Student Learning Outcomes

Student learning is the core of WNC’s mission and the college celebrates this importance with institution-wide student learning outcomes. The WNC Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) guide all courses, programs, and degrees offered by WNC.

SLOs one through six provide the structure for general education and alignment for academic program outcomes; SLO seven provides a connection for career preparation emphases.

General education provides a broad educational foundation that is essential to meeting educational, social, personal, and career goals. WNC’s general education curriculum consists of rigorous, interrelated academic experiences that introduce students to diverse ways of thinking and understanding their world. Through a range of connected learning experiences, general education introduces students to a breadth of knowledge that complements and prepares students for the depth provided in a completed degree program.

Upon completing a degree at WNC, students must demonstrate:

1. WORKING KNOWLEDGE– Identify, describe, and apply information, theories, methodologies and approaches from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities/arts.
2. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION – Write effective projects, papers, and reports.
3. QUANTITATIVE LITERACY – Present accurate calculations and symbolic operations, and explain how such calculations and operations are used in either the specific field of study or in interpreting information in other fields.
4. INFORMATION LITERACY – Locate, evaluate, and appropriately use information from multiple resources to complete projects, activities, and papers.
5. DIVERSITY AND SOCIETY – Describe diverse historical and/or contemporary positions on selected democratic values or practices.
6. CRITICAL THINKING – Integrate knowledge and skills from the study of sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and the humanities/arts to think critically about and develop solutions to contemporary and/or enduring problems.
7. CAREER PREPARATION – Identify, describe, and apply information in the discipline or career area of their choice sufficient for further study and/ or demonstrate competencies required to succeed in the workplace.