UD-C Upper Division Arts/Humanities

II. Upper Division Arts and/or Humanities (Area UD – C)

Course Expectations for Upper Division Arts and/or Humanities (3 units)

To be certified by the Baccalaureate Requirements Committee as meeting the upper-division arts and/or humanities (UD – C) general education requirement,

1.  The course must be open to all students, regardless of major, who meet the prerequisites. Students shall not be held to prerequisites that are not specified in the current online University Bulletin. Prerequisites must not unduly restrict access and are restricted to upper division standing or one of the following:

• lower division general education course(s);
• other upper division general education courses when the courses are sequenced;
• individual course placement tests;
• generic course prerequisites (e.g., a psychology course, a biology course, a history course and so forth); or
• equivalents to the above.

2.  At least one of the assignments shall involve (a) utilizing a plan for acquiring and recording information employing advanced search strategies to examine a wide variety potential sources, including library resources; (b) articulating and applying advanced criteria in evaluating information and sources, including distinguishing scholarly/non- scholarly information and primary/secondary sources; (c) properly using and citing the information in assignments; and (d) formulating arguments and/or theories supported by information from multiple sources.

3.  The course syllabus must include references to assignments that are described above as part of the course expectations.

4.  The course syllabus must list the university-approved student learning outcomes for upper division arts and humanities and link them to activities and/or assignments that students complete to demonstrate they have met the outcomes.

Student Learning Outcomes for Upper Division Arts and/or Humanities (3 units)

After completion of an upper division general education course in arts and/or humanities, students will be able to:

1. apply artistic or humanistic methods of inquiry and analysis (including creation, interpretation, and evaluation) to study aesthetic experiences, expressive forms, belief systems, or communicative practices and relate them to the social and cultural contexts in which they are rooted;

2. articulate how theories and practices in the arts and/or humanities come to be accepted, contested, changed, or abandoned by the scholarly or artistic communities;

3. evaluate the quality of information, claims, expressions, and interpretations;

4. construct coherent and sound arguments with support from multiple sources, including library resources and proper citations, that communicate what students have discovered;

5. analyze social issues as well as ethical dilemmas and choices that arise out of artistic or humanistic research, discoveries, and applications; and 6. analyze multiple forms and variations of human diversity found in aesthetic experiences, expressive forms, belief systems, or communicative practices, and apply that knowledge to their own lives and to ways in which they could contribute purposefully to the well- being of their local communities, their nations, and the people of the world; to social justice; and/or to the sustainability of the natural environment.

Links between Educational Goals and Outcomes for Upper Division Arts and/or Humanities

The student learning outcomes were developed in relationship to the “Educational Goals for the Baccalaureate at San Francisco State University.” The chart below illustrates that relationship for upper division arts and/or humanities. The numbers correspond to the way the educational goals and student learning outcomes are numbered above.