Quantitative and Data Literacy
Since data analysis drives research in academic disciplines and decision-making in applied contexts, it is critical that students have experience manipulating and drawing conclusions from data sets. QD-designated courses demonstrate and apply quantitative approaches within a disciplinary context, ensuring that students are able to extract meaning from data-rich information and to apply appropriate analytical tools in assessing that meaning.
Students are required to take 1 QD course.
Quantitative and Data Literacy (QD)
Writing and Information Literacy 1
Courses that fulfill the WIL1 requirement include assignments and activities that develop the four Foundational Writing and Information Literacy learning goals: rhetorical discernment, information literacy, critical reading, and substantive revision. Rhetorical discernment is the ability to write appropriately for different audiences, contexts, and purposes. Information literacy is the ability to pose appropriate questions and find reliable, relevant, and useful information to answer them. Information literacy also includes the ability to integrate sources into writing and to document sources correctly. Critical reading is the ability to identify, understand, and communicate the main ideas of a text and evaluate the evidence or strategies used to support those ideas. Substantive revision requires approaching writing as a process that includes rethinking ideas and organization, not merely copyediting and correcting mistakes.
Students are required to take 1 WIL1 course, preferably during their first year at UVM.
Writing and Information Literacy (WIL1)
Writing and Information Literacy Tier 2
Courses that fulfill WIL2 help students gain familiarity and fluency with genres, conventions, and formats typical in a discipline or field as well as develop a deeper understanding of how knowledge is accessed, developed, and shared. WIL2 courses build on skills and processes introduced in Foundational Writing and Information Literacy (WIL1) but refined through the conventions and practices of the field or discipline, including writing appropriately for different purposes, audiences, and contexts; posing and pursuing questions using relevant, reliable, and useful information while integrating and documenting sources correctly; understanding and evaluating ideas and evidence in texts; and developing flexible writing processes, including planning, drafting, revising, and polishing.
Students are required to take 1 WIL2 -OR- 1 OC course.
Writing and Information Literacy Tier 2 (WIL2)
Oral Communication (OC)
Oral communication refers to how speakers create and use messages to generate meanings across a wide variety of contexts and cultures. This includes the use of verbal and nonverbal communication practices. The oral communication general education requirement aims to enhance students’ ability to speak, listen, and interact with others effectively and ethically. Students will develop effective speaking skills, including crafting messages that are appropriately adapted to purpose, audience, context, and occasion. In addition, students will gain proficiency in practices of effective listening and the critical analysis of oral presentation. Furthermore, competency in oral communication will demonstrate students’ abilities to understand and synthesize theories of human communication and how to utilize and apply these theories to crafting effective speaking and listening practices. Courses in this category provide students with an understanding of the form, content, effectiveness, and ethical dimensions of verbal and nonverbal communication. Courses are not required to be delivered in English; sign language courses that develop equivalent communication skills through a signed linguistic modality may also fulfill this requirement.
Students are required to take 1 OC course -OR- or 1 WIL2 course.