General Education

Why General Education?

General Education provides students, regardless of major, a breadth of knowledge and opportunities to integrate that knowledge into a solid foundation that serves them in their future education, careers, and lives as citizens in a democratic republic. It is designed to liberate and empower students, developing in them agency as they appreciate the “ways of knowing” of the liberal arts and sciences, gain important quantitative and communicative skills, better understand the world outside the United States, and practice applying knowledge in new contexts. SLCC’s General Education program uses reflective ePortfolios as a signature pedagogy so students can showcase their learning and become the kinds of reflective practitioners that are valued by the marketplace and the wider world.

The General Education Learning Outcomes mirror the College-Wide Unified Learning Outcomes. Through the General Education program, students at SLCC will:

• Students communicate effectively. This includes developing critical literacies—reading, writing, speaking, listening, visual understanding—that they can apply in various contexts; organizing and presenting ideas and information orally, visually, and in writing for various purposes and audiences; understanding and using the elements of effective communication in interpersonal, small group, and mass settings.
• Students develop quantitative literacies necessary for their chosen field of study. This includes interpreting, calculating, and communicating with quantitative evidence; collecting, interpreting, analyzing, and visualizing data.
• Students think critically. This includes reasoning effectively from available evidence; taking imaginative and complex positions in their work; engaging in reflective thinking and expression; demonstrating higher-order skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation; problem solving; and applying interdisciplinary and scientific methods to the inquiry process.
• Students express themselves creatively. This includes engaging in the creative process to produce unique artwork, designs, or performances; analyzing, interpreting, and critiquing creative works; and producing a unique and professional General Education ePortfolio.
• Students develop civic literacy and the capacity to be community-engaged learners who act in mutually beneficial ways with community partners. This includes producing learning artifacts indicating understanding of the political, historical, economic or sociological aspects of social change and continuity; thinking critically about—and weighing the evidence surrounding—issues important to local, national, or global communities; participating in a broad range of community-engagement and/or service-learning courses for community building and an enhanced academic experience.
• Students develop the knowledge and skills to work with others in a professional and constructive manner. This includes engaging with a diverse set of others to produce professional work, contributing to team meetings and performances, making individual contributions outside of team meetings and performances, fostering a constructive team climate, and creating fair and equitable roles based on team members’ diverse backgrounds and skills.
• Students develop information literacy. This includes the demonstrated ability to find, synthesize, assess, create, engage with, and cite information in a professional and ethical manner; to conceive that the research process is reflective and iterative; and to understand how information is produced and valued. These abilities and dispositions are rooted in the Framework for Information Literacy developed and adopted by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).
• Students develop computer literacy. This includes demonstrating the ability to create, name, organize, save and retrieve data and/or information in an electronic file management system; Using online and electronic resources to communicate, collaborate, and retrieve information; Using a variety of technology to support personal, academic, and professional life-long learning and productivity; Determining when technology is useful and selecting the appropriate tool(s) and technology resources to address a variety of tasks and problems; Advocating and applying security principles and ethical behaviors when using technology and identify the consequences of misuse.

General Education ePortfolio

SLCC’s ePortfolio is a course-level requirement in all general education courses at SLCC. Students in each general education course will be asked to put at least one signature assignment into his/her ePortfolio. As students take general education courses, they will build a showcase of their breadth and depth of knowledge and skills.

Instructors will also ask students to reflect on the signature assignment in the portfolio, on its connection to other general education assignments, on the students’ own intellectual growth, on the connection between general education and the program of study, and/or on progress toward SLCC’s college-wide learning outcomes. Moreover, the general education ePortfolio will allow students to document goals, extracurricular activities, and work in their program and elective courses.

While instructors are responsible for making assignments, helping students complete them successfully, and grading them, faculty are not responsible for helping the student build the ePortfolio itself. SLCC has ePortfolio labs with expert staff, workshops and online tutorials that can help. For more information about this help and the overall general education ePortfolio initiative, visit www.slcc.edu/gened/eportfolio.

General Education Requirements by Degree

Associate of Science (AS)/Associate of Arts (AA) Degree General Education Requirements

Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degree General Education Requirements 

Specialized Associates Degrees: Associate of Pre-Engineering Degree (APE) and Associate of Pre-Science (APS) General Education Requirements

The Associate of Pre-Engineering (APE) and Associate of Pre-Science (APS) degrees are specialized associate degree that requires reduced general education requirements. Students will be required to satisfy remaining general education requirements for a baccalaureate degree at the transfer (receiving) institution or complete the General Education Certificate of Completion at SLCC. Unless specified by program, courses can meet multiple degree requirements. SLCC engineering students should meet with the SLCC Engineering Advisor as well as a transfer advisor from the receiving institution regarding general education requirements specific to Engineering majors.

Certificate of Completion

Certificates of Completion contain clearly identifiable instructional components in communication, computation, and human relations. These are delivered in either stand-alone general education courses or embedded within other program courses.

Certificate of Completion in General Education

The Certificate of Completion in General Education meets the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) general education requirements as outlined in Board Policy R470. The Certificate provides verification to all USHE institutions that the student has satisfied all lower division general education requirements of an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree. This Certificate of Completion is embedded in all AS and AA degree programs.

Interstate Passport

The Interstate Passport enables successful transfer of a block of lower-level general education learning to other institutions participating in the Interstate Passport Network. Students who complete their Passport at Salt Lake Community College will not be required to repeat or take additional course work to meet lower-division general education requirements in the Passport’s nine areas when they transfer to any other Passport institution. Salt Lake Community College will begin transcripting the Interstate Passport following the Fall 2016 semester. Students with an interest in achieving the Passport should see our website at http://www.slcc.edu/gened/ and contact their academic advisor.

SLCC General Education Course Categories

Core Skills

Associate of Arts/Associate of Science

• Composition (EN)
    
• Quantitative Literacy (QL)
    
• American Institutions (AI)
    

Associate of Applied Science

• Quantitative Studies (QS)
    
• Communication (CM)
    
• Human Relations (HR)
    

Certificate of Completion

• Certificates of Completion contain clearly identifiable instructional components in communication, computation, and human relations. These are delivered in either stand-alone general education courses or embedded within other program courses.

Institutional Requirements

Associate of Arts/Associate of Science

• Communication (CM)
    
• International & Global (IG)
    
• Lifelong Wellness (LW)
    
  The Lifelong Wellness (LW) requirement can be fulfilled by completing a course with the (LW) designation or by submitting a DD 214 document from the military.

General Education Distribution Areas

AA and AS degrees at SLCC require students to take a total of five courses (15 credits) from the General Education Distribution Areas, with one course from each of the following areas: Fine Arts (FA), Humanities (HU), Life Sciences (LS), Physical Science (PS), and Social Sciences (SS). One of the courses must also be designated as a Diversity (DV) course. Diversity courses critically examine the history, contributions of and challenges confronting diverse groups within our multicultural society.

AAS degrees at SLCC require students to take one or two courses (3 to 6 credits) from the list of General Education Distribution Areas.

• Fine Arts (FA)
    
• Humanities (HU)
    
• Life Sciences (LS)
    
• Physical Science (PS)
    
• Social Science (SS)
    
• Diversity (DV)
    

Notice to Students in Prior Catalog Years

Effective 2018-2019 catalog, the Interdisciplinary (ID) and Student Choice Intensive (IN) categories were discontinued.

Students whose catalog year is prior to 2018-2019 should consult with their academic advisor if they have questions.