In 2009, College of DuPage faculty established a set of General Education Student Learning Outcomes, later revised and reaffirmed in 2018, to guide students in all associate degree programs.
These outcomes are designed to ensure that graduates acquire a well-rounded education that prepares them for success in both their professional and personal lives. The General Education curriculum encompasses a broad range of subjects, including the arts, humanities, mathematics, natural and social sciences, and promotes essential skills such as critical thinking, information literacy, communication, and cultural understanding. These outcomes reflect the college’s commitment to developing well-informed, capable graduates who can think critically, solve problems, and engage responsibly in an interconnected world.
Critical Thinking
Graduates can effectively identify and challenge assumptions, develop and assess viability of solutions and provide a logically structured argument. They can make connections between subject areas and use interdisciplinary thinking to evaluate contemporary social issues.
Information Literacy
Graduates can explain the need for information, locate information effectively and efficiently, evaluate information and its sources critically, and use information effectively, ethically and legally to accomplish a specific purpose.
Communication
Expression and Exchange of Ideas
Graduates can formulate coherent, well-supported oral and written arguments that use language and rhetoric appropriate to the setting, purpose, and audience.
Physical & Life Sciences
Scientific Reasoning
Graduates can use generally accepted scientific means and procedures to analyze data, make inferences and advance logical conclusions.
Mathematics
Quantitative Reasoning
Graduates can interpret mathematical models and identify their limitations, employ strategies to model and find solutions to problems, and use terminology to represent and communicate mathematical information.
Humanities & Fine Arts
Cultural & Historical Comprehension
Graduates can demonstrate an understanding of and critically evaluate diverse events, values and ideas rooted in human experience and apply socially responsible and ethical reasoning to local and global concerns.
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Human Behavior & Societal Knowledge
Graduates can recognize how social, political, historical and economic institutions shape society and individual behavior. They can apply methods of inquiry used by social and behavioral scientists and identify causes and variations of social diversity.
(Approved by College of DuPage Faculty Senate, March 2018)