What is General Education?
General Education is a system of courses designed to help you build skills and habits of mind that will help you flourish in your chosen profession and as a citizen of the global community. They are centered four common themes:
- Intellectual foundations and breadth of exposure
- Critical thinking
- Citizenship
- Multidisciplinary learning
Your required General Education credits will be distributed across four different categories. Below, you can see how your total General Education credit count will breakdown into these four course categories.
General Education Program
Pursue diverse interests and gain fundamental skills for lifelong learning, apply, communicate, and integrate ideas from a variety of disciplines, and gain abilities to think and act critically as citizens of a complex and ever-changing world
44-70
First Year Seminars
Explore interesting topics in small classes while building foundational skills for college success
8
Foundations
Practice lifelong learning skills applicable throughout your college career
10-28
Exploring Knowledge
Discover new content and ideas through exploration of a wide variety of scholarly topics, while beginning your major and gaining knowledge beyond it
20-26
Integrating Knowledge
Use high impact practices and make connections between different areas of interest for deeper comprehension, as well as prepare for a dynamic, complex and interconnected world.
6-8
View the full breakdown of General Education categories, as well as links to approved courses, here:
First Year Seminars are a staple part of the General Education program. They offer students the opportunity to explore a wide range of topics while building foundational skills that are crucial to college success. Topics explored include The Arts, Historical Perspectives, Science, Tech & Data, and more. Click the button on the left to find the current term offerings, as well as the academic year course catalog.
Making the perfect schedule can be difficult. Luckily, some General Education courses offer sections online. Click on the button to the right to find some of the offerings. You can also use the “Distance Delivery” search function in the Schedule Planner (WOU Portal → WolfWeb → Schedule Planner) in conjunction with the “Search by Attribute” to search for online Gen Ed courses.
Additional General Education Resources:
If you have further questions about General Education, you can check out our Frequently Asked Questions page:
Contact Us
Phone: (503) 838-8296 | Email: gened@wou.edu
