General Education at YSU
Youngstown State University implemented a new general education model with the Fall 2024 semester. See below:
2024-25 YSU General Education Model
Core
English Comp – 2 courses (6 s.h.)
- ENGL 1549 or ENGL 1550
- ENGL 1551 (or equivalent)
Math – 1 course (3 s.h.)
Knowledge Domains
Arts & Humanities – 2 courses (6 s.h.)
Natural Sciences – 2 courses (1 must include lab; 7 s.h.)
Social and Behavioral Sciences – 2 courses (6 s.h.)
Oral Communication (see "General Education Electives" below)
General Education Electives
Electives – 3 courses (9 s.h.)
Oral Communication – recommended elective
Total Hours: 37 s.h.
Additionally, a list of newly approved general education courses for this model will go into effect with the 2025-26 academic year and will include four microcredentials that may be earned while completing certain courses. Please see the links above for a list of courses and microcredentials.
Ohio's Transfer 36 Model (OT36), the Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy update (July 2021) is linked here to provide additional guidance on how YSU meets State standards:
Ohio Articulation and Transfer Policy update (July 2021)
University-Wide Learning Outcomes (UWLOs)
The following UWLOs were adopted by the YSU Academic Senate on September 7, 2022 (Final Draft: 2022-08-25)
A University education prepares you for more than a career, it prepares you for a life of learning in an ever-changing world. Against the backdrop of the many contributions and experiences of different identities, including but not limited to ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and cultural differences, YSU’s learning outcomes prepare graduates to engage with diverse people, ideas, and settings.
1. YSU graduates are critical, creative, and integrative thinkers who incorporate a range of interdisciplinary knowledge.
1.1. Ethical reasoning: YSU graduates recognize that choosing one solution to a problem over another always entails making a value judgment that is often moral.
1.2. Quantitative and scientific reasoning: YSU graduates make use of logical, mathematical, statistical, and scientific concepts and data to help ground solutions to real world problems.
1.3. Disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge: YSU graduates recognize that problems arise within a specific context, which requires an understanding of the historical, cultural, psychological, and sociological factors that need to be taken into consideration.
1.4. Information literacy: YSU graduates show awareness of diverse sources of information, evaluate that information for accuracy and relevance, and they use these sources to find information that is outside of their discipline specific knowledge.
1.5. Creative thinking: YSU graduates apply presentational knowledge, associated with artistic, creative, or intuitive understanding to develop questions, examine problems from different perspectives, and pose potential solutions within their chosen fields.
2. YSU graduates will recognize the impacts of different dimensions of health which include: physical health, emotional well-being, social support, economic stability, environmental quality, educational opportunity, and health-care accessibility.
2.1. Physical health: YSU graduates show awareness of the importance of physical activity, nutrition, and sleep.
2.2. Emotional well-being: YSU graduates identify how emotions, thoughts and feelings interact with stressors and influence relationships and health.
2.3. Social support: YSU graduates understand that relationships and interpersonal interactions develop a sense of connection, belonging, and support with others.
2.4. Economic stability: YSU graduates examine how economic stability impacts overall health.
2.5. Environmental quality: YSU graduates understand that the built environment one lives in will have a major impact on health.
2.6. Educational opportunity and health care accessibility: YSU graduates will recognize how access to educational resources and high-quality health care services affects health.
3. YSU graduates are global communicators who curate and disseminate discipline-specific knowledge through appropriate channels, spoken and written, for audiences in a variety of modalities.
3.1. Graduates communicate ethically and responsibly as global citizens and professionals, able to engage with complex, interdependent global systems and legacies, while meeting responsibilities to their community, discipline, and profession based on communication perspectives and associated norms.
3.2. Graduates are informed, open-minded, and responsible people who are attentive to diversity across the spectrum of differences, identifying perceptual differences in relational and intercultural communication for effective outcomes while applying effective conflict management strategies.
3.3. Graduates craft effective spoken presentations and messages in various formats and styles for a variety of audiences, groups and organizations, effectively monitoring, analyzing, and adjusting their own communication behaviors.
3.4. Graduates demonstrate proficiency in the use of written English, including proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, in formal writing including correct use of designated styles, and construct appropriate written messages for a variety of contexts.
3.5. Graduates identify message design strategies, influences of biases and economic forces on mediated content, and perceptual differences in meaning formations to determine which modality and medium best serves their personal, professional and public needs.
4. YSU graduates connect scholarly research, academic inquiry, and/or artistic expression to actions that inspire a civically engaged mindset and contribute to society through service to their community.
4.1. Graduates develop knowledge about community needs through community-based service, scholarly research, academic inquiry, and/or artistic expression.
4.2. Graduates build discipline specific, real-world, relational, and/or cultural awareness skills through service with the community.
4.3. Graduates demonstrate understanding of the value of lifelong civic engagement and how utilizing their knowledge, skills, and values can make a difference in the community.
4.4. Graduates participate in activities of personal and public concern that are both individually life enriching and socially beneficial to the community.
4.5. Graduates recognize the contributions that have been made by members of diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender groups, persons with disabilities, and other historically marginalized people within their own communities and across the world.