Entry Year Experience
(Required of all students who enter UW-Platteville with fewer than 30 credits excluding test credits or credit earned in high school)
An Introduction to College Course
As a result of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe how campus resources can support their learning and transition to college.
- Utilize multiple forms of instructional technology, including standard campus systems and tools to facilitate hybrid learning.
- Identify their educational goals and their motivation for achieving those goals.
- Develop time management and prioritization skills that support a balance between their academic and personal lives while maintaining their physical and emotional wellness (ex: scheduling course time for asynchronous courses, safely developing social connections).
- Develop study habits and/or learning practices that support their academic success in all modes of instruction/delivery (ex: engaging with instructors and peers a/synchronously, using active learning and reading skills, engaging in independent and guided learning).
- Demonstrate how a support network (ex: peers, faculty and/or staff) is important for their persistence toward their educational goals.
- Explain how they have handled a challenge to their values, identity, or relationships with others who are similar to or different from themselves.
Competencies
At UW-Platteville, the competencies are comprised of the basic skills:
- English Composition,
- Foreign Language,
- Mathematics,
- Speech and
- Wellness/Physical Activity.
The design of the basic competency program assumes that high school graduates have met the minimum standards of the university. Opportunities for testing out of certain basic requirements for the baccalaureate degree will exist. Students with exceptionally strong high school backgrounds may earn general education credit by CLEP (College Level Examination Program) or AP (Advanced Placement) testing. Entering students who do not meet minimum standards on the UW System English and Mathematics Placement Tests may be required to take remedial courses in these areas, and such courses will not count toward general education or graduation requirements.
English Composition
Students must be able to write and read effectively.
Foreign Language
Students must be able to use a language other than English (or their first language). Refer to the degree requirements for additional information.
Mathematics
Students must have a basic competency in computation, problem solving, and quantitative reasoning.
Speech
Students must be able to understand spoken English and communicate using it effectively
Wellness/Physical Activity
Students must know how to achieve and maintain both their physical and mental well being.
In the following requirements, a course may fulfill more than one requirement, but no student may use a single course to fulfill more than two requirements.
Ethnic Studies
The purpose of ethnic studies is to awaken the minds and spirits of students to the issues of race and ethnicity in the United States and the social realities and moral challenges of racism in U.S. culture. It strives to help students fulfill their intellectual, moral and social potential, and encourages them to remove barriers that can prevent others from achieving their own potential.
Fine Arts/History/Humanities
- The purpose of the study of fine arts is to help students become familiar with the historical and cultural heritage of the fine arts. They should also gain a basic understanding of the creative processes, forms and concepts used in the arts.
- The purpose of the study of history is to challenge students to understand and assess our past, in order to form a clearer perception of the present and to deal more effectively with public issues.
- The purpose of the study of humanities is to explore the range of human thought and experience - achievements and failures, joys and sorrows, comedy and tragedy, life and death. It should challenge students to understand and evaluate how others, past and present, historical and fictional, have struggled with these issues.
Gender Studies
The purpose of gender studies is to help students come to a better understanding of themselves as responsible individuals operating within a gendered cultural context, paying special attention to perspectives involving women.
International Education
The purpose of international education is to challenge students to understand our place within the world and to provide basic knowledge about cultures, people or nations beyond the borders of the United States.
Natural Sciences
The purpose of studying the natural sciences is to help students understand nature and how the processes of scientific investigation lead to new discoveries. The credits must be taken in approved courses and courses must include a laboratory component.
Social Sciences
The purpose of studying the social sciences is to develop an understanding of social systems, the dynamics of individual and group behavior and the forces that operate in social relationships. Credits must be taken in approved courses in the following disciplines: Agricultural Industries, Criminal Justice, Economics, Ethnic Studies, Geography, Media, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Speech, and Women’s and Gender Studies.
General Policies
- Only approved courses may be used to fulfill the general education requirements.
- Every student must earn a minimum of 42 credits in upper-division courses (courses numbered 3000 or above).
- All students must earn 32 credits in residence at UW-Platteville and also 23 of their last 32 credits in residence.