New River Outcomes Knowledge Skills And Competencies

• New River Outcomes
• General Education Credit Hours and Course Requirements for New River CTC Programs
• Alternative Methods to Meet General Education Requirements for Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degrees

New River CTC ensures that every student pursuing an education at New River CTC, regardless of major or career objective, receives exposure to diverse disciplines, develops basic skills competency, and acquires a body of foundational knowledge essential for and educated individual.

New River Outcomes

Students graduating from New River CTC will demonstrate the following competencies:

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving

This area of learning is defined as a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration and analysis of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.

• Apply critical thinking skills to a variety of subjects.
• Identify and implement strategies to solve problems.
• Demonstrate the ability to separate fact from opinion.
• Access information to answer questions, form opinions, or solve problems.
• Evaluate one’s own and others’ assumptions, beliefs, and opinions.
• Synthesize and analyze in-depth information from a variety of sources.
• State logical conclusions based on information obtained or provided.

Communication

This area of learning incorporates the skill of exchanging information and meaning between or among individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, and behaviors. This includes the communication process of conversing, speaking, listening, corresponding, and writing.

• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of context, audience, and purpose.
• Use appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate mastery of the subject.
• Demonstrate detailed attention to and successful execution of a wide range of conventions particular to a specific discipline including organization, content, presentation, formatting, and stylistic choices.
• Locate and use a variety of supporting materials (explanations, examples, illustrations, statistics and credibility/authority on the topic.
• Use language choices that are imaginative, memorable, and compelling, and enhance the effectiveness of communication.
• Use appropriate delivery techniques to deliver the compelling message, ensuring that the communicator appears polished and confident.
• Practice attentive and active listening, maintain solid eye contact, often paraphrasing the message of the speaker to ensure understanding, and accurately restate the opinions of others even when he or she disagrees.

Information Literacy

This area of learning is defined as the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.

• Determine the extent of information needed.
• Access the information needed.
• Evaluate information and its sources critically.
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
• Access and use information ethically and legally.

Scientific or Mathematical Reasoning

This area of learning is defined as the ability to analyze and evaluate information and to use that information to formulate valid arguments supported by mathematical and scientific evidence to form solutions to real-world problems.

• Provide accurate explanations of information presented in scientific or mathematical forms and make appropriate inferences based on that information.
• Convert relevant information into an insightful scientific or mathematical model in a way that contributes to a further or deeper understanding.
• Use appropriate units (including Scientific International-Metric) to estimate, perform, and report measurements, attending to reasonableness, accuracy, and precision.
• Complete calculations successfully to solve problems and present the calculations clearly and concisely.
• Use an appropriate analysis of data as the basis for deep and thoughtful judgments, drawing insightful, carefully qualified conclusions from the work.
• Describe assumptions and provide compelling rationale for why each assumption is appropriate.
• Use information in connection with the argument or purpose of the work and present it in an effective format.

Cultural and Social Awareness

This area of learning is defined as the ability to see oneself as a member of the world community, knowing that one’s future is shared with others. Cultural and social awareness goes beyond mere exposure to cultural differences but requires the capacity to meaningfully engage with others, place social justice in historical and political context, and put culture at the core of transformative learning.

• Demonstrate an understanding of one’s own culture and the complexity of elements important to members of other cultures in relation to the history, values, politics, communication styles, economy, or beliefs and practices of that culture.
• Demonstrate evidence of adjustment in one’s own attitude and belief because of working within and learning from diversity of communities and cultures.
• Document evidence of experience in civic engagement activities and describe the learning as it relates to a reinforced and clarified sense of civic identity and continued commitment to public action.
• Apply ethical perspectives to a question, and accurately consider full implications of the application.
• Participate in teamwork activities helping the team move forward in relation to the team goals.
• Identify physical and psychological facets of personal wellness, including successful techniques for stress management.

General Education Credit Hours and Course Requirements for New River CTC Programs

Alternative Methods to Meet General Education Requirements for Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degrees

• In the required areas of communication and computational skills (Title 135-11-3. Degree Designations 3.1d.1), an identifiable credit course, in which a direct assessment of communication or computational skills can be demonstrated, shall also meet New River Community and Technical College’s general education requirements for an Associate of Applied Science degree.
• Demonstrated general education competencies in courses identified through programmatic accreditation shall also meet New River Community and Technical College’s general education requirements.
• Recommendations for alternative general education requirements will follow the existing process for curriculum review.