Learning Outcome 2 : Overview

Focus in Academic Year 2021-2022 is Learning Outcome 2

For the Pilot of Learning Outcome 3 Go here and for the results of Learning Outcome 1 Go here

Learning Outcome 2 Develop intellectual and practical skills across the curriculum, including inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, problem solving, written and oral communication, information literacy, technological competence, and collaborative learning.

  • Proficiency will be demonstrated across the curriculum through critical analysis of proffered information, well-reasoned solutions to problems or inferences drawn from evidence, effective written and oral communication, and satisfactory outcomes of group projects.


Generic Prompt

Student selects the assignment in the course that best demonstrates critical thinking and submits a justification of that choice.

DIY Prompt

Instructor designs a course-specific scenario or problem in which there is a possibility of multiple answers. The student addresses the course-specific scenario or problem by taking a position. The student then submits a justification of that position or choice.

  • Developed by faculty across two collaborative working sessions in November 2020.

  • An email first day of faculty being back on contract shares some context of General Education. This email is followed by a procedural email by the General Education Learning Outcome Assessment Committee.

  • Faculty are asked to share whether they chose the generic prompt or are creating their own prompts for the LO2 assessment. Faculty will receive an email for each GER course they are teaching.

  • The faculty's choice will result in receiving a student-facing assignment as crafted by the General Education Learning Outcome Assessment Committee.

  • We ask faculty to "assign" the assignment in the second half of their GER course. We make it easy by emailing faculty the assignment to add to their courses in whatever way works.

  • Students will submit the assignment through a provided link.

  • Faculty will be given a list of who turned in the assignment and they may, if they wish, provide extra credit, incorporate the assignment into their grading, or just review the assignments to assess student learning on their own, but they are not required to do any of those things.

  • We do not expect syllabus redesign or additional graded labor.