How Are Courses Approved?

We require two writing courses at UND. ENGL 110 and ENGL 130 are the two we offer. In addition to that requirement, we also require one course that focuses on oral communication.

• At least 1/3 of course assignments emphasize written communication or speaking skills

• Drafting, feedback, revision process is explicitly built into the course, the course’s instruction, and the course assignments

Explicit course content and instruction which focuses on all of the following:

• Prior planning time for each written work or oral presentation
• Appropriate content for topic and thoughtful construction of the paper or oral presentation
• Rhetorical strategies
• Style of delivery
• Awareness of purpose and argument construction
• Awareness of audience
• Incorporation of sources and the ideas of others

If an oral communication course, oral communication is not based solely on in-class discussions or one final presentation. Course is not also a special emphasis course or a capstone course.

Fine arts courses require that students produce their own creation, not just learn about what others produce.

Course is primarily focused on instruction in techniques used for imaginative creation, such as:

• Visual or aural productions
• Performance Arts
• Linguistic Expressions

Includes instruction in ways of interpreting or evaluating creative productions.

Humanities courses focus on people and analyses within specific disciplines.

Course is primarily focused on the analysis of one or more of the following:

• Language
• History
• Culture
• Text
• Society
• Formal Structures
• Artistic Work

Course may also:

• Help students develop facility with language.
• Include opportunities to practice the creation of works.

We require one science course with a lab, along with 5 additional credits (two courses) of Math, Science, or Technology.

Course must focus on at least one of the following:

• Giving students some experience in abstract reasoning in mathematics, as well as the use of such reasoning to reach conclusions about the world.
• Giving students experience in asking questions about the natural world and the chance to use observations and experimentation to formulate answers to those questions.
• Courses in engineering and/or technology teach students how engineering/technology projects are initiated and carried out, as well as ask students to think carefully about societal and cultural consequences of the use of engineering and technology.

Social science courses require that students engage with social scientific methodology.

Course introduces students to human behavior.

Explicit work which uses at least one of the following methodologies to draw conclusions:

• Probabilistic explanatory models
• Case studies
• Censuses
• Historical document analysis
• Oral histories
• Ethnographies
• Surveys
• Participant Observations
• Analysis of material evidence (artifacts)
• Experiments or quasi-experiments

• Focus: The course materials, assignments, topics of discussion, and/or learning activities demonstrate that the class examines the real-world consequences of differing worldviews by giving students tools to analyze social inequities.
• Threshold Concepts: The course materials, assignments, topics of discussion, and/or learning activities demonstrate that the course is teaching these threshold concepts: 1) privilege and oppression are part of larger social institutions and systems; and 2) Ideologies represent the values and interests of a particular group and they are the fundamental means through which systems of privilege and oppression are organized.
• Encouraging Student Reflexivity: Course assignments and/or activities demonstrate that students have had defined opportunities to practice metacognition—and to understand themselves as existing within ideology and systems of oppression and privilege.
• Must meet Intercultural Knowledge & Skills Learning Goal.
• Transferable academic skills for productively engaging with difference are an explicit and primary component of the course: The Focus, Threshold Concepts, and assignments/activities that Encourage Student Reflexivity must constitute at least 1/2 of the course’s focus and graded assignments.
• May not carry any other Special Emphasis designation nor may it be a Capstone course
• Must be at the 200 level or higher

• Course design is informed by the following Information Literacy concepts: 1) Authority is Constructed and Contextual; 2) Information Creation as a Process; 3) Information Has Value; 4) Research as Inquiry; 5) Scholarship as Conversation; and 6) Searching as Strategic Exploration.
• Digital Citizens need foundational skills that prepare us to work with and evaluate new technologies—like artificial intelligence—and to be ready for future technologies. Course develops transferable and applied skills necessary for the current and emerging workforce: the course teaches specialized tools and practices for finding, evaluating, and using digital information effectively, efficiently, safely, thoughtfully, and ethically.
• Strengthening student agency, the course involves students in actual practice with rhetorical thinking through opportunities to access, communicate, create, and distribute information.
• Course provides opportunities for metacognition: opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning.
• Developing a digital citizen who is aware of the ways society and culture interact with technology, the course teaches critical thinking skills and interpretive strategies across modalities, helping students critically evaluate information, its contexts and availability.
• Productively engaging with digital information is an explicit and primary component of the course: The Digital Information Literacy material must comprise at least 1/3 of the course’s focus and graded assignments.
• Must meet Information Literacy learning goal.
• May not carry any other Special Emphasis designation nor may it be a Capstone course.
• Must be at the 200 level or higher.

• Students must produce multiple spoken presentations and/or written texts
• At least 1/3 of assignments must emphasize writing and/or speaking skills
• A strong emphasis is placed on the drafting, feedback, revision process, and this process is explicitly built into the course, the course’s instruction, and course assignments
• Explicit course content and instruction which focuses on all of the following:
  • Rhetorical strategies
  • Style of delivery
  • Awareness of purpose and argument construction
  • Awareness of audience
• Must meet Written Communication OR Oral Communication Learning Goal
• Courses would not qualify for an A designation when oral communication is based solely on in-class discussions or one final presentation
• Must be at the 200 level or above
• May not carry any other special emphasis designation
• May also be a capstone course

• Focus: The course materials, assignments, topics of discussion, and/or learning activities demonstrate that the course is helping students better understand the diversity of the human experience and is committed to encouraging a consideration of the multiplicity of differing worldviews.
• Threshold Concepts: The course materials, assignments, topics of discussion, and/or learning activities demonstrate that the course is teaching these threshold concepts: 1) the existence of cultural differences and the complexity of social identities, and 2) that worldviews are constructed through our identities and cultures.
• Encouraging Student Reflexivity: Course assignments and/or activities demonstrate that students have had defined opportunities to reflect on their own identities, cultures, and worldviews; and to reflexively consider their worldviews as the product of their identities and cultures.
• Must meet Intercultural Knowledge & Skills Learning Goal
• The Focus, Threshold Concepts, and assignments/activities that Encourage Student Reflexivity must constitute at least 1/3 of the course’s focus and graded assignments.
• May not carry any other Special Emphasis designation nor may it be a capstone course

• The course must explicitly, and with a significant degree of emphasis, address at least three of the following five elements of quantitative reasoning:
  • Confidence with Mathematics. Being comfortable with quantitative ideas and at ease in applying quantitative Individuals who are quantitatively confident routinely use mental estimates to quantify, interpret, and check other information. Confidence is the opposite of “math anxiety;” it makes numeracy as natural as ordinary language.
  • Interpreting Data. Reasoning with data, reading graphs or maps, drawing inferences, and recognizing sources of error. This perspective differs from traditional mathematics in that data (rather than formulas or relationships) are at the center.
  • Making Decisions. Using mathematics to make decisions and solve problems in everyday life. For individuals who have acquired this habit, mathematics is not something done only in mathematics class but a powerful tool for living, as useful and ingrained as reading and speaking.
  • Mathematics in Academic and Practical Contexts. Using mathematical or numerical tools in specific settings where the context provides meaning. Notation, problem-solving strategies, and performance standards all depend on the specific context. Knowing how to solve quantitative problems that a person is likely to encounter in a civic, professional, or personal environment.
  • Number Sense. Having accurate intuition about the meaning of numbers, confidence in estimation, and common sense in employing numbers as a measure of things.
• Must meet Quantitative Reasoning Learning Goal
• The quantitative reasoning material must comprise 30% or more of the course
• The course may not carry any other special emphasis designation, nor may it be a capstone course