Outcomes & Assessment

The UB Seminar teaches new students foundational skills for college success through disciplinary knowledge and tools. It explores the academic expectations pertaining to being a student at UB and to higher learning at a research university. The seminar emphasizes the critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and reflective discussion essential for civic discourse.

• Demonstrate critical thinking using multiple modes of inquiry and expression.
• Understand and apply methods of analysis, synthesis, and critical reading.
• Cultivate effective research and study habits, including note-taking and time management, through engagement with course content.
• Identify and analyze important disciplinary debates and engage in deliberative discourse.
• Recognize and engage with ethical issues pertaining to the subject matter.
• Demonstrate an understanding of academic integrity.

• Describe the unique character of higher learning in a university, such as deep domain knowledge, the role of research, and the value of experiential learning.
• Articulate the components of the UB general education program and the integration of multiple disciplines.
• Understand the requirements for your chosen major or field of study and explore the professions most commonly associated with that major or field.
• Understand the necessity for writing/communication in university and professional settings.
• Develop essential study skills, such as time management.
• Recognize and debate ethical issues and academic integrity in a variety of settings.
  

Having completed Communication Literacy 1 course, you will be able to:

• Compose persuasive arguments in varied media (oral, visual, digital, written) for diverse audiences that reflect common standards of academic, professional, and civic genres 
• Find, comprehend, evaluate and document sources in a constantly evolving information environment
• Support arguments ethically with credible and relevant sources
• Improve their writing through a productive writing process that includes drafting, giving and receiving peer feedback and significant revision
• Vary written genre conventions appropriately for structure, paragraphing, tone and mechanics
• Develop proficiency in evaluating and analyzing written, visual, digital and oral arguments representative of diverse perspectives and voices.

Having completed Communication Literacy 2, you will be able to:

• Compose in academic, professional, and/or workplace genres related to a field of study.
  
• Apply writing processes common to that field.
  
• Compose and deliver a professional presentation.
  
• Describe the conventions of genres within a field.
  
• Make effective disciplinary and professional arguments.

• Choose appropriate methods or models for a given problem, using information from observation or knowledge of the system being studied. 
• Employ quantitative methods, mathematical models, statistics, and/or logic to analyze data and solve real-world problems beyond the level of basic algebra. 
• Identify common mistakes and/or limitations in a.) empirical and/or deductive reasoning, and b.) mathematical, quantitative, and/or logical problem solving.
• Interpret mathematical models, formulas, graphs, and/or tables, to draw inferences from them, and explain these inferences. 

• Demonstrate that scientific knowledge applies across multiple scales of size and/or time.
• Demonstrate understanding of and employ the scientific method through work that involves hypothesis development, evaluation of evidence, and data analysis.
• Demonstrate an understanding that science is a continuous process and that our understanding of scientific phenomena has changed across time.
• Demonstrate an understanding of how scientific principles are used to solve tangible problems.
• Recognize key ethical issues in scientific practice.
• Distinguish scientific information from pseudo-scientific information and demonstrate an understanding of the nature of legitimate scientific debate.

Having completed the Diversity in the United States Requirement you will be able to:

• Think critically, and with an open mind, about controversial topics stemming from issues such as gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion, and disabilities in American society and the larger world.
  
• Develop an understanding of antiracism and social justice and learn to apply these concepts to specific situations.
  
• Explain how historical and global contexts (such as Western colonial expansion, enslavement, capitalism, gender inequality, immigration, and/or social movements) cause categories of diversity to change over time, and how these contexts have contributed to systems of power, privilege, oppression, and opportunity.
  
• Describe how categories of diversity intersect or connect with each other, creating complex identities and perspectives. Recognize the distinct role of race as a category of diversity in the US and the intersecting effects of race on other categories of diversity.

Having completed the Pathways, you will be able to: 

• Examine multiple, sometimes competing or conflicting perspectives, and draw connections between your Pathway courses and selected Pathway topics, in order to develop your own view.
• Critically reflect on selected Pathway topics through different disciplinary lenses.
• Demonstrate an understanding of global issues and events informed by multiple cultures and diverse points of view.

Having completed the Capstone, you will be able to:

• Articulate connections across different academic disciplines and perspectives.
• Adapt and apply skills, abilities, theories or methodologies acquired in one situation to new situations.
• Connect relevant lived experiences and academic knowledge.
• Identify a valid learning philosophy and anticipate future challenges where that philosophy can be applied. 
• Support arguments with relevant and properly cited artifacts and sources.
• Integrate different forms of communication to enhance meaning (prose, sound, visual media).
• Apply your understanding of digital citizenship to create an academic capstone ePortfolio.