The General Education Program

The General Education Requirements (GERs) serve as the core of the undergraduate curriculum. The program consists of a sequence of required courses in communications, the humanities, fine arts, the natural and physical sciences, mathematics, the behavioral and social sciences, health and human performance. The program is designed to help students begin their transformation from college students to life-long learners, critical thinkers, and well-prepared citizens of the world who critically interrogate the world around them thru the application of best practices informed by: Oral and Written Communication, Analytical Reasoning, Information Literacy, Social Awareness, Responsive Citizenship, and Reflective Practice. In addition, the general education core curriculum is foundational to the mastery of courses related to each discipline and offers support for the institution’s commitment to preparing its graduates for: immediate entry into dynamic career and employment opportunities, graduate and professional schools, and specialized employment opportunities.

Orientation

Freshman Seminar (FRSEM 101), a course developed as a major part of the University’s retention efforts, helps students to become assimilated into the university community and to take full advantage of their educational opportunities. As a university requirement and not a GER course, Freshman Seminar is required of all entering freshmen, of readmitted students who left as a result of academic difficulty, and transfer students with fewer than 25 credits.

Technology Fluency Requirement

In accordance with the Board of Regents mandate, all graduates of the University System of Maryland must be technologically fluent. Students are required to take a technology course (MISY 150 or its departmentally approved equivalent. This course is designed to equip them with the necessary skills to manage personal computing devices, and to navigate software programs and campus systems.

Objectives of the General Education Requirements:

The objectives of the General Education Requirements may be divided into three categories: fundamental skills, knowledge base, and attitude and values.

GER Program Objectives

The General Education Program is designed to open the pathway to degree completion. The General Education Program (GER 40 OPTIONS) helps students to develop the following skills necessary for advanced study and life-long learning:

Communications: The ability to speak, read, to write, and think analytically, critically, and creatively in a wide variety of areas as well as in formal and informal situations.

Quantification: The ability to perform mathematical computations, to reason quantitatively, and to apply basic mathematical processes to daily work and everyday living; the ability to use a computer and a wide variety of software thru which information is acquired and processed.

Health Science and Physical Education: The ability to use the principles and practices underlying optimal health and physical fitness to demonstrate a degree of skill in recreational activities that support varied facets of human performance. Knowledge Base: The General Education Requirements (GERs) should help the student to acquire a significant introductory body of knowledge about both the western and non-western traditions broad enough to ensure an educational balance among the major areas of knowledge: the arts, the humanities, mathematics, the natural and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences. The GERs should help the student to develop an aesthetic understanding and an appreciation of creative works in the fine arts, music, theatre, and dance. The GERs should help the student to develop the knowledge, understanding, and skills necessary for interpreting the human condition and the values inherent in the human condition.

Through the study of languages, literature, and history, the student is expected to develop insights into and a critical evaluation of life in its everyday details as well as in its historical and universal dimensions. The GERs should help the student to acquire knowledge and understand of the nature of science and sensitivity to the ecological balance of nature and humankind’s role in maintaining that balance.

The GERs should help the student to develop the knowledge, understanding, and skills necessary to use, control, and to make sound decisions about technology.

The GERs should help the student to understand the psychological and social determinants of human behavior through the scientific study of the behavioral and social sciences.

Attitudes and Values

The GERs should encourage the students to develop the following attitudes and values:

1. An open, critical approach to study, to professional involvement, and to the society and world in which we live;
2. A sense of civic responsibility;
3. A sensitivity to and an appreciation for:
   1. The significance and relevance of the aesthetic imperative and for the various means of its expression;
   2. The complex nature of history and the values of history for contemporary problem solving;
   3. The psychological and social factors in human development;
   4. The roles of science and technology in human development;
   5. The importance of optimal health and satisfying recreational activities;
   6. The significance of philosophy, religion, and social mores related to ethical issues and their expression in human values; and
   7. The significance and relevance of a multi-dimensional education and its continuation in life-long learning.

Student Learning Outcomes

Coppin students’ experiences and instruction over the next three to five years will be anchored within an academic framework of six universal Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
Description of Institutional Student Learning Outcomes

1.  Written and Oral Communication

• Writing clear expository and persuasive prose
• Use of valid research-based arguments to support written or oral positions
• Expression of ideas in language appropriate to the topic and audience
• Writing and speaking proficiently for various audiences

2. Analytical Reasoning

• Thinking critically and analytically to respond to various issues and problems/concerns
• Applying applications of classical and/or current theories and principles from specific content areas
• Using critical judgments from a combination of evidences and assumptions to reach viable conclusions
• Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data via computational literacy and scientific reasoning

3. Information Literacy

• Proficiency in the use of technology and its appropriate applicability
• Use of multiple information sources such as online databases, videotapes, government documents, and journals in conducting research and/or in problem solving (e.g., electronic and print periodicals, chapters in books, government documents, archival material, and microfilm)

4. Social and Self Awareness

• Understanding of self and responsibilities as an engaged citizen and leader of service in the community
• Awareness/understanding of economic, political, and organizational systems
• Appreciation of diverse cultural heritages and global societies.

5. Reflective Practice

• Personal responsibility for intellectual growth through reflective practice in order to engage in continuous personal and academic development
• Use of professional organizations to develop a comprehensive understanding of the expectations of the chosen profession
• Development of professional competence through continuous learning experiences.

6. Responsive Citizenship

• Participation with broader communities
• Understanding of society and commitment to political and civic engagement
• Understand and respect diversity of people, ideas, communities and cultures
• Appreciation and awareness of environmental issues and initiatives

In sum, Student Learning Outcomes at the department, college, and institution levels are intended to support, to inform, to provoke, to shape, and to model for students the dynamics of the eternal bond which exists between the right to an education and the responsibility to educate.