Oklahoma State University
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

To expand and value all fields of scholarly development, to engage students in the process of discovery and to align the University’s efforts with the State’s needs, OSU will focus resources at the intersection of the University’s existing strengths and society’s emerging needs - enumerating, focusing and concentrating funding specifically on the following four interdisciplinary “Priority Areas:”
1. Innovating to Nourish the World
2. Leading in Aerospace Innovation and Application
3. Enhancing Human and Animal Health (OneHealth)
4. Powering a Growing World Population Sustainably and Responsibly

Indicative of society’s Grand Challenges, the four Priority Areas are best viewed as interdisciplinary intersections of institutional capacity and societal need — not as particular academic areas or divisions. As such, they will involve faculty, students and research
professionals from across all the University’s schools, colleges and academic units, driving professional preparedness to meet workforce demands of each area, advancing new knowledge with research specific to each sector and creating economic opportunity
through close coordination with industry across each sphere. Ultimately, advances created by these areas will serve to enhance the quality of life, economic prospects and health outcomes for Oklahomans — with implications for world-wide application. While the vibrant diversity of the OSU community will continue to engender and embrace scholarship and teaching in other arenas, the four Priority Areas will serve as the guide for prioritizing resources in pursuit of Land-Grant preeminence.

Driving all four Priority Areas to empower the economy, OSU will magnify its focus on workforce excellence – equipping the next generation for the jobs of tomorrow by creating agile, creative thinkers and adaptable, resilient team members. In order to prepare students for careers that might not currently exist and to position the University for maximum impact on society beyond the horizon, OSU will pursue advancement in the understanding and application of the future of work, entrepreneurship and workforce innovation. These dynamics will serve to unify the four Priority Areas and bring them to practical fruition for local communities and their economies.

Undergirding the four interdisciplinary areas is the vital necessity of STEM-prepared students — both as they enter OSU as students and as they leave as graduates. As such, Oklahoma State University will strengthen its commitment to aiding Oklahoma’s K-12 STEM capacity through large-scale coordinated investments in the communities it serves.

Emanating from the character commitments that constitute Cowboy Culture is a set of personal attributes: the “competencies” we aspire to in the ideal Oklahoma State graduate. In addition to the excellence delivered through degree attainment, we envision that our students will achieve success through certain specific capabilities developed through their learning experience, allowing them to impact their communities as servant-leaders. Our graduates will exhibit an understanding of their role in positively impacting the lives of others and will graduate with knowledge, skills, values, and abilities that enrich their lives. OSU intends to elevate the cultivation of such competencies – many of which are currently encouraged and enabled through particular colleges, schools and programs – to a University- and system-level priority.

Imperative 4
Oklahoma State University commits to creating graduates who exhibit the four competencies of
1) Professional Preparedness
2) Engaged Citizenship
3) Ethical Leadership
4) Personal Responsibility
Objective 1: Create a unique student competency portfolio.
To drive development of the four competencies into the educational process for all OSU students, irrespective of which college or school they experience, OSU will provide the platform for a student portfolio for every graduate: an official, cloud-based, multimedia product that will be conferred at graduation and that can accompany a student’s resume or CV as they commence their career.

Self-directed and self-reported – but following a clear, technologically-enabled rubric – completion of the portfolio will indicate each student’s successful engagement with a series of university-sanctioned activities and experiences arrayed to develop the Ideal Graduate competencies. OSU views this tool as sufficiently important to the standardization of the student experience— and to the prospects it carries to help students as they enter their careers – that it will require it as a condition to apply for graduation.

The four competencies we seek in our graduates will help them deal with real-world challenges and apply their technical training within a context of the “why” behind their discipline. They encompass learning from within the classroom and through co-curricular programs and experiences, including (but not limited to):
- internships within their fields of study;
- substantive volunteerism;
- undergraduate research experience; and
- opportunities that “stretch” the student, including exposure to high-quality visual and performing arts and study abroad experiences

Through a broad-based series of on- and off-campus workshops — and with the guiding hand of a strategy Working Group focused specifically on the topic — the four competencies were further defined as:

Professional preparedness
Works effectively as a member of a team
Solves problems through critical thinking
Communicates effectively in writing and verbally
Gets things done through a diligent work ethic
Engaged citizenship

Welcomes and includes individuals of all backgrounds, cultures and creeds
Respects and esteems the value of diversity in community
Exercises service to the community
Maintains respectful citizen qualities in the digital sphere
Ethical leadership

Makes decisions with integrity
Exercises empathy
Embraces accountability
Demonstrates moral courage
Personal responsibility

Exhibits tenacity, adaptability and persistence
Demonstrates financial literacy
Carries a commitment to continuous learning
Handles ambiguity with dexterity and creativity

The competencies are ordered with career readiness in mind – developed through conversation and dialogue with industry partners - advantaging our students in their search for jobs and graduate programs. The adaptability of these competencies will position our students for lasting success in their personal, public and professional lives. Ultimately, all OSU students will have a better understanding of how their degree helps them advance into a career, and the state, nation and world will understand what a degree from Oklahoma State University means. In short, we want an OSU graduate to enter the workplace with common sense that can be applied for the common good with uncommon commitment.

We examined our list of courses that are sustainability-focused or related, to develop a list of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability. Upon finding the programs that had sustainability-focused courses, each department was further researched to see which of those classes were required by the degree program. The individual departments were then contacted to gather data regarding how many people graduated with that major.

Agribusiness, Agricultural Communications, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Education, Agricultural Leadership, Biosystems Engineering, Business Sustainability, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Crop Science, Design, Housing & Merchandising, Entomology, Entomology & Plant Biology, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, Food Science, General Agriculture, Geography, Geology, Global Issues, Global Studies, Grassland Management, Horticulture, International Disaster & Emergency Management, Landscape Architecture, International Agriculture, Natural Resource Ecology & Management, Plant Biology, Plant & Soil Sciences, Soil Sciences, Zoology