

2.1. Engage in informed observation and/or active participation within the visual, spatial, literary, or performing arts and design. 

2.2. Critically reflect on and share their own experience of observing or engaging in the visual, spatial, literary, or performing arts and design. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will be able to apply quantitative or logical reasoning and/or mathematical/statistical methods to understand and solve problems and will be able to communicate their results. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Use logical, mathematical, and/or statistical concepts and methods to represent real-world situations. 

1.2. Use diverse logical, mathematical, and/or statistical approaches, technologies, and tools to communicate about data symbolically, visually, numerically, and verbally. 

1.3 Draw appropriate inferences from data based on quantitative analysis and/or logical reasoning. 

1.4. Make and evaluate important assumptions in estimation, modeling, and logical augmentation and/or data analysis. 

1.5. Evaluate social and ethical implications in mathematical and quantitative reasoning. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will engage in theoretical and empirical study within the natural sciences while gaining an appreciation of the modern principles, theories, methods, and modes of inquiry used generally across the natural sciences. 

2. Successful students will discern the relationship between the theoretical and applied sciences while appreciating the implications of scientific discoveries and the potential impacts of science and technology. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Explain basic facts, principles, theories, and methods of modern natural sciences, and describe and analyze the process of scientific inquiry. 

1.2. Identify how key events in the development of science contribute to the ongoing and changing nature of scientific knowledge and methods. 

1.3. Employ the processes of science through exploration, discovery, and collaboration to interact directly with the natural world when feasible, using appropriate tools, models, and analysis of data. 

2.1. Analyze the inter-dependence and potential impacts of scientific and technological developments. 

2.2. Evaluate social and ethical implications of natural scientific discoveries. 

2.3. Critically evaluate and responsibly use information from the natural sciences. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will engage in a systematic assessment of how historically and socially constructed categories of race, ethnicity, and gender, and possibly others, shape perceptions, individual outcomes, and broader societal, political, economic, and cultural systems. 

2. Successful students will recognize and compare a range of lived experiences of race, gender, and ethnicity. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Describe and evaluate the social positions and representations of categories including race, gender, and ethnicity, and possibly others. 

1.2. Explain how categories including race, gender, and ethnicity continue to function within complex systems of power to impact individual lived experiences and broader societal issues. 

1.3. Analyze how the intersection of categories including race, gender, and ethnicity combine to shape lived experiences. 

1.4. Evaluate social and ethical implications of studying race, gender, and ethnicity. 

2.1. Demonstrate critical self-reflection and critique of their social positions and identities. 

2.2. Recognize how perceptions of difference shape one's own attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. 

2.3. Describe how the categories of race, gender, and ethnicity influence the lived experiences of others. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will critically analyze and apply theoretical and empirical approaches within the social and behavioral sciences, including modern principles, theories, methods, and modes of inquiry. 

2. Successful students will recognize the implications of social and behavioral scientific findings and their potential impacts. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Explain basic facts, principles, theories, and methods of social and behavioral science. 

1.2. Explain and evaluate differences, similarities, and disparities among institutions, organizations, cultures, societies, and/or individuals using social and behavioral science. 

2.1. Analyze how political, economic, individual, or social factors and values impact social structures, policies, and/or decisions. 

2.2. Evaluate social and ethical implications of social scientific and behavioral research. 

2.3. Critically evaluate and responsibly use information from the social and behavioral sciences. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will demonstrate skills in effective reading and writing as well as in oral, digital, and/or visual communication for a range of purposes, audiences, and contexts. 

2. Successful students will develop the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind needed for information literacy. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Compose and interpret across a wide range of purposes and audiences using writing as well as oral, visual, digital, or other methods appropriate to the context. 

1.2. Use textual conventions, including proper attribution of ideas and/or sources, as appropriate to the communication situation. 

1.3. Generate ideas and informed responses incorporating diverse perspectives and information from a range of sources, as appropriate to the communication situation. 

1.4. Evaluate social and ethical implications in writing and information literacy practices. 

2.1. Demonstrate responsible, civil, and ethical practices when accessing, using, sharing, or creating information. 

2.2. Locate, identify, and use information through context-appropriate search strategies. 

2.3. Employ reflective and critical strategies to evaluate and select credible and relevant information sources. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will demonstrate linguistic and cultural competence by accomplishing real-world communicative tasks in culturally appropriate ways in a language other than their first language. 

2. Successful students will demonstrate knowledge of target culture(s) and attitudes on cultural diversity reflective of an interculturally competent global citizen. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Achieve interpersonal communication by initiating and sustaining meaningful spoken and/or written communication in culturally appropriate ways with users of the target language while actively negotiating meaning to ensure mutual comprehension. 

1.2. Achieve interpretive listening/viewing and/or reading by comprehending the main idea and relevant details of a variety of texts (live, recorded, written) in a language other than their first language. 

1.3. Achieve presentational speaking/signing and/or writing by delivery live, recorded, and/or written presentations in a language other than their first language for varied purposes using information, ideas, and viewpoints on a variety of topics. 

2.1. Demonstrate familiarity with the products, practices, and perspectives (the 3 Ps) of target culture(s) and be able to discuss in an informed and respectful way the diversity of the 3 Ps across cultures and individuals. 

2.2. Identify and demonstrate attitudes on cultural diversity reflective of an interculturally competent global citizen (such as respect, openness, curiosity, and adaptability). 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses that are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Successful students will explore and analyze a range of perspectives on local, national, or global citizenship and apply the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that constitute citizenship. 

4. Successful students will examine notions of justice amid difference and analyze and critique how these interact with historically and socially constructed ideas of citizenship and membership within society, both within the United States and around the world. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2 Engage in advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Describe and analyze a range of perspectives on what constitutes citizenship and how it differs across political, cultural, national, global, and/or historical communities. 

3.2. Identify, reflect on, and apply the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required for intercultural competence as a global citizen. 

4.1. Examine, critique, and evaluate various expressions and implications of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and explore a variety of lived experiences. 

4.2. Analyze and critique the intersection of concepts of justice, difference, citizenship, and how these interact with cultural traditions, structures of power, and/or advocacy for social change. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses that are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Students will explore and analyze health and wellbeing through attention to at least two dimensions of wellbeing. (e.g., physical, mental, emotional, career, environmental, spiritual, intellectual, creative, financial, etc.) 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2. Engage in advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Explore and analyze health and wellbeing from theoretical, socio-economic, scientific, historical, cultural, technological, policy, and/or personal perspectives. 

3.2. Identify, reflect on, or apply strategies for promoting health and wellbeing. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses that are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Successful students will explore a range of perspectives on the interactions and impacts between humans and one or more types of environment (e.g., agricultural, built, cultural, economic, intellectual, natural) in which humans live. 

4. Successful students will analyze a variety of perceptions, representations, and/or discourses about environments and humans within them. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2. Engage in an advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Engage with the complexity and uncertainty of human-environment interactions. 

3.2. Describe examples of human interaction with and impact on environmental change and transformation over time and across space. 

4.1. Analyze how humans' interactions with their environments shape or have shaped attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors. 

4.2. Describe how humans perceive and represent the environments with which they interact. 

4.3. Analyze and critique conventions, theories, and ideologies that influence discourses around environments. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Successful students will explore and analyze a range of perspectives on migration, mobility, and immobility, including causes and effects, personal or group experiences, or artistic expression. 

4. Successful students will explain a variety of scholarly or artistic approaches to understanding mobility and immobility, and analyze how texts, perceptions, representations, discourses, or artifacts represent these concerns. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2. Engage in an advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Explain environmental, political, economic, social, or cultural causes of migration, mobility, and/or immobility. 

3.2. Describe and analyze diverse experiences or portrayals of migration, mobility, or immobility (e.g., migration, incarceration, disability, or flight) and the complex effects of these phenomena on individuals, societies, institutions, and/or places. 

4.1. Discuss how migration, mobility, or immobility have shaped attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and values of individuals and/or institutions. 

4.2. Describe how people (e.g., scholars, artists, scientists, etc.) perceive or represent migration, mobility, or immobility and critique conventions, theories, and/or ideologies that influence such perceptions or representations. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses that are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Successful students will experience and examine mathematics as an abstract formal system accessible to mental manipulation and/or mathematics as a tool for describing and understanding the natural world. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2. Engage in an advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Analyze and describe how mathematics functions as an idealized system that enables logical proof and/or as a tool for describing and understanding the natural world. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses that are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Successful students will appreciate the time depth of the origins and evolution of natural systems, life, humanity, or human culture, and the factors that have shaped them over time. 

4. Successful students will understand the origins and evolution of natural systems, life, humanity, or human culture, and the factors that have shaped them over time. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2. Engage in an advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Illustrate their knowledge of the time depth of the universe, physical systems, life on Earth, humanity, or human culture by providing examples or models. 

3.2. Explain scientific methods used to reconstruct the history of the universe, physical systems, life on Earth, humanity, or human culture and specify their domains of validity. 

3.3. Engage with current controversies and problems related to origins and evolution questions. 

4.1. Describe their knowledge of how the universe, physical systems, life on Earth, humanity, or human culture have evolved over time. 

4.2. Summarize current theories of the origins and evolution of the universe, physical systems, life on Earth, humanity, or human culture. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses that that are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Successful students will analyze and explain how social and natural systems function, interact, and evolve over time; how human well-being depends on these interactions; how actions have impacts on subsequent generations and societies globally; and how human values, behaviors, and institutions impact multifaceted potential solutions across time. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2. Engage in an advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Describe elements of the fundamental dependence of humans on Earth and environmental systems, and on the resilience of these systems. 

3.2. Describe, analyze, and critique the roles and impacts of human activity and technology on both human society and the natural world, in the past, present, and future. 

3.3. Devise informed and meaningful responses to problems and arguments in the area of sustainability based on the interpretation of appropriate evidence and an explicit statement of values. 

Goals: 

1. Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than in the Foundations component. [Note: In this context, "advanced" refers to courses that are e.g., synthetic, rely on research or cutting-edge findings, or deeply engage with the subject matter, among other possibilities.]

2. Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future. 

3. Successful students will engage in a systematic assessment of how cultures and sub-cultures develop and interact, historically or in contemporary society. 

4. Successful students will engage in a systematic assessment of differences among societies, institutions, and individuals' experience within traditions and cultures. 

Expected Learning Outcomes: 

Successful students are able to: 

1.1. Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme. 

1.2. Engage in an advance, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme. 

2.1. Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme. 

2.2. Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts. 

3.1. Describe the influence of an aspect of culture (e.g., religious belief, gender roles, institutional organization, technology, epistemology, philosophy, scientific discovery, etc.) on at least one historical or contemporary issue. 

3.2. Analyze the impact of a "big" idea or technological advancement in creating a major and long-lasting change in a specific culture. 

3.3. Examine the interactions among dominant and sub-cultures. 

3.4. Explore changes and continuities over time within a culture or society. 

4.1. Recognize and explain differences, similarities, and disparities among institutions, organizations, cultures, societies, and/or individuals. 

4.2. Explain ways in which categories such as race, ethnicity, and gender and perceptions of difference impact individual outcomes and broader societal issues.