General Education Student Learning Outcomes

The University of New Orleans provides its undergraduate students equality of access to educational opportunities and seeks to nurture in them scholarship, academic excellence, the ability to work productively with others, and leadership for citizenship in a modern environment. The General Degree Requirements established at the founding of UNO and most recently modified by a 2010 mandate of the Board of Regents further these goals by providing a common general education for who complete an Undergraduate Program of Study.  In Spring of 2021 the faculty senate adopted a modified framework developed by the UNO General Education committee during the 2020-2021 academic year to assure that all students completing a baccalaureate degree attain appropriate foundational skills and competences and knowledge of the natural world, human expression, and interactions by completing coursework and meeting the outcomes as outlined below:

Foundational Skills and Competencies

These important skills are sought by employers but ensure that students will success in all heir coursework and experiences during college.  They may be acquired in stand-alone courses or embedded across the curriculum.

1. Oral and written communication: Students will be able to express themselves--orally, writing, or other textual communication-in a clear and effective manner for a variety of audiences and purposes. 
2. Critical thinking and problem solving: Students will be able to gather, organize, and evaluate information critically in order to persuade, inform, or to solve problems, individually and collaboratively in teams.
3. Information literacy and technological competence: Students will be able to identify the need for information, locate information resources using a variety of media and technologies, and transfer these skills across academic disciplines while ethically contributing to communities of learning.
4. Quantitative and analytical reasoning: Students will be able to apply basic mathematical and analytical skills to practical, real-world quantitative information in the context of their discipline, or multiple disciplines, to solve problems and draw conclusions. 
5. Teamwork: Students will be able to work collaboratively both in and out of the classroom to navigate team formation, dynamics, and evaluative mechanisms which ensure accountability, self-reflection, and feedback opportunity in group projects.

Knowledge of the Natural World, Human Expression and Interactions

These content outcomes ensure that students are grounded in basic knowledge that is understood by university-education people, across the traditional disciplines of humanities and social sciences.

1. Scientific understanding: Students will be able to identify and describe how the scientific method has been, or could be, used to answer questions and develop scientific theories within and across scientific disciplines. 
2. Historical, political, and social literacy: Students will be able to recall and explain historical events and trends, as well as major political, social, and economic concepts and be able to research and analyze specific historical, political, social, and economic questions.
3. Cultural competence, global perspectives: Students will be able to identify and describe cultures outside their own and explain how different cultures interact and influence each other. 
4. Artistic representations and creative expressions: Students will be able to recognize and describe different types of creative expression, including literature, visual art, music, and film, and be able to analyze and interpret them.