General Education Basic, Area, and Integrative Criteria for Certification

All Courses that are certified as GE courses must:

1. List course learning outcomes for students on the course syllabus;
2. Meet one or more learning outcome from the Critical Thinking category, plus one or more learning outcome, as appropriate from one or more of the other GE learning goals.
3. Include rigorous written (or quantitative, where appropriate) assignments that assess the student learning outcomes. The assignments should total at minimum the equivalent of five (5) double-spaced, typed pages, or 1,250 words; and
4. Meet all criteria (e.g., for World Cultures, Language Arts, Natural Sciences) to which the course applies.

General Education Basic Criteria

Composition, 3 semester hours

Courses

ENG 100 or ENG 100T, (ESL 100 or ESL 100T for non-native speakers of English only).

Outcomes

• Introduce students to different forms of college-level writing, including, but not limited to, academic discourse, and guide them in writing for different purposes and audiences;
• teach students to properly document sources;
• require at least 5000 words of finished prose-equivalent to approximately 20 double-spaced, type-written pages.

Language Arts, 3-4 semester hours

Courses

Any one English, Rhetoric, Hawaiian, Foreign Language, Linguistics or Communication course that satisfies the certification requirements and includes the learning outcomes.

Outcomes

• Show students how language operates at a structural, functional and social level;
• engage students in the in the process of constructing, analyzing, and employing language;
• teach students techniques and forms that constitute effective communication of ideas, facts and information;
• require students to show proficiency in analyzing and/or demonstrating modes of communication.

Quantitative Reasoning, 6 semester hours

Courses

Any one lower-division math course and one additional course in any field that satisfy the certification requirement and learning outcomes.

Outcomes

• Enable students to understand the use of mathematical or symbolic concepts as representations of real world events and phenomena;
• require students to develop skills in chains of reasoning from data to conclusions;
• require students to develop skills in problem-solving using mathematical or symbolic concepts and techniques.
• One or more rigorous quantitative assignments that assess student learning and are substantially correlated with the final course grade.

World Cultures, 6 semester hours

Courses

Any two courses that satisfy the certification requirements and learning outcomes.

Outcomes

• Analyze the development of human societies and their cultural traditions through time and throughout the world, including Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Oceania (Pacific Basin)
• offer a broad, integrated analysis of cultural, economic, political, scientific, philosophical, religious, and social developments that recognizes the diversity of human societies, diverse cultural traditions, and cross-cultural interaction

Humanities, 6 semester hours

Courses

Any two certified courses in two different humanities fields. These include courses taught in the Humanities Division and courses taught in the College of Hawaiian Language (Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College).

Outcomes

• Use the terminology of the visual, performing, or creative arts; or of the study of philosophy, language, communication, or religion; or of literary representations;
• engage students in the study of artifacts, texts, performances, processes, theories, or issues of concern in studies of the arts, philosophy, language, communication, religion, or literature;
• demonstrate the methods or modes of inquiry employed in studies of the arts, philosophy, language, communication, religion, or literature.

Social Sciences, 6 semester hours

Courses

Any two certified courses in two different social sciences. These include courses taught in the Social Sciences division, courses from the College of Business, or Agriculture Business courses and courses from the College of Hawaiian Language (Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College).

Outcomes

• Use the terminology of theories, structures, or processes in the social or psychological sciences;
• engage students in the systematic study human behavior, both social and individual;
• present theories, concepts, models, practices, research methods, or issues of concern in the study of human behavior and interactions.

Natural Sciences, 7 semester hours including 1 semester hour of laboratory

Courses

Any two lecture courses from two different natural sciences and 1 lab course in biological or physical science. These include courses taught in the Natural Sciences Division and courses in the College of Agriculture and the College of Hawaiian Language (Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College).

Outcomes

• use the terminology of computational, physical or biological sciences;
• include knowledge and theories of the computational, physical or biological sciences;
• foster a student's ability to perform inquiry that is guided by the scientific method, including observation/experimentation and scientific reasoning/mathematics.
• One or more rigorous written assignments (totaling a minimum of 1250 words) and/or quantitative assignments that assess student learning and are substantially correlated with the final course grade.

Integrative Requirement Criteria

Writing Intensive

The Writing Intensive Committee certifies individual courses for WI status in a process separate from GE certification.

Hawaiʻi Pan-Pacific 3 semester hours

Courses

Any lower-division or upper-division course that satisfies the Hawaiʻi-Pan-Pacific criteria

Outcomes

• Investigate major aspects of the culture, language, economy, history, or natural environment of Hawaiʻi or of another indigenous culture or nation or region of the Pan Pacific region;
• foster critical understanding of different cultural perspectives, values, and world views and the ability to acquire additional knowledge about these.

Global and Community Citizenship 3 semester hours

Courses

Any lower-division or upper-division course that satisfies the Global and Community Citizenship criteria.

Outcomes

• Enhance awareness of local and global community and environmental issues;
• stress application of knowledge and skills to solving community or environmental challenges and/or benefiting the community through course conducted workshops;
• encourage interaction with community, business and/or government sectors in order to effect positive change;
• encourage students to become informed and active participants in their communities;
• include, but is not limited to, a field work, community workshop, service-learning component, or a research-based project that utilizes field work to explore ways in which one can contribute to the good of the global and/or local community.