General Education Assessment

Academic program assessment is overseen by the Academic Senate General Education Committee.

Mission Statement: Montana State University Northern’s General Education Core provides students with breadth and depth in their education in order to enrich the specialized knowledge developed in a major field. These requirements are intended to foster critical thinking skills, support integrative learning, widen social and cultural perspectives, and aid students in developing into well-rounded, civically engaged professionals.

Assessment Outcomes

General Education is assessed holistically at the program capstone level through three core learning outcomes. These are assessed on a rotating basis:


Critical Thinking (AY 2021-2022)
Outcome: Demonstrate proficient ability to explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and/or events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion. Download rubric


Integrative Learning (AY 2022-2023)
Outcome: Demonstrate proficient skill at purposefully connecting ideas and experiences from at least two different subject areas to synthesize and then apply that learning. Download rubric


Social and Cultural Perspectives (AY 2023-2024)
Outcome: Demonstrate proficient understanding of student’s own and others’ perspectives in order to support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of social, historical, and/or cultural contexts. Download rubric

Submission Deadline: September 30 each year

Steps for submitting artifacts from your capstone courses:

  1. Identify your program's course that will be evaluated based on the outcome being assessed. This should be the program's capstone course or another capstone-level course.
  2. Determine the artifact (assignment) in that course that would provide evidence reflecting the outcome's criteria.
  3. Collect all student work for that assignment (preferably in a zip folder). Redact names wherever possible.
  4. Log in to Brightspace with the special General Education login credentials (contact the committee chairs or OTLE if you do not have them). In the Brightspace course shell “General Education Assessment,” submit the work under your college’s folder. 
  5. You do not need to perform the assessment — the General Education Committee will randomly select and evaluate a sample of submissions based on the current outcome’s rubric. The committee will then analyze whether students met the criteria and report back to the faculty and Assessment Committee with recommendations for improvement.