Learning Outcomes

General Education Learning Outcomes

The general education SLOs describe the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students are expected to be able to demonstrate upon completion of the general education courses at the University of Oklahoma. These SLOs were articulated by the General Education Assessment Workgroup (GEAW) comprising faculty from various disciplines and vetted by the Provost’s Advisory Committee for General Education Oversight (PAC-GEO) on May 10, 2019. The SLOs are areas that OU students in every major should develop during their undergraduate careers and be proficient in upon graduation. Development in these SLO begins in the General Education Program and is sustained throughout major program coursework.

The SLOs fall into the following categories: Communication skills, Technology and Information Literacy, Critical Analysis and Scientific Reasoning, Quantitative and Numerical analysis, and Arts and Humanities.

students are sitting around a table and talking

Communication Skills

Students will clearly and effectively communicate knowledge and ideas in written, oral, and visual/spatial forms appropriate to the general education subject area. They will engage with their audiences by actively reading, listening, reflecting, and responding to and delivering messages using a variety of formats.

Students will:

Demonstrate proficiency in listening, speaking, writing, and reading.
Explain how the context in which a message is communicated influences its interpretation.
Apply appropriate form and style to effectively and respectfully engage audiences using a variety of media.
Write using a multi-step process of planning, critiquing, editing, and revising.

engineering students are working the lab

Technology and Information Literacy

Students will demonstrate effective use of technology for communicating, researching, organizing, storing, accessing, and presenting information. They will locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material from a variety of sources, and will format and document material in a manner appropriate for the general education subject area.

Students will:

Apply technology as appropriate for the general education subject area.
Describe unethical and illegal use of information, including copyright and privacy issues.
Identify appropriate sources of information for academic work.
Accurately cite a variety of sources, including electronic, visual, and print media.
Cite information to support ideas, hypotheses, and conclusions.

Critical Analysis and Scientific Reasoning

Students will demonstrate the ability to integrate and analyze information from multiple perspectives, consider new solutions, and solve novel complex problems using methods appropriate for the general education subject area.

Students will:

Demonstrate reasoning by deduction, induction, and analogy.
Apply scientific methods as appropriate for the general education subject area.
Differentiate between scientific and non-scientific explanations.
Compare alternative explanations and their implications.
Summarize evidence presented in an argument.
Identify examples of the interaction between science and societal change.
Explain how the social and historical context in which a theory emerged influenced its development.

Quantitative and Numerical Analysis

Students will apply principles and methods of quantitative and numerical analysis to solve problems and draw logical inferences. They will evaluate and interpret quantitative and numerical information across a broad range of scientific disciplines using methods appropriate for the general education subject area.

Students will:

Analyze and interpret quantitative information from formulas, graphs, and tables.
Apply appropriate strategies of quantitative problem solving.
Express the relationship between mathematical representation and real-world application.

two music students playing an instrument.

Arts and Humanities

Students will explore a variety of creative works in the humanities and the arts, with an emphasis on the historical, cultural, and social contexts in which the works are created.

Students will:

Summarize the creative process that underlies at least one major form of artistic expression.
Describe how the social and cultural environment influences the interpretation of works of art.
Identify influential and representative scholarly, literary, and artistic achievements of the past.
Critique creative works using knowledge of relevant aesthetic criteria or stylistic forms.
Critically analyze texts or cultural artifacts that reflect on perennial questions concerning the human experience.

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