According to NILOA’s Transparency Framework, “ Student learning outcomes statements clearly state the expected knowledge, skills, attitudes, competencies, and habits of mind that students are expected to acquire at an institution of higher education”.
UWW defines three levels of learning outcomes students can be expected to achieve.
University Learning Outcomes
University learning outcomes are defined for undergraduate and graduate students. The Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) include the set of knowledge and skills all students acquire upon completion of a baccalaureate degree. The Master’s Level Education Learning Outcomes (MELOs) capture the knowledge and skills acquired by completing a graduate program.
UW-Whitewater's Baccalaureate Learning Outcomes (ELOs)
In 2018, UW-Whitewater reaffirmed the Essential Learning Outcomes from the Association of American Colleges and Universities as our baccalaureate learning outcomes for our institution. All students seeking a bachelor's degree are expected to achieve the UW-Whitewater Essential Learning Outcomes through their studies in general education, their major and minor, their elective courses, and through experiences gained in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.
These ELOs are:
- Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World
- Through study in the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts
- Intellectual and Practical Skills
- Inquiry and analysis
- Critical and creative thinking
- Written and oral communication
- Quantitative literacy
- Information literacy
- Teamwork and problem solving
- Personal and Social Responsibility
- Civic knowledge and engagement - local and global
- Intercultural knowledge and competence
- Ethical reasoning and action
- Foundations and skills for lifelong learning
- Integrative Learning
- Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized studies
The School of Graduate Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater oversees programs whose goal is to provide high quality, practitioner-oriented programs that use knowledge and skills acquired through baccalaureate degrees as a foundation for advanced preparation and professional development for careers in business and industry, education and human services. The graduate programs achieve this through provision of learner-centered processes which couple professional experiences with advanced knowledge and highly-refined analytic, communicative and functional skills such that their students are capable of performances that characterize the best practices of their profession.
Master's-Level Education Learning Outcomes (MELOs)
- Advanced abilities in gathering, investigating, documenting, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and synthesizing complex information from the discipline and its practice.
- Ability to apply discipline-specific skills (e.g., procedures, techniques, craft, technology and tool use) and knowledge (e.g., ideas, problems, concepts, vocabulary, history and theory of the discipline) to real-world contexts.
- Highly developed functional skills and behaviors necessary for maturing professionals including self-direction, problem-solving, decision-making, collaboration, and the capacity for networking and leadership.
- Writing skills that reflect advanced practice in professional contexts.
- Effective oral communication and interpersonal skills that support successful interaction with colleagues and professionally relevant constituents.
- A capacity to recognize ethical challenges relevant to disciplinary practice and the ability to articulate and justify a professional response.
- The ability to understand and respond effectively to the diverse interests and needs of domestic and global colleagues and constituents served by the discipline and its practice.
- Recognition of the need for continuous professional development through self-directed learning and on-going engagement with colleagues and other professionals.