Boise State University
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

The following learning outcomes are designated for all students who attend the university.
University Learning Outcomes
Written Communication – Write effectively in multiple contexts, for a variety of audiences.
Oral Communication – Communicate effectively in speech, both as a speaker and listener.
Critical Inquiry – Engage in effective critical inquiry by defining problems, gathering and evaluating evidence, and determining the adequacy of argumentative discourse.
Ethics – Analyze ethical issues in personal, professional, and civic life and produce reasoned evaluations of competing value systems and ethical claims.
Diversity – Apply knowledge of diversity and systems of inequality to address social issues of local and global importance
Mathematics – Apply knowledge and the methods of reasoning characteristic of mathematics to solve college-level problems.
Natural, Physical, and Applied Sciences – Apply knowledge and the methods characteristic of scientific inquiry to think critically about and solve theoretical and practical problems about physical structures and processes.
Visual and Performing Arts – Apply knowledge and methods characteristic of visual and performing arts to explain and appreciate the significance of aesthetic products and creative activities.
Humanities – Apply knowledge and the methods of inquiry characteristic of humanities disciplines to interpret and produce texts expressive of the human condition.
Social Sciences – Apply knowledge and the methods of inquiry characteristic of the social sciences to explain and evaluate human behavior and institutions.

https://www.boisestate.edu/academics-uf/university-learning-outcomes/

The aspects of the university-wide learning outcomes that are sustainability-supportive include a focus on critical inquiry, understanding systems of inequality and addressing systems of global importance, a focus on civic engagement, and critical theory related to the human and natural systems relationship.

Currently, Boise State does not include a sustainability-focused University Learning Outcome (ULO) in its overall guidance, however it does require several Sustainability Supportive ULOs: Written Communication, Oral Communication, Critical Inquiry, Ethics, and Diversity. Additionally, based on the AASHE definition for Sustainability or Sustainability-related ULOs (student learning outcomes that explicitly focus on the concept of sustainability or the interdependence of ecological systems and social/economic systems), numerous academic programs include a Sustainability Learning Outcome (SLO) as part of their degrees.
Update: Out of 1,250 Program Learning Outcomes in graduate and undergraduate degrees, we identified 26 PLOs were identified as being require an understanding of the concept of sustainability as defined as the interdependence of social, economic, and environmental factors. This data was gathered from Institutional Research and reflects 2018-2020 information from these programs.

The graduates calculated from the programs selected are either a sustainability-focused program or have adopted sustainability-focused learning outcomes, with a broader understanding of the interdependence and connectivity of ecological and social, economic systems.

The degree programs that fall under the College of Business and Economics were included as this academic program created learning outcomes that apply to all of its individual discipline degree programs.

The attached spreadsheet has been updated to remove the graduates from learning outcomes that only discussed social or economic impact without discussing social, economic and environmental interdependence. The outcomes that did not include this criteria but were on the first spreadsheet were grayed out and their numbers deleted to show the changes made.

The attached spreadsheet includes a full list of program and department learning outcomes and graduates from each degree program, with a the first spreadsheet including each degree program with the specific learning outcomes that quality as sustainability-focused or sustainability-supportive included, and links to the learning outcome websites to see the full list of learning outcomes per program. For each discipline under the College of Business and Economics that has it's own sustainability-related learning outcome is included, though the graduates of those programs are captured in the aggregate total graduates from COBE as their college includes sustainability learning outcomes that apply to all programs.

In addition, these colleges have sustainability-focused learning outcomes for all of their academic programs:
College of Business Core Goals - COBE Core Goals apply to all students earning a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, regardless of discipline.
Goal 5: Demonstrate appropriate principles of responsible business practices which include the following
Individual Responsibility (Business Ethics)
Social Responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility)
Leadership Responsibility (Corporate Governance)
Environmental Responsibility (Environmental Sustainability)
Cultural Responsibility (Diversity)
by resolving issues pertaining to responsible business practices by:
Identifying responsible business issues
Identifying relevant stakeholders and their interests
Evaluating possible impacts of alternative courses of action on stakeholders
Formulating and communicating a viable plan of action.
The programs encompassed in COBE include:
- COBE MBA Programs
- Department of Accountancy
- Department of Economics
- Department of Finance
- Department of Information Technology and Supply Change Management
- Department of Management
- Department of Marketing
https://www.boisestate.edu/ir-assessment/resources/plos-college/cobe/

Updated after taking out the programs that only included a social impact in their focus without connecting it to an environmental impact. Left the programs greyed in the spreadsheet so that they could be referenced as opportunities to further develop their LOs to include the environmental impacts in their programs (most of these cover these impacts in their courses but do not explicitly mention them in the LOs).