Guidelines

Empire State College Area of Study Guidelines explain the types of learning expected for broad areas of study and specific concentrations within those areas.  They help you decide what to include in your degree.

All students at Empire State College need to address the Area of Study Guidelines for their particular type of degree through 1) their choice and pattern of courses in their degree plan and 2) their rationale essay. Address and guidelines are the two important concepts to understand here.

Guidelines are suggestions made by knowledgeable professionals about appropriate contents for certain types of degrees. They are not requirements in the sense of “you must take a course in ___.” For example, professionals in the field know that all business students (and, in fact, most college students in all areas of study) need to show competence in using the computer. A requirement would state “you must choose from these 5 computer courses.” A guideline, instead, says that “the student should show knowledge of computers.” You can address this guideline in a number of ways: by taking a course, by pursuing credit by evaluation for your learning in the field, or by discussing in your rationale essay how you use computers at work and how these skills apply to study in your field. Guidelines are intentionally broad; you do not need a direct, one-to-one correspondence between each guideline statement and each course in your degree.

Realize that some areas of study have fuller, more specific guidelines than others. For example, accounting, business administration, psychology, and information systems concentrations have quite full and specific guidelines that need to be addressed. Academic expectations for these concentrations don’t vary much from college to college in the U.S. Professional expectations also coincide with academic expectations—so there’s a relatively standard body of knowledge expected for U.S. degrees with these concentration titles, and relatively little ambiguity in designing these concentrations.

On the other hand, some areas of study have very general guidelines, because concentrations in these areas can be designed in many different ways. For example, community and human services guidelines state that degrees should address broad areas (e.g., “knowledge of human behavior,” “diversity”). Degrees can address these areas in many different ways, given the student’s “specific interests and goals, the student’s prior learning and experience, the organizing framework, and the general expectations of recognized helping professions.”

Because, in many cases, there are different ways to deal with guidelines, your rationale essay will need to explain how you’ve dealt with guidelines and why you’ve dealt with them in certain ways, especially in an area of study with more general guidelines, one that allows for more individualization. You can also address guidelines by the way in which you place and group courses on your degree plan.

Use the guidelines when you write your rationale essay to explain how you’ve gained, or intend to gain, the knowledge they identify.

• Introduction to the Area of Study Guidelines
• Undergraduate Area of Study Guidelines (Click on your Area of Study and then on “Detailed Guidelines.”)

The following videos provide tips on using the guidelines to inform your rationale essay. (Note: These videos will open in new windows.)

Area of Study Guidelines (2:11)

Working with Guidelines (3:33)

Reading Strategies Applied to Guidelines (8:28)

College Learning Goals

While the Undergraduate Area of Study Guidelines identify specific knowledge and skill competencies for degrees in particular areas, college learning goals identify the end result of addressing those guidelines.  College Learning Goals are general, overarching competencies exhibited by educated people in contemporary society. College learning goals are goals to strive for throughout your education with ESC.

Make sure to read the College Learning Goals Policy carefully and thoroughly.  You may want to bookmark it as well, as a reminder of what you are striving for through your educational experience. An excerpt from the College Learning Goals is included here:

Graduates of SUNY Empire State College will demonstrate competence in the following areas of learning, appropriate to their degree levels.

• Active Learning: Assess and build upon previous learning and experiences to pursue new learning, independently and in collaboration with others.
• Breadth and Depth of Knowledge: Cultivate a broad, interdisciplinary understanding in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as expertise in a particular field.
• Social Responsibility: Engage in ethical reasoning, and reflect on issues such as democratic citizenship, diversity, social justice and environmental sustainability, both locally and globally.
• Communication: Express and receive ideas effectively, in multiple contexts and through multiple strategies.
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Evaluate, analyze, synthesize and critique key concepts and experiences, and apply diverse perspectives to find creative solutions to problems concerning human behavior, society and the natural world.
• Quantitative Literacy: Read, interpret, use and present quantitative information effectively.
• Information and Digital Media Literacy: Critically access, evaluate, understand, create and share information using a range of collaborative technologies to advance learning, as well as personal and professional development.

Note that the third section of this Educational Planning text includes more information on these competencies as well as multiple sample learning activities which you may pursue to further develop competence in these areas.