Your Path to Success Begins in General Education

General Education matters for who you are and who you will become and prepares you for a life of consequence, inquiry, and accomplishment. General Education is the foundation of your academic experience and transcends disciplinary boundaries. 

What is General Education?

General Education is shared by all degree-seeking students. Gen Ed credits (27) account for 45% of the Associate's and 23% of the Bachelor's degrees. Gen Ed provides broad exposure to diverse disciplines and is the foundation for developing intellectual tools, responsibility to the self and others, and preparing students for academic, civic, and professional success. 

What is the Mission of General Education?

The purpose of the Weber State University General Education program is to provide students with foundational knowledge and intellectual tools that enhance and transcend their academic program of study. The big questions posed by General Education courses address significant issues about the world. General Education courses help students apply their learning and develop personal and social responsibility, which is demonstrated through signature assignments.

Why is General Education required?

Gen Ed is not a random series of courses to "get out of the way" - it is a program of courses to lead the way to students' future success in higher education, the workplace, and the community. Because Gen Ed courses are framed around a Big Question, which is tapped by a Signature Assignment, students repeatedly exercise Gen Ed Learning Outcomes (GELOs) and "cross-train" their mind. Gen Ed helps students acquire transferable skills, expand their perspective on the world, explore possibilities and opportunities, and discover the unexpected. Thus, the General Education program is designed to help students achieve both program-level (GELOs) and core and breadth area (ALOs) learning outcomes.

When asked to "describe the most significant learning experience you have had so far at this institution", two WSU freshman remarked:

"The Signature Assignments for each of my classes. They've really challenged me to think back on course information I've learned throughout the semester and how it can/does apply to my personal life."

"Although signature assignments aren't the easiest assignment to complete, I love seeing course material take shape in real life. It's so fulfilling to see things that I've learned help me in the real world."

 

 

 

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Area Learning Outcomes (ALOs)

The table outlines the learning outcomes for the CORE (EN1, EN2, AI, QL) and BREADTH (CA, HU, SS, LS, PS) areas of general education (Faculty Senate, 2025).
Printable version 

Core Requirements

• Composition (EN1 & EN2)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Written Communication requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Sources and Evidence: Locate, evaluate, and integrate credible and relevant evidence to achieve various writing purposes.

  2. Genre Awareness: Demonstrate critical and conceptual awareness of genre in reading and writing.

  3. Context and Purpose: Analyze rhetorical situations and adapt reading and composing strategies.

  4. Language Awareness and Usage: Recognize and make intentional, critical, and contextually-informed language choices.

  5. Recursive Writing Processes: Develop flexible, iterative, and reflective processes for writing.

  6. Reading: Comprehend and restate content and ideas across a range of written genres.

• American Institutions (AI)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education American Institutions requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Synthesize: Analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents.

  2. Sources and Evidence: Locate, evaluate, and use historically, politically, or economically relevant information.

  3. Communicate: Effectively discuss the history, principles, and economic system of the U.S.

  4. Examine: Engage diverse viewpoints to contribute to a constructive dialogue.

  5. Apply: Apply historical, political, and economic perspectives to key questions.

• Quantitative Literacy (QL)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Quantitative Literacy requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Communicate: Explain quantitative relationships using proper notation.

  2. Mathematization: Convert information into appropriate mathematical representations.

  3. Calculation: Use algebraic skills and techniques to solve problems.

  4. Analysis: Draw conclusions through quantitative or mathematical analysis.

  5. Application/Creation: Solve concrete and abstract problems across disciplines.

• Cultural Competence (CC)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Cultural Competence requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Evaluate their own perspective as one among many.

  2. Analyze how biases or values influence structures, policies, and perspectives.

  3. Apply diverse perspectives to complex subjects responsibly.

  Approved by the General Education Improvement and Assessment Committee on 3/21/21.

• Information Literacy (IL, not required effective catalog 2025)

  New Weber State students on the 2025 catalog are not required to take courses with IL.

Breadth Requirements

• Creative Arts (CA)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Creative Arts requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Understand: Explain the creative artistic process as an iterative and recursive practice culminating in an expression of human experience and emotion through a medium.

  2. Appreciate: Apply artistic concepts and ideas drawn from traditions of artistic creation and theory to better engage with, analyze, and understand a creative work.

  3. Connect: Examine connections between art and society and articulate how the arts are a historical and cultural phenomenon.

• Humanities (HU)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Humanities requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Examine: Examine how humanities artifacts (such as oral narratives, literature, philosophy, media, and artworks) express the human condition.

  2. Explain: Explain how humanities artifacts take on meaning within networks or systems (such as languages, cultures, values, and worldviews).

  3. Analyze: Analyze humanities artifacts using methodologies such as close analysis, questioning, reasoning, interpretation, and critical thinking.

  4. Compare and Contrast: Compare diverse humanistic perspectives across cultures, communities, and time periods.

  5. Apply: Reflect on big questions related to aesthetics, values, meaning, and ethics.

• Social Sciences (SS)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Social Sciences requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Examine: Examine institutions and human behavior through social and behavioral concepts.

  2. Analyze: Identify diverse perspectives to explore and examine social phenomena.

  3. Apply: Apply scientific theories and methods to social and behavioral phenomena.

• Life Sciences (LS)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Life Sciences requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Nature of Science: Describe and apply approaches to scientific discovery.

  2. Metabolism and Ecology: Demonstrate understanding of matter, energy, and biological systems.

  3. Evolution and Inheritance: Describe evolutionary concepts related to inheritance, adaptation, and diversity.

  4. Genetics and Expression: Explain mechanisms of information storage, expression, and exchange in organisms.

  5. Science and Society: Reflect on the relevance of life sciences in a broader context.

• Physical Sciences (PS)

  Upon successful completion of the General Education Physical Sciences requirement, students will be able to:

  1. Explain Scientific Methods: Explain science as a process and a way of understanding the physical world.

  2. Understand: Demonstrate understanding of matter, energy, and their influence on physical systems.

  3. Evaluate: Evaluate the credibility of various sources of information about science-related issues.

  4. Apply: Describe how the Physical Sciences solve pressing challenges and shape historical, ethical, or social landscapes.