MSUM Adopts University Wide Student Learning Outcomes

Minnesota State University Moorhead has identified six learning outcomes that its students will achieve through curricular and co-curricular activities.The outcomes were adopted through a process of consultation with faculty, staff, and students. The outcomes embrace the university’s mission as well as its current strategic plan to develop liberally educated students who are ready to be leaders in their professions and communities. The outcomes are:

1. Demonstrate intellectual preparedness for success in professional life, bolstered by integrative experiences and technological competence.
2. Demonstrate effective written and oral communication, including use of appropriate technology.
3. Apply critical thinking skills in deliberative decision-making and problem solving.
4. Demonstrate civic awareness and responsibility, both locally and globally.
5. Negotiate ethical relationships with people who have different backgrounds, life experiences, cultures, beliefs, and values.
6. Demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and the self-awareness to sustain the life of ongoing, independent learning.
Faculty and staff will now begin the process of identifying where the outcomes are taught in the curriculum or in co-curricular activities. They will then review the evidence for how well students are learning these outcomes and make continual improvements, as necessary, to ensure student achievement.
The project to develop university-wide student learning outcomes is part of the University’s ten-year re-accreditation process. The university’s accrediting agency, the Higher Learning Commission, allows colleges and universities to choose continuous improvement projects that will lead to overall effectiveness. MSUM’s next review by the HLC is in 2016-17.
To read more about assessment at MSUM, please read the January 2015 issue of Closing the Loop, a new newsletter designed to keep the campus updated on assessment activities.
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