Student Learning Outcomes

In Critical Thinking and Inquiry (CTI) competency courses, students acquire a working knowledge of the foundational tools for reasoning, including constructing sound arguments, evaluating the quality of evidence, and forming judgments about the evidence, arguments, and conclusions of others in humanities and fine arts disciplines.

The CTI in the Humanities & Fine Arts SLOs:

1. Critically analyze claims, arguments, artifacts or information.
2. Construct coherent, evidence-based arguments.

Consult the CTI in the Humanities and Fine Arts rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

In Critical Thinking and Inquiry competency courses, students acquire a working knowledge of the foundational tools for reasoning, including constructing sound arguments, evaluating the quality of evidence, and forming judgments about the evidence, arguments, and conclusions of others in natural science disciplines.

The CTI in the Natural Sciences SLOs:

1. Critically analyze claims, arguments, artifacts or information.
2. Construct coherent, evidence-based arguments.

Consult the CTI in the Natural Sciences rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

In Critical Thinking and Inquiry competency courses, students acquire a working knowledge of the foundational tools for reasoning, including constructing sound arguments, evaluating the quality of evidence, and forming judgments about the evidence, arguments, and conclusions of others in social and behavioral science disciplines.

The CTI in the Social & Behavioral Sciences SLOs:

1. Critically analyze claims, arguments, artifacts or information.
2. Construct coherent, evidence-based arguments.

Consult the CTI in the Social & Behavioral Sciences rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

Courses in this competency develop students’ abilities to process, represent, assess, and interpret quantitative data sourced from the natural world, and to use it for the purpose of formulating and testing scientific hypotheses.

The Data Analysis & Interpretation SLOs:

1. Apply quantitative analysis to understand the natural world.
2. Analyze and interpret quantitative data to evaluate and test hypotheses about the natural world.
3. Construct and interpret data tables, charts, graphs, or other representations of scientific data.

Consult the Data Analysis & Interpretation rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

Courses designated in this competency will focus on systems of advantage and oppression, structures of power, and institutions while making connections to US or global societies and examining intellectual traditions that address systems of injustice. These courses will equip students with the intellectual skills and tools needed to connect how they experience their identity in relation to the world.

The Diversity & Equity SLOs:

1. Describe how political, social, or cultural systems and structures, in the past or present, have advantaged and oppressed different groups of people (including groups with whom students may identify).
2. Describe how political, social, or cultural systems, in the past or present, have disempowered people through imposed ideas of difference and, in the face of that, how marginalized groups have meaningfully engaged in self-definition.
3. Examine individual and collective responses for addressing practices of disenfranchisement, segregation, or exclusion.

Consult the Diversity & Equity rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

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Courses in this competency provide students with knowledge and critical understanding of similarities and differences across world cultures over time and space. These courses emphasize the development of global perspectives and skills to engage across cultures and cultural identities.

The Global Engagement & Intercultural Learning SLOs:

1. Describe dynamic elements of different cultures.
2. Explain how similarities, differences, and connections among different groups of people or global systems affect one another over time and place.

Consult the Global Engagement & Intercultural Learning rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

Courses in this competency, which are focused on health and wellness and information literacy, help students understand how health and wellness decisions impact individuals and/or communities.

The Health & Wellness SLOs:

1. Identify factors that contribute to physical, mental, and/or social health.
2. Demonstrate the connection(s) of different aspects of wellness to the overall health of an individual or population.
3. Critically evaluate information and media sources in a variety of formats.
4. Integrate and cite sources accurately and correctly.

Consult the Health & Wellness rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

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Oral Communication courses focus on verbal and nonverbal expression to create and share meaning. Students develop transferable communicative strategies that can be applied to a variety of contexts, including academics, professional life and citizenship.

The Oral Communication SLOs:

1. Demonstrate appropriate and ethical oral communication messages for given contexts and communicators to increase knowledge, foster understanding, and/or promote change.
2. Analyze and evaluate messages according to context, audience, intent, and other principles of oral communication, to contribute to the ongoing development of knowledge and relationship.

Consult the Oral Communication rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

Courses in the Quantitative Reasoning competency prepare students to apply mathematical reasoning to formulate and solve problems in a variety of contexts and real-world situations. Students will learn to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world in order to make well-founded judgments and decisions as engaged and reflective citizens.

The Quantitative Reasoning SLOs:

1. Interrelate real-world information with mathematical forms (e.g., with functions, equations, graphs, diagrams, tables, words, geometric figures).
2. Formulate and justify conclusions based on quantitative arguments.
3. Communicate the quantitative evidence of the argument.

Consult the Quantitative Reasoning rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.

MAC Written Communication courses support the development and expression of ideas in writing. Effective written communication is deeply dependent on context, involves adapting different genres, styles, and formal features to address varied audiences and purposes, and benefits from repeated engagement in processes of writing, receiving feedback, and reflecting.

The Written Communication SLOs:

1. Analyze written texts to understand how they relate to particular audiences, purposes, and contexts as a way to inform one’s own writing and/or revision.
2. Create and revise written texts for particular audiences, purposes, and contexts.
3. Through oral or written reflection, demonstrate awareness of one’s writing choices as well as how one’s own writing contributes to ongoing conversations.

Consult the Written Communication rubric for SLO assessment guidelines and expectations.