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Minnesota State University, Mankato
Minnesota State University, Mankato

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General Education Outcome Assessment

Page address: https://web.mnsu.edu/assessment/gened/geassessment.html

State agencies, governmental bodies, disciplinary accrediting groups, and national and regional accrediting groups all require information about the learning outcomes of students at Minnesota State Mankato. More importantly, faculty in departments offering general education courses need to know if students are learning what is being taught in the general education courses. Additionally, the University needs to know if the general education program (not individual faculty or individual courses) is meeting its stated objectives. Finally, as with all assessment, the over-arching purpose is to improve student learning.  

The General Education Program and Student Learning Outcomes

The General Education program integrates a broad foundation of knowledge and skills with the study of contemporary concerns. The General Education curriculum goals are reflective of those capabilities essential for all college-educated adults facing the twenty-first century, including:

  • Skills needed for effective understanding and communication of ideas through reading, listening, critical and integrative thinking, writing, speaking, and technological literacy;
  • Exploration of various ways of knowing through study of the content, methods of inquiry and creative modes of a broad spectrum of disciplines;
  • Our common membership in the human community, coupled with awareness that we live in a diverse world;
  • The interrelatedness of human society and the natural environment and the ethical dimensions of political, social, and personal life; and
  • Development of responsibility for lifelong learning.

The General Education curriculum at Minnesota State Mankato has a unique relationship with the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum in that the two are intricately tied together. The completion of goal areas at Minnesota State Mankato is accepted as completion of the same goal areas within the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum. Students transferring from Minnesota State Mankato to another Minnesota public institution of higher education will have fulfilled the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum if they have completed 40 credits of required courses in the following ten goal areas of Minnesota State Mankato’s General Education curriculum: Communication, Critical Thinking, Natural Science, Mathematical/ Logical Reasoning, History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, Human Diversity, Global Perspective, Ethical and Civic Responsibility, and People and the Environment. The goal areas of Performance and Participation, First Year Experience and Information Technology are part of the General Education curriculum at Minnesota State Mankato but not goal areas in the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum.

General Education and Undergraduate Institutional Student Learning Outcomes

General Education Assessment Process

General Education Goal Area Assessment Cycle

[PDF] General Education Assessment Sampling Guidelines (35 KiB)

Goal Area Assessment Rubrics

Recent Goal Area Assessment Reports

 General Education Outcomes Assessment Ad-Hoc Advisory Committee