Liberal Studies
Program learning outcomes: What Will I Learn?
Students who complete the major in Liberal Arts will be able to:
- Critical Thinking: Students will be able to engage in advanced critical thinking skills, including: demonstrating the ability to remember information, understand key concepts, apply these concepts appropriately, analyze phenomena, evaluate and justify positions, create coherent arguments in the student’s chosen field of study. (SLA degree outcome)
- Communication: Students will demonstrate: advanced written communication skills, advanced oral communication skills, and will be able to express complex ideas with clarity and precision. (SLA degree outcome)
- Diversity: Students will be able to articulate the significance of diversity as a fundamental principle of understanding life. (SLA degree outcome)
- Ethics: Students will be able to apply concepts of: ethical conduct in decision making, ethical conduct in action, social responsibility in decision making, and social responsibility in action. (SLA degree outcome)
Evidence of Student Learning - Internal: How will the program measure what I have learned?
Achievement of all the Program outcomes is assessed within one of three interdisciplinary capstone courses. The student learning outcomes are assessed within the capstone course by a direct assessment approach. Instructors use rubrics that focus on the outcomes to score the students performance. This evaluation is unique from the grading for the course.
Metric:
Individual student parameters for the SLA degree outcomes:
Students will be identified as "Exceeds Expectations" when at least 50% of the criteria for that outcome are rated at the exceeds level and none at the does not meet level.
Students will be identified as "Meets Expectations" when no criterion is rated as does not meet expectations.
Students will be identified as "Does Not Meet Expectations" if any single criterion is rated as does not meet.
Results: SLA degree outcome 1: "Students will be able to engage in advanced critical thinking skills, including: demonstrating the ability to remember information, understand key concepts, apply these concepts appropriately, analyze phenomena, evaluate and justify positions, create coherent arguments in the student's chosen field of study." For the MULTI-DISCIPLINARY capstone courses that ran 2010-2011, 83.6% of the students scored at or above the "meets expectations" level for this outcome. 24.2% scored at the "exceeds expectations" level. The Bachelor's of Science in Liberal Studies Program therefore MEETS expectations for this outcome.
Results: SLA degree outcome 2: "Students will demonstrate: advanced written communication skills, advanced oral communication skills, and will be able to express complex ideas with clarity and precision." For the MULTI-DISCIPLINARY capstone courses that ran in 2010-2011, 86.4% of the students scored at or above the "meets expectations" level for this outcome. 19.7% scored at the "exceeds expectations" level. The Bachelor's of Science in Liberal Studies Program therefore MEETS expectations for this outcome.
Results: SLA degree outcome 3: "Students will be able to articulate the significance of diversity as a fundamental principle of understanding life." For the MULTI-DISCIPLINARY capstone courses that ran in 2010-2011, 90.8% of the students scored at or above the "meets expectations" level for this outcome. 27% scored at the "exceeds expectations" level. The Bachelor's of Science in Liberal Studies Program therefore EXCEEDS expectations for this outcome.
Results: (N=82) SLA degree outcome 4: "Students will be able to apply concepts of: ethical conduct in decision making, ethical conduct in action, social responsibility in decision making and social responsibility in action." For the MULTI-DISCIPLINARY capstone courses that ran in 2010-2011, 86.9% of the students scored at or above the "meets expectations" level for this outcome. 31% scored at the "exceeds expectations" level. The Bachelor's of Science in Liberal Studies Program therefore EXCEEDS expectations for this outcome
