Skip to main content
West Virginia University Flying WV
West Virginia University Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Eberly Edge Program Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes (PLO) and Recommended Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for the six areas of the Eberly Edge Program:

Edge 1: Data in Society 

PLO: Evaluate reliability, validity, and scope, including assessing the role of technology in creation, analysis, representation, and accessibility of information. 

Recommended CLOs: 

  • Identify the purpose, audience, and context of a data set through data representations such as graphs, charts, and tables. 
  • Explain how data collection, analysis methods, and representations are selected to address specific questions, and how such selections are limited in the information they can provide.
  • Apply Data and Information Literacy by collecting, analyzing, representing, and /or interpreting data from reliable sources to inform your understanding of an interdisciplinary topic or social issue. 

Edge 2: Effective and civil communication 

PLO: Demonstrate effective and civil communication in spoken and written forms that respond appropriately to audience, purpose, and context. 

Recommended CLOs: 

  • Demonstrate ability to relate to others across personal and professional relationships, including the capacity for respectful discussion and disagreement. 
  • Formulate effective and ethical arguments about current topics in both written and spoken contexts. 
  • Develop strategies for engaging with diverse audiences in social, professional, and civic settings, including construction of engaging texts. 
  • Locate, evaluate, and appropriately contextualize primary and secondary research materials from a variety of sources. 

Edge 3: Ethics and civic responsibility 

PLO: Compare and contrast the outcomes of applying different ethical principles and frameworks to everyday life, learning, and workplace scenarios. 

Recommended CLOs: 

  • Identify fundamental ethical principles like integrity, confidentiality, respect and frameworks like deontology and utilitarianism. 
  • Discuss the sources of conflict and disagreement in contemporary ethical issues. 
  • Articulate decisions and resolve conflicts through the use of reason. 

Edge 4: Global and regional perspectives 

PLO: Develop awareness of the impact cultural, economic, and social structures have on communities near home or around the world. 

Recommended CLOs: 

  • Describe issues relevant to both global and local cultures, including ... 
  • Demonstrate awareness of the impact that cultural, economic, and social structures have on communities across the world 
  • Explain and examine at least one specific culture (e.g., Appalachian) and how that culture shapes material conditions for people in that culture 
  • Identify the relationship between local, regional, and global contexts 
  • Develop deeper cultural awareness in applied settings through opportunities including study abroad. 

Edge 5: Integration of arts and sciences 

PLO: Integrate diverse disciplinary knowledge bases to effectively understand and address complex and boundary spanning topics. 

Recommended CLOs: 

  • Identify and explain key concepts and methodologies from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, recognizing how they intersect and inform each other.

Edge 6: High-Impact Learning Experience 

PLO: Integrate outside-the-classroom experiences and observations with academic studies to apply knowledge in complex situations. 

Recommended CLOs: 

  • Learn by engaging in concrete outside-the-classroom experiences and activities. 
  • Implement academic knowledge and skills in contexts outside the classroom. 
  • Reflect on the development of one’s own professional knowledge and skills in response to the learning experience.

(Kolb’s experiential learning cycle)