Signature Learning

Chair:  Nate Whelan-Jackson 

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Capital University is committed to a liberal education that readies the student for every arena of life.  Liberal education develops intellectual skills, expands the breadth of learning through exploration of several modes of inquiry, and challenges students to examine foundational ethical and cultural assumptions. It enables students to think critically and reflectively on vocation, citizenship, service, and religious and ethical commitments.

The Capital curriculum is structured around Program Learning Outcomes that are delivered through majors, minors, foundational courses, and co-curricular experiences. 

The 7 Program Learning Outcomes:

• Represent what students are able to do at the conclusion of a program.
• Are broader than course and co-curricular outcomes
• Are achieved as the culmination of multiple course and co-curricular activities.

Signature Learning Program Learning Outcomes and Descriptions

Students apply the skills of a liberally educated person to investigate problems and questions.

The liberal arts include a set of subjects, practices, and investigations that orient each student’s life-long growth and sense of vocation. Through inquiry and reflection across the student experience, students integrate and apply critical thinking, effective communication, cultural awareness, and ethical sensitivity to progressively challenging situations and contexts.

Students explain how their choices affect goal achievement across a variety of domains (e.g., professional and personal relationships, finances, mental and physical health, etc.)

Students identify and reflect on physical, intellectual, emotional, and social components of life transitions. Students develop goals for future personal, social, and professional wellbeing.

Students access, evaluate, interpret, and produce quantitative and qualitative information to solve problems.

Students are empowered to create and use information to achieve their personal, social, educational, and professional goals. Students recognize gaps and limits in existing knowledge. Students effectively access, organize, evaluate, and interpret data to produce information for solving problems and drawing conclusions.

Students articulate basic principles, methods, and societal effects of natural and social sciences 

Students identify and practice methods of inquiry in social and natural sciences, including laboratory methods. Students develop scientific literacy by practicing reasoning skills and applying major scientific paradigms. Students explore the impact of science on society.

Students speak, write, read, and listen effectively

Students actively listen, process, and critically evaluate information. Students use information ethically and with integrity. Students practice effective written and oral communication strategies for multiple audiences in various modes.

Students analyze, contextualize, and engage with human cultures.

Students engage with varied artistic, religious, and historical cultural products and systems. Students produce art in different forms. Students appreciate the moral implications of engagement with human cultures in a global context.

Students interact knowledgeably and ethically with people and ideas from many cultures, religions, and identities.

Students use and critically evaluate different moral frameworks that inform their lived experience. Students identify themselves to be members of diverse communities, analyzing sources of misunderstanding, conflict, and injustice. Students develop an appreciation for diverse ways of life. Students develop ethical sensitivity that informs thought and behavior in personal, communal, and global contexts.

Pathways

The program learning outcomes are supported throughout the entire Capital education: courses in the Signature Learning Program, courses in the majors and minors, and co-curricular experiences. Pathways consist of experiences across these categories. They introduce, reinforce, and ultimately facilitate mastery of these outcomes. These developmental pathways integrate the learning experience as a student progresses through the Signature Learning Program with other academic and co-curricular experiences.

Multi-course pathways include the “Ethics and Society Pathway” and the “Criticism and Culture Pathway”. 

Signature Learning Pathways  

Ways of Fulfilling Signature Learning Requirements

Curriculum requirements can be met, or in some cases, waived by:

• Taking University Core (UC) or Cognate courses at Capital University
• Advanced Placement credit
• Taking required courses within the curriculum of a major of study
• ACT, SAT, and Assessment testing (discussed below the tables)
• Transfer credit (discussed below the tables)
• Porfolio submission (discussed below the tables)

University Core (UC) or Cognate courses

In This Year	Students Take a Required Course In:	These are the Course Options that Fulfill the Corresponding Course Requirement
First	First Year Seminar	UC 100 First Year Seminar  EDUC 151 Foundations of the Education Profession  MUSIC 120 Introduction to Music and Listening  NURS 110 Introduction to Holistic Nursing Practice (First Year)
First	Reading and Writing	ENGL 111 Academic Composition
First	Oral Communication Do not take in the same semester as ENGL 111	UC 120 Oral Communication
First	Quantitative Reasoning	UC 140 Quantitative Reasoning        MATH 215 Elementary Statistics  MATH 230 Calculus I  MATH 231 Calculus II  MATH 251 Discrete Mathematics  SOSCI 210 Social Science Statistics  CS 245 Computational Science I  MATH 140 Integrated Mathematics I and MATH 141 Integrated Mathematics II (Early Childhood and/or Intervention Specialist Majors Only)
First	Ethics	UC 170 Introduction to Ethics
Second	Cultural Pluralism	UC 270 Cultural Pluralism
Second	Religion	UC 220 Religion, Meaning and Culture
Second	Fine Arts	ART 210 Visual Art  FMP 210 The Art of Cinema   ENGL 204 Creative Writing  FRNCH 410 French Theater  SPAN 410 Hispanic Theater  MUSIC 210 Introduction to Music  TH 121 Introduction to Theatre  Three semesters of Major Music Ensembles
Second	Social Sciences	ECON 101 Macroeconomic Principles  ECON 115 Microeconomic Principles  POLS 230 Comparative Politics  PSYCH 120 Introduction to Psychology  PSYCH 121 General Psychology  SOC 115 Principles of Sociology  SOC 120 Introduction to Sociology  UC 230 Social Science
Second	Natural Science and Society Students must take a minimum of SIX (6) credit hours of Natural Science course (the combination of the Natural Science and Society requirement and the Laboratory Science Requirement).	UC 241 Science and Technology in Society (2 cr.) UC 242 Topics of Science of Music (can not be taken if UC-243 is taken) (2 cr.) BIOL 150 Human and Applied Genetics (3 cr.)  EDUC 243 Instructional Technology (2 cr.) ENVS 230 Environmental Geology (3 cr.) GEOL 220 Introduction to Astronomy (3 cr.) PSYCH 330 Biological Psychology (4 cr.)
Second	Natural Science Laboratory Students must take a minimum of SIX (6) credit hours of Natural Science courses (the combination of the Natural Science and Society requirement and the Laboratory Science requirement).	UC 243 Topics in Science of Music & Lab (can not be taken if UC-242 is taken) (3 cr.) BIOL 100 General Biology (4 cr.) BIOL 151 Foundations Modern Biology I (4 cr.) CHEM 171 Chemical Principles I and CHEM 173 (both needed = 4 cr.) CHEM 150 General, Organic and Biological Chemistry (4 cr.) GEOL 250 Physical Geology (4 cr.) ENVS 250 Environmental Science (4 cr.) PHYS 220 General Physics I (4 cr.) PHYS 221 General Physics II (4 cr.)
Third	Humanities	UC 320 Humanities
Fourth	Global Systems	UC 370 Global Systems   EDUC 283 Intercultural Student Teaching and Community Engagement Seminar  SPAN 380 Immigration and Identity  FRNCH 380 Contemporary France

AP or ACT Test Scores

Some Signature Learning requirements can be met by AP or ACT test scores. The chart below outlines possibilities for completing a requirement by test equivalence.      

	Signature Learning Requirement	AP or ACT Equivalents
	Reading & Writing	Advanced Placement  English Language & Composition Exam (Score of 4 or higher required=ENGL-111) (Score of 3 = ENGL-100)          Course Requirement: ENGL-111 credit awarded (4 credits awarded) ACT English 28 or higher   Students with an English ACT of 28 or higher, or a SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing of 640, are waived from the Reading and Writing requirement.  Course Requirement:  Waived  ACT English 18-27:  Students with an English ACT of 18-27 or higher, or a SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing of 441-640 should take ENGL 111, Academic Composition.  Course Requirement: ENGL 111 Academic Composition   ACT English 17 or below:   Students with an English ACT lower than 18 or an SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing lower than 441 are required to take ENGL 100, Basic Writing, prior to ENGL 111, Academic Composition. These students should enroll in ENGL 100 and UC 120 in the Fall Term of their first year, followed by ENGL 111 in the Spring Term of their first year.  Course Requirement: ENGL 100 Basic Writing    If no score information is available, perspective students are invited to take a placement test to determine an appropriate first-year writing class or receive a waiver of the first-year writing requirement.
	Quantitative Reasoning	Advanced Placement-Mathematics Calculus AB or BC Exam- (Score of 4 or higher required)-4 credits awarded Advanced Placement-Statistics Exam (Score of 4 or higher required)
	Social Sciences	Advanced Placement-American Gov.& Politics Exam (Score of 3 or higher required)-3 credits awarded Advanced Placement-Microeconomics Exam (Score of 3 or higher required)-(4 cr.) Advanced Placement-Macroeconomics Exam (Score of 3 or higher required)-(4 cr.) Advanced Placement - Psychology Exam (Score of 4 or more required)-(4 cr.)
	Natural Science and Society	Advanced Placement-Environmental Science (Score of 3 or higher required)-(3 cr.)
	Natural Science Laboratory	Advanced Placement-Chemistry w/Lab exam (score of 4 or higher required)-(4 cr.) Advanced Placement-Biology w/Lab Exam (score of 4 or higher required)-(3 cr.) Advanced Placement-Environmental Science w/Lab (score of 4 or higher)-4 cr.) Advanced Placement-Physics C: Mechanics-(Score of 4 or higher required)-(4 cr.) Advanced Placement-Physics C: Electricity/Magnetism (Score of 4 or higher required)-(4 cr.)

Transfer Work

Students also can fulfill some Signature Learning requirements via transfer course work. Courses transferred to Capital University that align with the transfer agreements will automatically be taken as having met the appropriate requirement.  More information regarding transfer equivalency courses are available on the Capital University Web site (http://www.capital.edu/transferring-college-credit/).

Students can be waived from First Year Seminar requirements if they have at least 31 credit hours of prior college credit earned before matriculating to Capital.

Coursework that is not specified in the equivalency guides may sometimes be used to meet a Signature Learning requirement, subject to review of the course syllabus. Transfer students may combine several courses from several different prior universities to petition for a substitution. Please, use the General Education Waiver form to petition for this kind of substitution. Attach all syllabi to the General Education Waiver form, and submit the petition to the Registrar’s Office. Petitions submitted after April 15 may not be processed until the next academic year. All petitions for transferred course work should be submitted prior to the last semester before graduation. Transfer students with completed baccalaureate and/or master’s degrees from regionally accredited colleges or universities are waived from the Capital University Signature Learning requirements effective fall term 2004. Students who earn an associate degree from a regionally accredited institution and complete the Signature Learning requirements outlined in the Ohio Transfer 36* are presumed to have met Capital University’s Signature Learning requirements with the exception of Religion (UC 220) and either Humanities (UC 320) or Global Systems (UC 370).

*The Ohio Transfer 36 contains 36-40 semester hours of course credit in English composition (minimum 3 semester hours); mathematics, statistics and formal/symbolic logic (minimum 3 semester hours); arts/humanities (minimum 6 semester hours); social and behavioral sciences (minimum 6 semester hours); and natural sciences (minimum 6 semester hours). Oral communication, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and interdisciplinary areas may be included as additional options. Additional elective hours from among these areas make up the total hours for a completed Ohio Transfer 36. Courses for the Ohio Transfer 36 should be 100- and 200-level general education courses commonly completed in the first two years of a student’s course of study. Students completing a technical associate degree may complete the Ohio Transfer 36, but will likely have to take additional general education courses beyond those required for the applied associate degree. Alternatively, students may transfer individual courses without completing the entire Ohio Transfer 36 (https://transfercredit.ohio.gov/students/student-programs/ohio-transfer-36)

Course Curriculum

Successful completion of University Core courses (UC) are taken as meeting these goals. Some Goals also have Cognate courses that have also been determined to meet the requirements of these Goals.

Assessment Testing

Students may demonstrate that they already possess the knowledge or skills delineated by a Goal. Assessment procedures are available for each Signature Learning goal. Students who are interested in this option should contact Academic Success at http://www.capital.edu/Academic-Success/ or 614-236-6327 prior to enrolling in a course that has been approved to satisfy that particular Signature Learning requirement. A waiver indicates that the requirements for a Signature Learning Goal have been met and no further courses are needed. Receiving a waiver is not the same as receiving credit for a course. Students should not schedule a Signature Learning course until after the waiver process for that Signature Learning requirement is completed. Normally students can attempt to waive a Signature Learning requirement only once.

- Automatic Waiver

Students may receive automatic waivers for Signature Learning Goal Reading and Writing (ENGL-111) and Quantitative Reasoning (UC-140)  based on ACT or SAT test scores.

ENGL-111 - Reading & Writing Skills	UC-140 - Quantitative Reasoning
ACT English 28 minimum	ACT Math 28 minimum
SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (SAT EBRW)   SAT EBRW - 640 minimum	SAT Math -  660 minimum   (March, 2016 and after)

There is no fee or credit awarded as a result of an automatic waiver.

- Assessment Testing Process

Students will have to complete either: (A) a test developed by Capital Faculty; (B) the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) test (CLEP Examinations , CLEP Testing Center); or (C) an assessment interview with a faculty member (Contact the Student Success office or the appropriate department chair for detailed information regarding this option.) 

- Fees and Credit

Fees must be paid at the time a waiver test is attempted. Credit is not awarded for the A or C waiver process. However, three semester hours of credit is awarded for each CLEP test successfully passed. Credit will be granted in accordance with the policy in effect at the time the exam is administered. All test fees costs, and all fees are subject to change. CLEP Testing availability and related costs must be confirmed with each CLEP Testing Center.

Portfolio Submitted to UCAP 

Students may demonstrate that they have acquired the skills or knowledge delineated in a Signature Learning requirement through work or life experience. A student, for example, who has lived abroad for a period may wish to demonstrate that this experience has provided him/her with the knowledge and skills delineated by the Cultural Pluralism requirement. Students complete this by assembling all the materials relevant to be evaluated by a faculty panel assembled for such purposes. More information regarding UCAP   can be obtained at Academic Success http://www.capital.edu/Academic-Success/. (See the Undergraduate Academic Policies, Regulations and General Information section for more information.)

Signature Learning Course Requirements Satisfied by Specific Major

Major Curriculum

By virtue of a course required for a specific major a student may satisfy both a Signature Learning and major requirement. For example, students majoring in mathematics meet the Quantitative Reasoning goal and satisfy a major requirement by completing Calculus I. What follows is a list of goals met within the following majors:

MAJOR	GOAL FULFILLED
Accounting	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
Art	Fine Arts
Art Therapy	Fine Arts
Athletic Training and Athletic Training Pre-PT	Natural Science, Social Science, Quantitative Reasoning
Biochemistry	Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Science
Biology	Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Science
Business Management	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
Chemistry	Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Science
Communication	Fine Arts
Computer Science	Quantitative Reasoning
Conservatory majors (BA Majors excluded)	Fine Arts
Criminology	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
Economics	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
Economics-Political Science	Social Science
Education	Social Science
Education (Primary Childhood)	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science, Natural Science
Education (Intervention Specialist)	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science, Natural Science
Engineering (Dual Degree program)	Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Science
English - Creative Writing	Fine Arts
Environmental Science	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science, Natural Science
Exercise Science and Exercise Science Pre PT	Natural Science, Social Science, Quantitative Reasoning
Financial Economics	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
French (major or minor)	Humanities
History (only with teacher licensure)	Social Science
International Studies	Social Science
Leadership & Management	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
Marketing	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
Mathematics	Quantitative Reasoning, Natural Science
Music Technology	Fine Arts
Nursing	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science, Natural Science
Political Science	Social Science
Political Science (only with teacher licensure)	Social Science
Psychology	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science, Natural Science (Non-Laboratory)
Religion	Religion
Social Work	Cultural Diversity, Social Science
Sociology	Quantitative Reasoning, Social Science
Spanish (major or minor)	Humanities
Theatre	Fine Arts

 

Three Signature Learning Course Requirements are NOT satisfied by any specific major:

• First Year Seminar
• Reading and Writing Skills
• Ethics

 

NOTE:  ​If you’ve earned a degree but don’t see the appropriate Signature Learning Waivers on your Progress in MyCAP, contact the Registrar’s office by email (registrar@capital.edu). An official transcript showing the degree earned will need to provided.