Foundation & INTG Course Goals

ILA Goals

1. Students will discover the liberal arts as a means to engage with questions of human values, purposes, and communities. Students will learn that a liberal arts education can be transformative, preparing them to pursue fulfilling personal and professional lives.

2. Students will understand key components for engaging in the intellectual challenges of college and for becoming life-long learners. These components include adopting attitudes of inquiry and curiosity, functioning from a growth-mindset, approaching the tasks of learning with tenacity and resiliency, and seeking excellence rather than perfection.

3. Students will consider the dynamic relationships between the Self, the Stranger, and the Community and will discover that their own sense of self and their engagement with the community affects their quality of life and the lives of those around them.

4. Students will understand that reading is an active and engaged process in which texts are analyzed and questioned, and that texts are sources not only of learning but also of enjoyment.

ILA Aim Statement

Introduction to Liberal Arts is a transition into the Monmouth College learning community which values the spirit of inquiry in pursuit of academic excellence.

COMM Goals

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Reveal understanding of the communication field by way of:
  •  Articulating the role communication plays in democracies and in the lives of engaged citizens
  • Understanding and using disciplinary vocabulary
• Perform effective citizenship by way of:
  • employing civil discourse
  • collaborating
  • respecting others
  • participating in deliberations or dialogues
  • honoring diverse viewpoints
  • providing and receiving constructive feedback
  • expressing knowledge about local, regional, national, or global issues
  • confidently sharing their own informed positions about a significant social issue with an audience
• Consume messages effectively by way of:
  • receiving messages with an open mind
  • critically evaluating information from mediated and non-mediated sources
• Craft and present effective oral messages by way of:
  • developing strong, ethical arguments
  • adapting content and delivery of messages to people, including those unlike yourselves, who comprise the public within the classroom space
  • using authoritative evidence
  • employing good speech construction practices as revealed by topic selection, development of thesis, outlining and drafting, source citation, use of visual aids, rehearsing,  etc. 
• Consider how the knowledge and skills gained in the course will transfer to other contexts and other courses – particularly the Global Perspectives, Reflections, and Citizenship courses, ENG110, and courses demanding presentations and small group collaboration.

Global Perspectives

Global Perspectives courses provide an exploration of communities, societies, institutions, and issues from a global perspective, emphasizing not only differences and diversity but global interconnections and integration. Each course will highlight the influence and importance of cultural differences and ask the student to understand culture as a lens through which we view the world.

Course Goals

1. Teach students to become more informed and interested global citizens, understanding that both local and global phenomena have worldwide advantages and disadvantages, winners and losers, and positive and negative consequences
2. Help students to understand the global ramifications of local problems and issues, and the articulation and integration of globally dispersed ideas and activities
3. Help students understand the influence and importance of cultural differences: that problems, issues, ideas, and actions cannot be considered from only a single cultural viewpoint or within a political, cultural or historical vacuum
4. Reinforce and expand upon the skills practiced in Introduction to the Liberal Arts, with special attention to written communication skills
5. Expose students to multiple academic disciplines

From: https://ou.monmouthcollege.edu/academics/integrated-studies/global-perspectives/default.aspx