Student Learning Outcomes

The Grand Challenge Learning Initiative has established the following Student Learning Outcomes, which are incorporated into every GCL class. Our learning outcomes are designed to align with the campus-wide goals of building students' abilities to think critically, solve problems, generate new ideas and create knowledge, make connections between academic disciplines, respect and understand differences, and develop as citizens and leaders.

1: Intellectual Reasoning and Knowledge
Students in Grand Challenge Learning will acquire broad, interdisciplinary knowledge in one grand challenge area (Health & Wellness, Inequality & Cultural Understanding, or Sustainability, Energy, & Environment) and will understand how and why these issues transcend disciplinary boundaries.

2: Creative Inquiry and Discovery
Students in Grand Challenge Learning will apply their knowledge of the grand challenge areas by identifying the level of complexity involved in the grand challenge issue, recognizing ways to address the challenge, and taking an active role in demonstrating their learning and proposed solutions through various interactive strategies. 

3: Effective Leadership and Community Engagement
Students in Grand Challenge Learning will bridge the gap between theory and practice to apply what they have learned in collaboration with faculty, other students and/or community groups, including groups that consist of individuals outside the student’s major area of study and/or college.

4: Social Awareness and Cultural Understanding
Students in the Grand Challenge Learning will be able to critically reflect on the Grand Challenge areas through encountering and writing about a range of social and cultural perspectives that illustrative reasoned arguments about the role of these differences in the grand challenge itself.

5: Global Consciousness
Students in Grand Challenge Learning will understand the complexity of the grand challenge areas in relation to how they are interdependent, interdisciplinary, and affected by local and global systems.