Every student completing the CSU Inquiry Core Curriculum will have been provided the opportunity to develop all of the Core Competencies. These competencies explicate what it means to be a well-rounded person capable of contributing to society and achieving personal fulfillment.

Every requirement in the CSU Inquiry Core Curriculum includes 1-3 required core competencies to be developed and assessed in the courses fulfilling that requirement. In general, the core competencies associated with a requirement track at least one of the OT36 learning outcomes associated with the requirement as well. Thus, in many cases, embedding the core competencies into the course also embeds the OT36 learning outcome.

Each Core Competency is listed below with 5-6 learning outcomes that further explicate the core competency. These learning outcomes are largely drawn from the validated work of the American Association of Colleges & Universities’ Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) initiative. AAC&U VALUE Rubrics, or alternative rubrics, are provided for each core competency. These rubrics will be used in the assessment of the core curriculum program, and you are encouraged to use them as a basis for establishing your own student evaluation guidelines, but there is no requirement they are used for grading purposes.

In designing a course for the core curriculum, you will need to select 2 learning outcomes for each required competency that you will most fully and directly develop and assess.

Aligning your course with a core competency is fundamentally a matter of embedding the learning outcomes in the course in such a way that you both help students develop the competency and assess their achievement of it. There are no specific requirements for how you embed the outcomes nor how their assessment contributes to the overall course grade.

Written Communication

Writing is a foundational skill for a learned person. Effective writing both helps to better structure ones’ own thinking and communicate ones’ ideas to others. The development of effective written communication is an iterative process that involves learning to work in many genres and styles, cultivating a sensitivity to audience and purpose, and developing the skills to structure and compose texts.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing written communication, students will be able to…

1. Craft written work that is appropriate to the context, audience, and purpose of the task(s)
2. Use appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to explore ideas within the context of the discipline and shape the whole work
3. Consistently use important conventions particular to the discipline and/or writing task(s)
4. Consistently use credible, relevant sources to support ideas that are situated within the discipline and genre of the writing
5. Compose text with clarity and fluency, making use of appropriate syntactical, grammatical, and mechanical conventions

Written Communication VALUE Rubric

Oral Communication

The communication of ideas verbally is an essential skill for humans in society. Like written communication, the process of composing a formal oral presentation helps to structure one’s own thoughts and communicate them to others. Distinctly, oral communication emphasizes the use of verbal and nonverbal delivery techniques and the use of presentational aids to enhance the ability to connect with an audience.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing oral communication, students will be able to…

1. Group and sequence ideas and supporting material such that the organization reflects the purpose of the presentation, is cohesive, and accomplishes its goal(s).
2. Use unbiased vocabulary, terminology, and sentence structure appropriate to the topic and audience.
3. Use posture, gestures, eye contact, and voice to enhance the effectiveness of a presentation and to make the speaker appear polished and confident.
4. Provide credible, relevant, and convincing information (e.g., explanations, analogies, quotations, statistics, examples, contexts) that support the principal ideas of the presentation or establishes the presenter’s credibility on the topic.
5. Articulate a precise, compelling, and memorable purpose or main point of a presentation.

Oral Communication VALUE Rubric

Information Literacy

Information literacy is a fundamental set of integrated abilities and mindsets which enable a person to engage with information to answer questions and solve problems. In the contemporary world, information is widely available and thus information literacy is about mindsets and strategies for identifying when and what types of information are needed, how to usefully discover and evaluate information, and understanding the fundamental role of information and information users in the creation of knowledge.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing information literacy, students will be able to…

1. Effectively define the scope of a research question, determining key concepts and perspectives.
2. Select and utilize appropriate tools to search for different types of information with a spirit of inquiry and discovery.
3. Strategically search for information and assess results, considering the multiple criteria relevant to evaluating the information in context.
4. Organize, synthesize, and articulate information from sources to generate new knowledge and/or achieve a specific purpose with clarity and depth.
5. Use information ethically, providing complete and accurate citations; paraphrase, summarize, and quote sources with fidelity to the original context; distinguish between common knowledge and ideas requiring attribution; and demonstrate understanding of the ethical and legal restrictions on the use of published, confidential, and/or proprietary information.

Information Literacy VALUE Rubric

Quantitative Literacy

Quantitative literacy is a habit of mind and set of skills that allow one to work comfortably with numerical data. Individuals with strong quantitative reasoning skills possess the ability to reason and solve quantitative problems from a wide array of authentic contexts and everyday life situations. They understand and can create sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence, and they can clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats (using words, tables, graphics, mathematical equations, etc. as appropriate).

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing quantitative literacy, students will be able to…

1. Explain information presented in mathematical forms, such as equations, graphics, diagrams, tables, and words.
2. Convert relevant information into various mathematical forms.
3. Calculate relevant information using various mathematical formulas and methods.
4. Make judgments and draw appropriate conclusions based on the quantitative analysis of data while recognizing the limits of this analysis.
5. Make and evaluate important assumptions in estimation, modeling, and data analysis.

Quantitative Literacy VALUE Rubric

Intercultural Knowledge & Competence

Living in a global and diverse world, an essential skill of any person is the ability to deftly navigate interactions in a variety of social and cultural contexts. Intercultural Knowledge & Competence consists of the set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effect and appropriate interaction across cultural contexts.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing intercultural knowledge & competence, students will be able to…

1. Articulate insights about their own cultural rules and biases.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of elements important to members of another culture in relation to its history, values, politics, communication styles, economy, or beliefs and practices.
3. Interpret intercultural experience from their own and others’ worldview and act in a supportive manner that recognizes the feelings of another cultural group.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of cultural differences in verbal and non-verbal communication and negotiate a shared understanding based on those differences.
5. Ask complex questions of other cultures and articulate answers to these questions that reflect multiple cultural perspectives.
6. Initiate and develop interactions with culturally different others while suspending value judgments in such interactions.

Intercultural Knowledge & Competence VALUE Rubric

Critical Thinking

The ability to think for oneself and not rush to judgment is a hallmark of an educated person. As a habit of mind, critical thinking defines this ability, allowing a person to engage in a comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion. Critical thinking is necessarily an active process, requiring persons to be given the opportunity to conceptualize, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in various forms and from various sources.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing critical thinking, students will be able to…

1. Critically state, describe, and consider an issue or problem.
2. Use information from sources with enough interpretation and evaluation to develop a comprehensive analysis or synthesis.
3. Systematically and methodically analyze assumptions and carefully evaluate the relevance of contexts when presenting a position.
4. State a specific position (i.e., perspective, thesis, or hypothesis) that is thoughtful, recognizes complexities, and acknowledges limitations.
5. State conclusions and related outcomes (consequences and implications) logically and in a priority order.

Critical Thinking VALUE Rubric

Digital Literacy

Our world is very much a digital world, where many aspects of our lives require familiarity and comfort in working with digital technologies. In this world, individuals who are digitally literate are able to identify when digital tools are appropriate to a task, which digital tool is appropriate, proficiently use the appropriate tool for the task, effectively communicate with digital tools, and engage with digital tools safely and ethically.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing digital literacy, students will be able to…

1. Engage with appropriate digital tools and platforms to gather needed information.
2. Use digital tools to effectively communicate and collaborate with others.
3. Use appropriate digital tools to convey information and present work, respecting both disciplinary conventions and conventions of the digital medium.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of safe online practices and ethical and legal use of digital information and technologies.
5. Demonstrate use of strategies to seek out resources, problem solve, and troubleshoot when learning new digital technologies.
6. Use digital tools to bolster good academic and professional habits, and manage their data on personal devices and online.

Digital Literacy Rubric

Collaboration

Collaboration defines the 21st-century workplace, being consistently identified by employers as a top-3 most in-demand skill for new graduates. Additionally, educational research demonstrates the value of collaboration as a tool to enhance learning. An effective collaborator has the knowledge and characteristics of a well-functioning team and the dispositions and skills to be an effective contributor to collaborative endeavors.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing collaboration, students will be able to…

1. Describe the characteristics of a well-functioning team.
2. Facilitates the contributions of fellow team members.
3. Fairly and responsibly contributes individual work to the collaborative endeavor.
4. Fosters a constructive team climate.
5. Give and receive feedback within their own team, and meaningfully process feedback to grow as a collaborator.

Collaboration Rubric

Ethical Reasoning

Knowledge is power. But power can be wielded for good or ill. While bolstering knowledge is an essential part of a university education, as social institutions, universities have a responsibility to promote the socially beneficial use of the knowledge and power that comes with that education. The competency of ethical reasoning embodies this responsibility by emphasizing the development of ethical self-awareness, a sensitivity to the ethical dimensions of situations and decisions, and the ability to make ethical decisions through the application of various ethical perspectives.

Learning Outcomes

Note: Because the scope and focus of ethical reasoning development can vary significantly across disciplines and professions, the core competency of ethical reasoning is expected to be embedded in all major programs and assessed through major program assessment. While some courses in the core curriculum may be used to develop and assess ethical reasoning, major programs are also permitted to make use of courses or learning experiences outside of the core.

Upon successful completion of a course emphasizing ethical reasoning, students will be able to…

1. Recognize their own ethical core beliefs and how they shape ethical conduct and thinking.
2. Understand ethical perspectives, theories, and/or concepts.
3. Recognize, evaluate, and connect ethical issues.
4. Apply ethical perspectives, theories, or concepts to a decision-making situation.
5. Evaluate alternative ethical perspectives within a decision-making situation.

Ethical Reasoning VALUE Rubric