Background and Assumptions 

• Student learning outcomes must be holistic and encompass mind, body, spirit, and emotional growth of students. They are psychological, social, emotional, cognitive, and developmental.  Student Learning outcomes usually identify some dimension of knowing, being, or doing (knowledge, attitude, skills).
• Because student learning is comprehensive, it integrates all aspects of the University environment and the lifestyle of the student. This includes the formal learning settings where students gather, but also the informal settings where students live, play and interact. Student learning involves the integration of academic learning and student development. Learning, development, and identity formation are interactive and impact each other.
• Student learning is a collaborative process linking academic affairs and student affairs.
• To be effective, student learning must be transformational. This requires rethinking how we define, deliver, and meet our educational mission. Transformational learning affects not only what we know, but how we know.  It requires a process that embodies active experiential learning followed by the opportunity to reflect on the experience and to process the experience verbally.  It must provide the opportunity for the student to better develop their sense of self and how they relate to the world around them. It is learning through action, contemplation, reflection, emotional engagement as well as acquiring information. Learning that places students at the center of the process goes beyond information transfer to include identity development; what students know, what their values are, what are their behavior patterns, how they see themselves contributing to and participating in the world in which they live.   
• Experiential learning requires a setting that is challenging but non-threatening; complex in nature, but with processes clearly defined; time to reflect, talk, and write about the experience including the opportunity to describe what the experience means to them personally. Vehicles for this process might include seminars, service learning, learning communities, internships, outdoor education, employment, and student leadership experiences.
• Transformational learning requires a greater commitment to advising, small seminars, counseling and mentoring, and the integration of out of classroom experiences with the formal academy.
• Stakeholders are requiring greater accountability from higher education as to the outcomes of the educational process. Stakeholders expect students that can get things accomplished in real world settings (better prepared employees & leaders), students that are self-aware and have a sense of how they relate to the greater world, students who are prepared to be engaged and active citizens, and students who know how to learn and are life-long learners.