Alignment of Learning Outcomes

As a member and leader of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) initiatives, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) and Give Students A Compass, and as a charter member of the Wisconsin Campus Compact, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh is committed to improving the quality of student learning.

For college learning to meet the needs of the people we serve, we have adopted a set of student learning outcomes adapted from the AAC&U report titled “College Learning for a New Global Century.” The learning outcomes represent the very high expectations for knowledge and skills 
held by educators and employers in the 21st century, and they describe the forms of learning and accomplishments contemporary students need for life, work and citizenship.

We formed the Liberal Education Reform Team (LERT) in response to our Higher Learning Commission (HLC) site visit in 2007 to define and integrate the student learning outcomes into our general education program and to implement an assessment plan for the program. To develop performance indicators for assessment rubrics that can be used across campus to reinforce students’ knowledge and skills, we participated as a partner campus in the AAC&U’s Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) initiative.

Through our participation in the Give Students A Compass project, in collaboration with the UW System and the AAC&U’s LEAP initiative, we support the enhancement of designs for general education and assessment that foster integrative learning and demonstrated accomplishments of the student learning outcomes. The UW Oshkosh Foundation is raising funds for high-impact practices to increase levels of achievement for students from traditionally underserved groups.

Jennifer Szydlik


A professor of mathematics at UW Oshkosh since 1995, Szydlik has endeavored to make mathematics more than just numbers on a page for future elementary school teachers. She received the 2010 Board of Regents Teaching Excellence Award.

By promoting pedagogies, programs and activities that have direct ties to student success, we are strengthening the educational experience and advancing the academic achievement of our students.

However, the elevation of the quality of student learning ultimately depends upon maximizing the efficiency of the complex and interrelated human, physical and financial resources of the institution. Our strategic and operational plans and action initiatives and our Governing Ideas are the institutional means of ensuring that we align our resources with our priorities.

The chart summarizes and depicts the relationships among the various factors designed to enhance essential student learning outcomes.