The Stevens General Education program establishes a set of educational outcomes that are tied to the Stevens mission. These outcomes are to be achieved by all Stevens undergraduates, irrespective of their degree programs, through successful completion of associated General Education courses.
1.0 General Education Learning Outcomes
The mission of Stevens Institute of Technology is:
To inspire, nurture and educate leaders in tomorrow’s technology-centric environment while contributing to the solution of the most challenging problems of our time.
The corresponding General Education outcomes that tie to this mission statement are:
Graduates are effective communicators.
Graduates have a breadth of knowledge in the humanities, the natural and social sciences
Graduates have strong critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills.
Graduates have basic computer literacy.
Graduates are leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset
These outcomes are further elaborated as follows:
1. Graduates are effective communicators
1.1. Can create clear, concise and thorough written communications appropriate for the targeted audience.
1.2. Effective in public speaking, in speaking to small groups, and in speaking to individuals.
2. Graduates have a Breadth of Knowledge in the Humanities, the Natural and Social Sciences
2.1. Can demonstrate knowledge of fundamental concepts in specific topics related to the humanities and social sciences.
2.2. Can demonstrate proficiency in evidence-based science by: making observations, constructing experiments, analyzing and interpreting data, and rigorously testing hypotheses.
2.3. Can apply ethical, historical, philosophical and cultural perspectives to examine a given topic.
3. Graduates have strong critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills
3.1. Can formulate and solve optimization problems.
3.2. Can create and test statistical hypotheses.
3.3. Can apply Data Science to formulate and solve problems.
4. Graduates have a basic computer literacy
4.1. Given a problem, can sketch a solution design as pseudo-code or a flowchart.
4.2. Given a design, can implement as a program.
4.3 Can use an IDDE (Integrated Design & Development Environment) to create, debug and execute a program.
5. Graduates are leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset
5.1. Is a leader who can identify opportunities and create extraordinary value.
5.2. Is a leader who can motivate teams establish plans, and manage conflicts within teams.
5.3. Is collaborative and inclusive; can contribute on diverse teams where the leadership role is shared.
2.0 Course Alignment with Outcomes
General Education has historically been managed at the offered course level by school and college faculty committees, with institute-level oversight. The courses that address the General Education program outcomes differ by school/college. The alignment between outcomes and courses are shown in Tables 1-4.
3.0 Assessment and Evaluation Methodology
Achievement of program outcomes is demonstrated:
By direct assessment of students’ accomplishments of course outcomes, as determined by the course instructor, and
By indirect assessment using students’ self-perceptions, as indicated in the Student Survey.
These two numerical evaluations are recorded in the Student Performance Assessment Data (SPAD) form and are supplemented by the Instructor Course Evaluation (ICE) form. The ICE form is used by individual instructors to record planned improvements at the course level.
The aggregated data is used to plan and prioritize improvements at the program level.
Annually, a General Education Program Assessment report is compiled. The report contains recommendations for consideration of, and action by, faculty curriculum management committees in their continuous curriculum improvement deliberations.