The mission of the General Education Program at the University of Florida is to provide instruction in common collective knowledge about the world that enables students to communicate, to make informed decisions about many aspects of their lives, to understand and to participate fully as informed citizens in local, national and global matters.

General Education Student Learning Outcomes and Performance Indicators

The assessment of general education at the University of Florida is an important measure of the university’s effectiveness in meeting this mission and the degree to which students master the student learning outcomes. These outcomes and their associated measurement rubrics are linked here.

The university employs a balanced assessment process that involves a course embedded direct assessment and an indirect measure, the SERU survey.

Direct assessment: Course-embedded assessments

In order to address achievement of the student learning outcomes in the context in which they are taught in the university’s general education courses, course-embedded assessments serve as a direct measure of student work within the general education curriculum. Course-embedded assessments are specific to the general education areas of composition, humanities and the arts, mathematics, physical and biological sciences, and the social and behavioral sciences.

Indirect assessment:  Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey

The SERU is administered by the Office of Institutional Planning and Research biennially to all undergraduate students at the University of Florida in the spring semester of the odd-numbered years. The survey addresses student perceptions and experiences at the university. There is no sampling procedure used for the SERU survey; this is sent to all University of Florida undergraduates.