Each course must contain two student outcomes – one that must be a full outcome and one that can be either full or partial. The decision on the second outcome is also a department choice when the course is delivered in many sections by many faculty.

The requirements for full and partial designation are specified in each rubric. The rubrics contain a set of elements (rows) and at the top of the rubrics are the rules specifying how many elements must be assessed for full or partial designation. For example, in the Social and Behavioral Science rubric there are 8 elements (rows in the rubric) and for full designation you need to include 5 in your course. For partial designation you need to include 3 elements in your course. Regardless of whether you choose a full or partial second outcome, the outcome needs to be assessed.

There are four additional important differences between the full and partial summarized in the table below.

1. The syllabus must at minimum contain mention of all full student-learning outcomes, while for the partial outcomes you must not include them in the syllabus.
2. If you want a student to select your course to satisfy 1 of the 12 outcomes, it must be a full outcome. Partial outcomes do not count toward the 40-credit general education requirement. Students cannot add partial outcomes from multiple courses to make a full outcome.
3. If your course has 2 full outcomes, then students can satisfy 2 of the 12 outcomes with one course. Each 3-credit course counts for only 3 of the 40 required general education credits, however, so if students take a course with two full learning outcomes then the student will have 3 free general education credits that can be taken in any general education course.
4. Students will see only the full outcomes when searching for General Education classes in the course catalog, General Education website, and eCampus.

Next Step: Once you have decided on the second outcome, you must specify the elements of the outcomes that you will assess.