General Education Areas and Learning Outcomes

Continuing students will see GE and SFSU Studies areas in their degree progress reports (DPRs) with the pre-fall 2025 areas and labels. They will continue to be able to search for courses in the online class schedule using old labels and see lists of courses in the degree planner under the those labels. They should consult the front page of their degree progress report to view their GE bulletin year. In addition to using the online class schedule search, they can also reference the bulletin to find courses that meet GE for their bulletin year.

With the removal of area E from GE and the reduction of area C from three courses to two, some continuing students received a waiver for those requirements effective fall 25. Specifically, any active student in spring 25 who had not completed an area E course and who was not enrolled in an area E course in spring 25 had that requirement waived in their DPR. Similarly, a third area C course was waived for some continuing students to effectively limit the area C requirement to one C1 course and one C2 course. Students who have completed two or more courses in just one area of C did not receive a waiver because they still need to complete one course in the other area of C. Students who receive a waiver will see a note about it in the GE area in their DPR.

Requests to certify a course for GE, SF State Studies, or American Institutions are proposed in the course record in CourseLeaf and reviewed by the Baccalaureate Requirements Certification Committee (BRCC), with faculty representatives from each college.

There are expectations associated with each GE, SF State Studies, or American Institutions course. You’ll find these expectations on the Course Expectations and Learning Outcomes page. Please read them and design the course with these expectations in mind.

In the course record, you will be asked to respond to three prompts for each learning outcome. Answers to these prompts should closely align with the learning outcome; the more focused and specific the answers, the easier it will be for BRCC to determine that the course will fulfill the learning outcome.

The prompts focus on the materials you will use to teach the learning outcome, the activities students will do to develop skills or understanding associated with the learning outcome, and the student work and approach you will use to assess student learning of the outcome.

For each learning outcome, you will be asked to respond to these three prompts:

1. In several sentences, please explain how you as an instructor will provide the foundational knowledge and skills that align with the goals of this SLO.
   • What materials (e.g., readings, lectures, movies, presentations, laboratories, performance techniques) will you provide to students so that they can meet this SLO?
   • Do not replicate your syllabus here, but only include materials directly aligned to the SLO in the appropriate part of the proposal.
2. What specific activities will the students engage in so that they can build the skills or understanding that will allow them to meet this SLO?
   • These might include reflections, discussions, essays, short writing pieces, quizzes, projects, blog posts, laboratory experiments, performances, presentations.
   • Be sure to describe at least one activity and how it aligns with the specific learning outcome.
3. Describe the graded assignment(s) or student work that you will use to assess how well students have met the learning outcome.
   • Be sure to explain how the student work maps to the learning outcome and demonstrates that students have met its goals.
   • Please include at least one example of a prompt or question that you would ask the students to respond to.
   • We do not need your entire assignment instruction sheet or grading rubric, just the section(s) that specifically align with the learning outcome.
   • Indicate how much all graded assignment(s)/activities aligned with the SLO will count towards the final grade.

Two major obligations must be met for courses that meet GE, SF State Studies, or American Institutions requirements. The syllabus must include information about these requirements, and the department must assess student learning in the course when requested as part of the recertification process.

Syllabus Requirements

Courses approved in an area of GE, SF State Studies, or American Institutions must include in the course syllabus:

1. The area of general education, SF State Studies, or American Institutions that the course fulfills, i.e. This course satisfies General Education Area 3UD Arts and Humanities and Global Perspectives for SF State Studies.
2. The university-approved student learning outcomes (SLOs) for each of the areas fulfilled by the course (see learning outcomes section)
3. The activities and/or assignments the students complete to demonstrate they have met the SLOs.

It is the responsibility of the department, school, college, or program that offers the course to ensure that instructors of the course are aware of the GE, SF State Studies, or American Institutions areas fulfilled by the course and that the syllabus reflects this information.

Thank you for communicating to students what they can expect to learn in your course!

Participation in student learning assessment for recertification:

Once a course has been approved for GE, SF State Studies, or American Institutions, it will undergo periodic recertification. The standard interval between reviews is five years. The department, school, college, or program that offers the course is responsible for conducting the assessment and submitting the requested recertification report.  

Calls for recertification will be announced in the spring semester, and departments will engage in that work during the following academic year. Please be aware that anonymous examples of student work may be requested as evidence that learning outcomes are being met. If no report is received for a course, it will no longer satisfy the requirement being recertified.  The department may decide to request certification for the course at a future date as a new request.

Active scheduling required for GE courses:

There is an expectation that courses in GE are offered on a frequent basis for student planning. Courses approved for GE that have not been offered within a five-year period shall have their GE status removed and the course will be deactivated. The department may decide to reactivate the course and request certification at a future date as a new request.

Substantive Course Revisions:

Any course that undergoes substantial revision to titles or descriptions requires reevaluation to retain an existing area of GE.

Recognizing that "race" is a historically and socially constructed category, American ethnic and racial minority populations are defined as those that are:

• excluded from the dominant majority community or culture;
• excluded from sustained influence on, access to, and participation in structures and institutions in the United States and the privilege of power deriving from such exclusions;
• identify with or see themselves as members of a distinct ethnic or racial minority group;
• racialized as members of that (or another racialized) group and as such, have been systematically oppressed by the dominant society's institutions and ideologies.

AERM Course Expectations:

Courses approved for American Ethnic and Racial Minorities should:

• present views of one or more groups of American Ethnic and Racial Minorities both from the perspective of the group and as an integral part of American society;
• encourage the study of values, attitudes, behaviors and/or creative endeavors that acknowledge and respect the dignity of all groups; and
• present a thorough analysis of the historical experiences, social stratification processes, political activism, basic cultural patterns, aesthetic experiences and/or ideologies, and include one or more of the oppressed groups of color: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, US Latinas/Latinos, South West Asian/North African Americans, and people of mixed racialized heritages.

AERM Learning Outcomes:

After successfully completing a course designated as fulfilling the American Ethnic and Racial Minorities requirement, students will be able to:

1. Identify one of the historical, political, or cultural experiences of one or more US ethnic/racial minority groups.
2. Demonstrate the cultural awareness necessary to be citizens in an ethnically and racially diverse nation.

ESCA Course Expectations:

Courses approved for Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action should:

• Encourage students to examine how their personal activities impact the environment, and as a result affect the health and well-being of themselves and society.
• Analyze how the well-being of human society is dependent on ecosystems and the materials and services they provide to humanity.
• Explain the interconnectivity of economic prosperity, social equity and environmental quality.
• Identify the most serious environmental problems globally and locally and explain their underlying causes and possible consequences.
• Provide opportunities to create models, products, designs or creative representations that highlight an understanding of the connections between people, processes and the environment.

ESCA Learning Outcomes:

After successfully completing a course designated as fulfilling the Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action requirement, students will be able to:

1. Analyze the problems, impacts, and injustices of environmental issues and climate change.
2. Identify strategies and potential solutions to address the root causes and impacts of environmental and climate injustices.

GP Course Expectations:

Courses approved for Global Perspectives should:

• help students recognize that one’s view of the world is not universally shared and that others may have profoundly different perceptions;
• analyze similarities and differences among human experiences and perspectives in different parts of the world and help students draw conclusions about the significance and consequences of these similarities and differences;
• help students understand how the world’s systems are interdependent and how local economic and social patterns have global impact beyond their effects on individual lives;
• describe factors that contribute to or threaten the well-being of individuals and/or communities in several areas of the world, or factors that did so in the past.

GP Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing a course designated as fulfilling the Global Perspectives requirement, students will be able to:

1. Analyze similarities and differences among human experiences or perspectives in at least two different parts of the world, in a contemporary or historical context
2. Describe how local and global systems are interconnected, and how economic and social patterns influence individuals and communities across various levels

SJ Course Expectations:

Courses approved for Social Justice must address:

• social constructions of identity, hierarchy, power, and privilege;
• community resistance and empowerment;
• social justice.

The social constructions may be related to variations among humans, including such factors as abilities, ages, cultures, genders, geographic locations, histories, immigration statuses, languages, national and ethnic identities, racializations, religions, sexualities, socio-economic classes.

SJ Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing a course designated as fulfilling the Social Justice requirement, students will be able to:

1. Analyze and evaluate how social justice principles operate to promote or challenge constructions of identity, hierarchy, power, privilege.
2. Identify and examine ways in which individuals can contribute to social justice across local, national and/or global communities.

US History Course Expectations

Course approved for USH must include:

• significant events occurring in the entire area now included in the United States of America during a period of “a minimum time space of approximately 100 years,” including the relationships among regions within that area and with external regions and states;
• the role of major ethnic and social groups in such events and the contexts in which the events have occurred, with attention to the multiple heritages of US culture, including Native American peoples and cultures;
• the events presented within a framework which illustrates the continuity of American experience and its derivation from other cultures including consideration of three or more of the following: politics, economics, social movements, and geography; and
• basic American values and ideals, including freedom; equality of opportunity, equality before the law, equality of moral regard for each other; and social fairness.

US History Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing a course designated as fulfilling the American Institutions and Ideals (USH) requirement, students will be able to:

1. Describe the interaction and evolution of economic, political, social and cultural processes in the development of the United States and basic American values;
2. evaluate information from a variety of sources and use this information to formulate well- reasoned responses to major ideas, concerns, and debates in the study of US history;
3. describe the role of major ethnic and social groups in such events and the contexts in which the events have occurred, with attention to the multiple heritages of US culture

USG and CSLG Course Expectations

Courses approved for the US and CA government requirements must include:

• the political philosophies of the framers of the Constitution and the nature and operation of United States political institutions and processes under that Constitution as amended and interpreted;
• basic concepts in political theory such as power and influence; political structure and process; government, its legitimacy and authority; and their application to understanding the US system, particularly the roles of law and the Constitution and the relationship between the two;
• the rights and obligations of citizens established under the Constitution, in the context of basic American values and ideals, including freedom and self-reliance; equality; social fairness; democracy, including issues of participation and minority rights;
• the constitution of the State of California within the framework of evolution of Federal-State relations and the nature and processes of State and local government under that Constitution; and
• contemporary relationships of State and local government, the resolution of conflicts and the establishment of cooperative processes under the constitutions of both the State and Nation, and the political processes involved.

USG and CSLG Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing a course designated as fulfilling the US and CA Government requirement, students will be able to:

1. Describe US and/or California political institutions and practices, including governmental structures, federal and/or state constitutions, and situate them in the cultural, historical and sociopolitical contexts.
2. evaluate information from a variety of sources and use this information to formulate well- reasoned responses to major issues of governance as they affect the US and/or California;
3. Describe the contributions of diverse peoples and cultures to our political processes and a constitutional system which protects minority rights;
4. identify the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, including the importance of participation in the political process, and other ethical issues that arise in relation to US and California political institutions and practices.