Carnegie Mellon University

Eberly Center

Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation

Samples of Program Outcomes

Program outcomes should be:

  • student-centered (they focus on the knowledge and skills that graduates of the program should be able to demonstrate), and
  • demonstratable/measurable (they use action verbs – e.g., explain, apply, interpret, create, design – to make concrete and explicit the actions and behaviors that graduates should be able to demonstrate).

Contact an Eberly colleague to collaborate on the development or update of your program outcomes.

Graduates of the program should be able to:

  • Design 2d, 3d, 4d forms that are based on foundational design principles and reflect the needs and desires of audiences, contexts, uses, and content.
  • Describe key historical and contemporary concepts, people, artifacts, and tools and use them in the development of design work.
  • Effectively communicate ideas orally, graphically, physically, and in writing throughout all stages of the design process.
  • Effectively implement a cohesive, iterative design process.
  • Effectively work on design projects in disciplinary and multidisciplinary teams.

Graduates of the program should be able to:

  • Identify, explain, and use economic concepts, theories, models, and data-analytic techniques.
  • Use knowledge and skills of economics, mathematics, statistics, and computing flexibly in a variety of contexts.
  • Apply economic tools to formulate positions on a wide range of social and economic problems and engage effectively in policy debates.
  • Use investigate skills necessary for conducting original economic research and participating effectively in project team.
  • Deliver effective presentations in which they combine visual communication design with oral arguments and/or written word.

Graduates of the program should be able to:

  • Explain continuity and change over time and place, by gathering, organizing, and interpreting evidence from primary and/or secondary sources that are relevant to particular historical contexts and appropriate to particular disciplines and/or course methodologies.
  • Read texts (including entire books, routinely) and other media critically, to analyze evidence, arguments, and competing interpretations, and to challenge assumptions and values that underlie claims about the past and its relation to the present.
  • Employ the knowledge and skills gained by studying the past to understand contemporary issues, to challenge inaccurate or unsupported claims, to make careful comparisons across time, space, and culture, and to take informed positions as students at an international university and as global citizen.
  • Specific to BA in History: 
    • Articulate factual and contextual knowledge of specific places and times, to make careful comparisons (across time, space, and culture) and to discern how each generation (including theirs) uses the past for present purposes.
  • Specific to BA in Global Studies:
    • Articulate complex understandings of the processes of globalization in the long- and short-term, by combining interdisciplinary, theoretical, and historical perspectives with cross-cultural knowledge and advanced language training.
  • Specific to BA/BS in EHPP:
    • Persuade people to agree with their particular arguments and analyses; to conduct research under time and resource constraints; and to craft policies that address real world problems in a way that is sensitive both to history and competing sets of values.

Graduates of the program should be able to:

  • Research, analyze, and articulate system requirements and business/development plans.
  • Design effective solutions to meet organization and management needs for information and decision support.
  • Implement and test information systems using contemporary and leading practices and methodologies.
  • Apply organizational, technical, economic and social aspects of information systems to real world problems.
  • Work and communicate effectively in teams within organizations.

Graduates of the program should be able to:

Essential Science and Mathematical Skills

  • Solve complex and diverse problems by:
    • recognizing universal physical laws relevant to the problem,
    • applying the relevant laws to the problem,
    • applying mathematical and computational techniques,
    • using experimental, computational, and/or theoretical methods, and
    • evaluating the limitations of their solutions.

Core Professional Skills

  • Critically assess their current state of knowledge and expertise, and develop, implement, and refine a plan to acquire new knowledge for specific scientific goals and in pursuit of new intellectual interests
  • Communicate effectively via oral, visual, and written formats to diverse STEM audiences.
  • Use the appropriate tools and requisite media literacy to acquire, assess, and analyze data and information from diverse sources.

Other Global Professional Skills

  • Critically assess their current state of knowledge and expertise, and develop, implement, and refine a plan to acquire new knowledge for specific scientific goals and in pursuit of new intellectual interests
  • Communicate effectively via oral, visual, and written formats to diverse STEM audiences.
  • Use the appropriate tools and requisite media literacy to acquire, assess, and analyze data and information from diverse sources.

Graduates of the program should be able to:

Breadth of Knowledge in Psychology

  • Describe multiple areas within psychology (e.g., social, cognitive, clinical, developmental, etc.), including theoretical perspectives, research findings, and their applications.
  • Identify theory, research, and applications in related disciplines (e.g., genetics, computer science, etc.).
  • Explain diverse experimental paradigms used in psychology and related research areas
  • Discuss the history of psychology within the primary area of study, including the impact of scientific revolutions, theory shifts, etc. on the choice of research questions, methods, etc.
  • Describe ethical issues in conducting research

 Depth of Knowledge in at least one area

  • Synthesize disparate facts and theories in the primary area of study
  • Apply the research methods, experimental designs, and analysis techniques commonly used to investigate questions in the primary field of study

 Proficiency in Information Search and Communication

  • Use psychology databases, e.g., PsychLit
  • Read and critique psychological articles
  • Deliver effective oral presentations
  • Write effectively using the format suggested by the American Psychological Association

 Proficiency in Investigation and Analysis of Behavior

  • Design and conduct psychological studies to address research questions
  • Apply knowledge of statistical theory to choice of appropriate analyses
  • Use statistical packages to analyze and interpret data

Graduates of the program should be able to:

  • Apply frontier tools from the social sciences, particularly microeconomics, to understand policy decisions and outcomes and to describe, predict, and influence social systems.
  • Demonstrate how to write and speak about social science theories of individual and social behavior arising in economics, decision science, organizations, psychology, and political science, including results and debates.
  • Solve/explore unstructured real-world problems that require teamwork and contributions from diverse disciplines.
  • Demonstrate independent learning skills and enthusiasm for the field.