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General Studies

outcomes curriculum map reports

Outcome Statements for General Studies Majors

Bachelor of General Studies Program Student Learning Outcomes

BGS Program Goals:

The BGS program seeks to graduate those empowered learners who will become leaders in a variety of settings – family, profession, community, nation, and world. The graduates will embody the qualities of leadership that require “…total engagement offered for the well-being of the earth and all its inhabitants.” (R.W. Terry quoted in Mitstifer, D., “Reflective Human Action”). Leadership will also entail “…a particular mode of engagement with life, requiring a lifelong commitment to growing toward human fulfillment.” (R.W. Terry quoted in Mitstifer, D., “Reflective Human Action”)

Some Assumptions:

  • Our students bring a wide range of previous academic experiences that inform their first experiences with us
  • Students bring a breadth of personal experiences which they use in the classroom to make sense of the content
  • Students look for immediate personal and practical applicability of their academic information
  • Our graduates will face a world with constantly changing rules and assumptions and with increasing pressures to operate from a planetary perspectiv

BGS graduates will act as:

Critical and Creative Thinkers

  • Apply information from many sources, methods and patterns to solve problems
  • Engage in self-reflection
  • Read and communicate in a variety of forms, including current and emerging technologies
  • Write well organized, carefully considered short and long essays in which students demonstrate their grasp of proper research, grammatical and rhetorical skills;
  • Read complex materials and identify the main points presented by the author;
  • Respond critically and thoughtfully in writing or orally to class material;
  • Use appropriate library research strategies to find information on a given topic and to evaluate its use in a scholarly context.
  • Evaluate the logic, validity and relevance of data
  • Use knowledge and understanding in order to generate and explore new questions
  • Analyze complex issues and make informed decisions
  • Synthesize information in order to arrive at reasoned conclusions
  • Integrate theory and practice

Global Thinkers

  • Understand common human experiences and use this knowledge to assess issues that affect community, country and planet
  • meet professional standards and competencies
  • further goals of society
  • compare and contrast the range of diversity and universality in human history, societies, and ways of life
  • analyze and understand the interconnectedness of global and local concerns
  • operate with civility in a complex social world
  • use multidisciplinary studies in intellectual, professional and community lives

Collaborative Thinkers

  • Work with others to solve problems
  • Appreciate the interconnectedness of all knowledge
  • Compare and contrast approaches to knowledge in different disciplines
  • Use information and concepts from studies in multiple disciplines
  • Communicate orally in one-on-one and in group settings

Lifelong Learners

  • Recognize the value of education throughout one’s life
  • Recognize limitations in personal knowledge and experience
  • Apply acquired knowledge in professional settings
  • Maintain an active interest in developments in those fields which impact the person's profession

The BGS program will accomplish these goals through the delivery of BGS courses and through its advising activities as students pursue their majors with a combination of required and elective courses delivered within a variety of departments at the university.

Students:

All BGS students will take part in outcomes assessment activities at various points in their academic career at URI. Students will be able to reflect on the learning that has taken place in their studies by assessing representative products of their academic work. These products (papers, tests, projects, etc.) will be placed by the student into their electronic portfolio. This e-portfolio can be modified by the student and may be accessible to a number of other audiences – academic advisor, BGS program coordinator, potential employers, etc. Through the use of this e-portfolio, students will be able to track their growth throughout their time at the university. In addition, students’ e-portfolios remain available after graduation so students will be able to add products from graduate study, jobs, community involvement, volunteer work, etc.

The e-portfolio will also be used by BGS program and university staff to assess the stated learning outcomes of the BGS program and university-wide learning outcomes. Student products will be assessed at various points to track the success of the BGS program in meeting its stated learning outcomes.

Products students will need to put into their e-portfolios (students may add others as they wish):

New students:

  • Final paper from BGS 100*
  • Final reflective essay from URI 101B*
    *if a student does not take this course, then the student will submit a product from WRT 105 (or ELS 112 & ELS 122, the equivalent of WRT 105)
  • Final paper from a second writing course, such as WRT 201, WRT 227 or WRT 333

Transfer Students:

  • Final paper from first writing course at URI
  • Final paper from BGS 300 [yet to be developed]

All BGS students:

  • Paper or report from BGS 390, 391,392
  • Paper or project from a 400 level course in your major
  • BGS 399 Senior Project
  • Exit interview/survey upon graduation

Applied Communications and Human Studies Major:

  • Paper from capstone seminar (BGS 397 or BGS 398)

All BGS Graduates:

  • Periodic survey from BGS Office

All these products will contain a self-reflective statement from the student outlining how well the student thinks he/she has met the stated learning outcomes for that course.