General Education

About the General Education Program

ABOUT THE GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

As New Jersey’s Public Liberal Arts College, Ramapo invites you to consider new perspectives about the world you’ve known in order to expand your horizons and be prepared for your next stage in life. At Ramapo College, you will be challenged by a variety of educational experiences including those encountered your major, your school core curricula, minors, concentrations, study abroad programs, and other opportunities. You will pursue an academic major suited to your primary educational and professional interests and also complete the requirements of a broad-based general education program curriculum, which will provide a more expansive context for your major. Together, these diverse educational experiences will connect you to our college community and will provide solid preparation for your future.

Drawing on the rich traditions of a liberal arts education, which encourages students to engage, view, and address challenges in a variety of ways, Ramapo College’s general education program is designed to encourage you to see the intellectual, social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, and empirical connections we all share in our increasingly linked, increasingly global world. Since news, ideas, and wealth can circle the globe at the click of a mouse or the tap of a screen today, this world needs citizens who honor where they came from and understand that no individual and no community stands alone, and this is precisely what is developed in students through our balanced general education program. Ramapo students who successfully navigate all of the varied and intertwined educational experiences presented to them including the general education program will be able to respond quickly to political, technological, and cultural change, be ready to shift careers, and even lead the way in evolving fields. A lifetime of learning is the passport to a productive, fulfilling future, and the student who takes that path is ready to meet and shape tomorrow.

GE Goals and Objectives

GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS (10 COURSES)

The Keystone Courses and Categories:

Eight categories of courses, delivered at the 100 and 200 levels, are designed to provide a broad-based education. Keystone courses and courses chosen from the various keystone categories will collectively provide foundational knowledge, skills, and context that will serve as a basis for courses and experiences required by the academic majors.

Distribution Categories:

Courses chosen from the distribution categories reinforce learning objectives introduced in the “Keystones” and challenge students to apply what they have learned in new situations.

Click here for General Education curriculum and assessment information.

KEYSTONE COURSES AND CATEGORIES:

First Year Seminar
- Speak effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
- Develop the skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and employ information effectively.
- Use technology to communicate, manage, or solve problems.
- Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.
Critical Reading and Writing II
- Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.
- Write effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
- Develop the skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and employ information effectively.
- Practice reflective inter/intra-personal skills.

Studies in the Arts and Humanities
- Write effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
- Critically engage with the products of culture, through interpretation or creative expression.
- Apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address complex problems.
- Develop the skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and employ information effectively.

Historical Perspectives Category
- Critically interpret history and society.
- Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
- Question assumptions about individual and group identity.
- Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.

Global Awareness Category
- Demonstrate intercultural understanding required to effectively negotiate a diverse global society.
- Critically engage with the products of culture, through interpretation or creative expression
- Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.

Social Science Inquiry
- Critically interpret history and society.
- Apply mathematical concepts effectively.
- Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
- Question assumptions about individual and society.

Quantitative Reasoning Category
- Apply mathematical concepts effectively.
- Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.
- Use technology to communicate, manage, or solve problems.
- Apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address complex problems.

Scientific Reasoning Category
- Apply methods of scientific inquiry effectively.
- Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.
- Apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address complex knowledge.

DISTRIBUTION CATEGORIES:

Students take two of the following. At least one course must be outside of the student’s school.

Culture and Creativity
- Critically engage with the products of culture, through interpretation or creative expression.
- Critically interpret history and society.
- Question assumptions about individual and group identity.

Values and Ethics
- Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
- Question assumptions about individual and group identity.
- Practice reflective inter/intra-personal skills.

Systems, Sustainability & Society
- Apply methods of scientific inquiry effectively.
- Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
- Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.

GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM GOALS:

GE Goal 1: Explore the world – investigate human cultures and the natural world.

Critically engage with the products of culture, through interpretation or creative expression.
Critically interpret history and society.
Apply methods of scientific inquiry effectively.
Apply mathematical concepts effectively.

GE Goal 2: Engage the world – think critically and convey new understanding.

Demonstrate logic and reasoning skills.
Write effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
Speak effectively in scholarly and creative contexts.
Develop the skills necessary to locate, evaluate, and employ information effectively.
Use technology to communicate information, manage information, or solve problems.

GE Goal 3: Experience your world – integrate and apply your new learning.

Apply disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address complex problems.
Practice reflective inter/intra-personal skills.
Participate in an engaged, experiential activity that connects the course to real world settings

GE Goal 4: Expand our world –develop compassion and ethical understanding across cultures and become an engaged global citizen.

Understand diverse communities on local, national, and/or global levels.
Analyze ethical implications of the global distribution of power and resources.
Question assumptions about individual and group identity.
Demonstrate intercultural understanding required to effectively negotiate a diverse global society.

GE Categories and Courses

GE Categories