Missouri State-West Plains' assessment is guided by the Transparency Framework developed by the National Institute of Learning Outcomes and Assessment.
The Aim of General Education
The aim of General Education at Missouri State University is to develop people capable
of making thoughtful choices that lead to creative and productive lives and to responsible
participation in society. The Goals for Learning in General Education is that portion
of the curriculum in which the University directly addresses the knowledge, skills,
habits, and dispositions of educated persons. General Education at Missouri State
provides for learning that educated persons will use throughout their lives in their
many roles and communities. To prepare students for a lifetime of important choices,
General Education has at least the following goals and outcomes for learning:
Identify and follow through on personally and socially relevant problems and reasonable
solutions to those problems.
Identify relevant information sources, make reasoned choices among those sources,
and follow where those sources lead with an open-mind.
Justify conclusions reached in the analysis of information.
Analyze evidence, statements, alternative viewpoints, graphics, and other forms of
information.
Develop creative and novel solutions to personally and socially relevant problems.
Take account of novel, alternative, contradictory, and even radical viewpoints in
creating new ideas, products, or solutions appropriate to the domain or subject matter.
Demonstrate consideration of context, audience, and purpose with a clear focus on
the assigned tasks (e.g., the writing aligns with audience, purpose, and context).
Demonstrate consistent use of important conventions particular to specific disciplines
and writing tasks, including organization, content, presentation, and stylistic choices.
Correctly use language that conveys meaning to readers.
Use writing for inquiry, learning, and thinking to find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize
appropriate primary and secondary sources and integrate their own ideas with those
of others.
Convey the central message clearly and consistently, using supporting material.
Demonstrate clearly and consistently an organizational pattern (specific introduction
and conclusion, sequenced material within the body, and transitions) within the presentation.
Demonstrate language choices that support the effectiveness of the communication and
are appropriate to the intended audience(s).
Employ interesting and effective delivery techniques (e.g., posture, gesture, eye
contact, and vocal expressiveness).
Employ supporting materials (e.g., explanations, examples, illustrations, statistics,
analogies, and quotations from relevant authorities) in a manner that establishes
the speaker’s credibility/authority on the topic.
Goal 5: Students will be able to reason and solve quantitative problems from a wide
array of contexts and everyday life situations; understand and create logical arguments
supported by quantitative evidence; and clearly communicate those arguments in a variety
of formats (e.g., words, tables, and mathematical equations) as appropriate.
Interpret and communicate information presented in mathematical forms (e.g., equations,
functions, graphs, diagrams, tables, or words).
Convert relevant information into various mathematical forms (e.g., equations, functions,
graphs, diagrams, tables, or words).
Calculate numerically and symbolically to solve a problem.
Analyze data quantitatively as the basis for competent, valid, and reliable inferences
in order to draw reasonable and appropriate conclusions.
Use appropriate mathematical tools to explicitly describe assumptions, mathematical
relationships, and conclusions.
Express evidence in support of an argument by employing an appropriate form of presentation
(e.g., equations, functions, graphs, diagrams, tables, or words).
