海角社区

Care about words. The ones you write and the ones you read are fundamental to your scholarly career and the world you make for yourself beyond the campus. Written communication is the development and expression of ideas in writing across many genres and styles. It includes understanding how writers may shape texts for their specific rhetorical situation. It includes multimodal composing and the creation of texts that combine words, images, and/or data. Written communication abilities develop through interactive and iterative experiences across the curriculum. Students take two courses (6 credits) meeting these goals.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Exhibit a thorough understanding of audience, purpose, genre, and context that is responsive to the situation.
• Create and develop ideas within the context of the situation and the assigned task(s).
• Apply formal and informal conventions of writing, including organization, content, presentation, formatting, and stylistic choices, in particular forms and/or fields.
• Critically read, evaluate, apply, and synthesize evidence and/or sources in support of a claim.
• Use an appropriate documentation system.
• Demonstrate proficiency with conventions, including spellings, grammar, mechanics, and word choice appropriate to the writing task.

If you have ever appreciated an instructional video or listened to a podcast, then you know the importance of effective communication. Learn to share ideas with confidence. You can think about how audience matters or explore languages of the world. Students learn to perform effective and ethical oral communication that is appropriate to diverse audiences, settings, media, and goals. Students take one course (3 credits) meeting these goals.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Develop a clear, purposeful message with coherent and effective content.
• Incorporate various and credible supporting material (e.g. examples, statistics, analogies, illustrations, and quotations).
• Practice effective listening strategies that enhance understanding, evaluation and engagement.
• Adapt to varied audiences, their beliefs, values, and attitudes, as well as to features of contexts, situations, and interactions.
• Perform skillful non-verbal communication (e.g. vocal variety, pace and physical behavior) appropriate to audience and context.
• Perform skillful verbal communication (e.g. clear, vivid, and/or compelling language) appropriate to audience and context.

Math is its own language. It speaks with symbols. It gestures with shapes. It raises an eyebrow with numbers. You need to know its expressions and techniques to communicate across time space. Competency in quantitative literacy represents a student鈥檚 ability to use quantifiable information and mathematical analysis to make connections and draw conclusions. The main focus of each Quantitative Literacy course is the use of mathematical techniques and analysis, with problems from a broad spectrum of real-life and abstract settings requiring translation to and from mathematical forms. Students take one course (3 credits) meeting these goals.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Apply mathematical techniques to the analysis of quantitative problems.
• Communicate the mathematical process and results in text, graphics, and symbols.

People have so many ways of expressing their values and experiences. Language, art, literature and religion are just a few ways in which the human experience can both be known and appreciated. Take the next step and understand the wide array artifacts in the contexts of their creation and practice. In Arts and Humanities courses students interpret, analyze, and create texts and other artistic works to deepen their understanding of the various contexts that shape the human experience and explore fundamental questions of identity, value, diversity, and meaning. Students take two courses (6 credits) meeting these goals.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Describe how the context (historical, racial, ethnic, material, technological, religious, intellectual, cultural, gender, etc.) influences the creation, content, or interpretation of a text, performance, work of art, etc.
• Critically engage with a text, performance, work of art, etc. by applying social/political, epistemic, aesthetic, pragmatic, moral/ethical, or other discipline-appropriate standards.
• Implement course content or skills through the creation of an original project (essay, argument, narrative, reflection, oral presentation, performance, work of art, etc.).

You have probably taken a history class before, but have you learned how historical knowledge is generated? Dates, places, and people are only the beginning of a journey into the past. Finding your own sources, asking useful questions, seeing context, and communicating your fact-based answers to different types of audiences are all skills you can use. Historical thinking contextualizes the present by using a wide range of sources and methods to understand how people experienced the past. Students take one course (3 credits) meeting these goals.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate the ability to locate sources when information is needed, and to evaluate the authenticity, validity, and reliability of resources applied to a specific purpose.
• Communicate in writing with an awareness of audience, by using language conventions appropriate to the occasion and task.
• Demonstrate historical knowledge of the United States, the world, or one of the major regions of the world.
• Demonstrate, using historical sources, how context and contingency influence change over time.
• Develop an effective historical interpretation and marshal primary and/or secondary source evidence to support it.

How do we understand ideas from the past and the forces of the present that influence our choices and constraints? These courses will equip you to navigate complex social and global issues. Courses in Social and Behavioral Science study the behavior and actions of individuals, groups, and/or institutions using scientific methods and approaches. Social and Behavioral Science also develops a student鈥檚 ability to examine and influence those behaviors and actions between and among larger social, economic, political, and/or geographic contexts. Students take two courses (6 credits) meeting these goals. *Students on catalog years 2019 and older may take any course from the full, current Social and Behavioral Science General Studies list to fulfill their SBS I or SBS II requirements.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Describe foundational concepts in the social and behavioral sciences.
• Examine how individuals, groups, communities, and social institutions relate or interact with each other and/or the natural world using theories and methods in the social and behavioral sciences.
• Engage with social and behavioral science tools, approaches, and skills to explore complex human, social, political, cultural, and/or global interactions and issues.

Science helps you see the world. The problems that you want to solve have answers in science. You will need to know the methods of science and the knowledge of the fields. The Natural and Physical Sciences involve discovering knowledge in natural or physical sciences, applying scientific thinking and reasoning, and critically thinking about the use of scientific information. Students take two courses (6 credits) meeting these goals.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Explain the foundational knowledge of a particular field of natural or physical science
• Apply principles and techniques of scientific thinking.
• Evaluate the credibility of scientific information and interpret the impact of its use or misuse in society.

Global Diversity refers to a student鈥檚 ability to critically analyze and engage complex, interconnected global systems (such as natural, physical, social, cultural, economic, or political) and their implications for individuals, groups, communities, or cultures. These courses will introduce students to various concepts toward valuing diversity and the importance of inclusivity. Students should seek to understand how their actions affect both local and global communities. Courses in this category must contain a majority of material from one or more regions or countries outside the U.S.聽 Students take one course that meets these goals.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Describe the implications of global interconnections, including their impact on culture, societies, the environment, or the individual.
• Analyze connections between worldviews, experiences, and/or power structures of differing cultures in historical or contemporary contexts.

This course is allowed to “double-dip,” meaning that it may also fulfill another General Studies requirement.聽

Note: Separate from General Studies, 海角社区 has an Ethnic Studies & Social Justice (ESSJ) graduation requirement. Visit the Ethnic Studies and Social Justice website for more information.

General Studies courses are tagged with the General Studies category designations at the time the student takes the course, so the most recent list of General Studies courses is always the best way to make sure the class will count. Your catalog year is not relevant to this decision. Please pick a course that fulfills General Studies at the time you take the course. You can see the latest list on our webpage or you can trust that courses with General Studies attributes in the schedule are tagged with General Studies for that semester.

The course schedule found at聽/catalog/#undergraduate-class-schedules-聽and the聽Advanced Search lets you search by General Studies聽Attribute, which is the General Studies category. The Advanced Search option appears after you choose the term.

Your Degree Progress Report (find yours on the聽Student Hub website) will show you which General Studies categories your courses have fulfilled and which still need to be taken. If you are new to 海角社区, your Degree Progress Report for your new catalog year is usually created around August. You can still get a sense of what you need by generating a 鈥淲hat-If鈥� report within your Degree Progress Report screen and chose the most recent catalog year available to get a sense of what you need. Advisors are great resources to help you with this! 聽You can also make an appointment with your advisor through a link on the StudentHub. Some majors and minors require General Studies courses in the major, so you might find that it鈥檚 more efficient to take those courses for your General Studies requirements.

The catalog uses the phrase 鈥淭iming of Completion鈥� to explain when you should be done taking general studies courses. We don鈥檛 want you to have to learn things in your senior year that would have made your college experience much better if you had taken them in your freshman or sophomore year.

You need to take classes in these categories before your finish your first 30 college-level credit hours:

• Written Communication (first 3 semester hours of coursework)
• Oral Communication (3 semester hours of coursework)
• Quantitative Literacy (3 semester hours of coursework)

And you need to take your second written communication course before you reach 45 hours. You may be blocked from registering for more courses until you complete these requirements.

Have questions about transfer credits, rules, or want more information about general studies? 聽We highly recommend speaking to an advisor who can help you navigate the system:聽聽Academic Advising Home