Writing Global Student Learning Outcomes

A student learning outcome is a statement that describes what the student will know or be able to do after completing the course. When writing these learning goals, it is important to keep assessment in mind: each student learning outcome should contain an element that can be measured, either quantitatively or qualitatively. Specific, measurable verbs can be helpful. As you design your course, you may find it helpful to think through how your assignments and readings, your grading criteria for assignments, and the components of the overall class grade relate to your student learning outcomes for the course.

Student learning outcomes are unique to your course

Your Global Scholar (300/400 level) or Global Citizenship Course (USP requirement, 100/200 level) must adapt at least two of the general Global Student Learning Outcomes from the list of eight below.

Global Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will gain knowledge of global systems, movements, institutions of cooperation and / or fundamental international agreements.
2. Students will acquire knowledge of and appreciation for diverse beliefs, ideas, traditions and / or geographical, social, political or economic systems.
3. Students will examine how diversity in value systems and cultures and / or inequities among geographical, social, political, or economic systems have shaped past and / or contemporary global challenges and opportunities.
4. Students will be able to recognize the construction of identity as shaped by cultural heritage and / or patterns of power or privilege.
5. Students will gain competency or familiarity with different forms of intercultural communication.
6. Students will recognize diverse methodological or disciplinary lenses used to examine global challenges, past or present.
7. Students will recognize the connections, past or present, between personal experiences, local action and global impact.
8. Students will critically, creatively, independently and / or collaboratively engage with global challenges and opportunities.

Global Scholar (GS) Course Criteria

Each Global Scholar course syllabus must contain the following three elements:

1) A statement concerning the Global Scholar designation. Copy and paste the statement below into your syllabus or write a statement of your own that is substantially similar.

Global Scholar courses build upon the knowledge, skills and perspectives that students gain in their (required) USP Global Citizenship (GC) course. Together, GC and GS courses aim to provide students with the knowledge of nations, cultures or societies beyond the U.S.; the recognition of how interaction, interdependence and inequity among diverse geographical, social, political, or economic systems have shaped historical and contemporary global challenges and opportunities; and the skills needed to engage with the responsibilities of informed citizenship in a complex, interdependent and changing world.

2) The course itself should:

• Examine nations, cultures and societies beyond the U.S. historically or in the present.
• Appreciate diverse human ideas and traditions.
• Understand forms of and sources of interaction, interdependence and inequity at the local and global levels.

The syllabus should provide a sense of how these three criteria are addressed in the course. The course description, goals, content, readings, assignments, and projects as detailed in the syllabus should clearly reflect these key course criteria.

A central element of any Global Scholar course is an emphasis on interaction and interdependence at the local and global levels (criteria c above). This can be difficult both for students to understand and for instructors to incorporate in their course.  Global Scholar courses provide students with opportunities to grapple with interdependence, complexity and in connection. For some this interdependence is best exemplified by systems thinking.

“The real system is interconnected.  No part of the human race is separate either from other human beings or from the global ecosystem. It will not be possible in this integrated world for your heart to succeed if your lungs fail, or for your company to succeed if your workers fail, or for the rich in Los Angeles to succeed if the poor in Los Angeles fail, or for Europe to succeed if Africa fails, or for the global economy to succeed if the global environment fails.” –  Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems, December 2008

3)  Adapt at least two of the Global Citizenship / Scholar Student Learning Outcomes (from the eight listed below) to the specific course and list them in the syllabus among the course student learning outcomes. See Writing Global Learning Outcomes for additional guidance and examples.

1. Students will gain knowledge of global systems, movements, institutions of cooperation and / or fundamental international agreements.
2. Students will acquire knowledge of and appreciation for diverse beliefs, ideas, traditions and / or geographical, social, political or economic systems.
3. Students will examine how diversity in value systems and cultures and / or inequities among geographical, social, political, or economic systems have shaped past and / or contemporary global challenges and opportunities.
4. Students will be able to recognize the construction of identity as shaped by cultural heritage and / or patterns of power or privilege.
5. Students will gain competency or familiarity with different forms of intercultural communication.
6. Students will recognize diverse methodological or disciplinary lenses used to examine global challenges, past or present.
7. Students will recognize the connections, past or present, between personal experiences, local action and global impact.
8. Students will critically, creatively, independently and / or collaboratively engage with global challenges and opportunities.