Student Learning
Student Affairs Learning Goals
The Division of Student Affairs provides co-curricular programs and services that build students' competencies in seven specific areas:
- Civic Engagement - Encompasses actions wherein individuals participate in activities of personal, political and public concern that are both individually life enriching and socially beneficial to the community.
- Communication - The exchange of information orally, non-verbally and in writing, with individuals, groups and external audiences using multiple modes, including technology and related applications.
- Critical Thinking - A habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.
- Integrative Learning - An understanding and disposition that a student builds across their personal, curricular and co-curricular lives, from making simple connections among ideas and experiences to synthesizing and transferring learning to new and complex situations.
- Intercultural Fluency - Valuing, respecting, and learning from people with diverse backgrounds (e.g., ability, age, culture, economic status, education level, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation). The individual demonstrates, openness, inclusiveness, sensitivity, and the ability to interact respectfully with all people and understand individuals’ differences.
- Personal Development - Personal development includes both intra- and inter-personal elements. Intrapersonal development refers to an individual’s self-understanding and the extent to which they engage in selecting and living by their personal values and beliefs. Interpersonal development refers to an individual’s ability to build and maintain meaningful and healthy relationships, work collaboratively, and lead others.
- Problem Solving - The process of designing, evaluating and implementing a strategy to answer a question or achieve a desired goal.
Many of our learning domains and definitions were adopted/adapted from the following sources: CAS Learning and Development Outcomes; Connecting Credentials: A Beta Credentials Framework; National Association of Colleges and Employers Competencies; VALUE: and Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education rubrics from the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Outcomes Development
Learning outcomes serve as a foundation for developing programs. Once you know what you want to participants to learn, designing the experience becomes much easier.
- Creating and Assessing Learning Outcomes Worksheet
- Examples of WCU Student Affairs Learning Outcomes by Focus Area
- Bloom's Taxonomy
Outcomes Assessment
The Student Affairs Assessment Council has developed definitions and rubrics for each of the learning goals and recommends using at least one of the following questions on assessments related to student learning:
- What did you learn that you didn't know before attending this program?
- What can you do now that you couldn't do before attending this program?
- Have your views changed as a result of attending this program? If so, how?
- How will you change your behavior as a result of attending this program?
- How does the information provided in this program connect with what you have learned in class?
- How does the information provided in this program apply to your life?
- How can you use this information to make an impact on your community?
- What future steps are you thinking about taking as a result of attending this program?
- What questions do you still have after attending this program?