Consistent with its mission and guiding principles, Florida Gulf Coast University is committed to academic excellence and continuous quality improvement, as supported by a sound teaching-learning process. Within this process, students and instructors share responsibility for learning that is a movement from the simple to the complex, the concrete to the abstract, and the dependent to the independent. The Academic Learning Compact (ALC) initiative supports the teaching-learning process by clearly identifying expected core student learning outcomes in the areas of content/discipline knowledge and skills, communication skills, and critical thinking skills; aligning curricula with expectations; and using assessment to guide continuous improvement.

Graduates will be able to:

1. Draw upon and demonstrate knowledge of the functional areas of business covered in the Common Prerequisites and Business Common Core.
2. Develop, understand and apply foundational microeconomic and macroeconomic models to individual, firm and broader economic activity and productivity.
3. Recognize, define, and analyze the constraints associated with resources and identify both cost and the benefits of particular “solutions” to social, economic, and political problems.
4. Identify the key economic actors and key economic interests and how these influence the perspectives of various parties involved in economic decision-making.
5. Articulate the role of price in the allocation of resources decision and to describe and understand the role of specialization or exchange in developing human flourishing at individual, firm, societal, and global levels.
6. Contribute to a broader understanding of the philosophies of market exchange and the role that decentralized and centralized systems of allocation can play in economic, social and political efficiency.
7. Articulate the contributions economic analysis makes in understanding of the workings of a firm.

Content/discipline knowledge and skills are assessed at the college and departmental levels through ETS Major Field Tests and papers, exams, and other projects completed in the following required courses: GEB 4890 Business Strategy, ECO 3101 Intermediate Price Theory, ECO 3202 Intermediate Macroeconomics, FIN 3244 Money & Capital Markets, and ECO 3410 Econometrics.

Graduates will be able to:

1. Communicate the results of their analytical endeavors and economic analysis to a broader audience.
2. Develop analyses of economic topics that exhibit clarity in writing and communication to the reader.
3. Select the significant points, inputs and processes that create a cogent and reasoned logical framework that is understandable, and relevant to the reader.
4. Present information in quantitative formats that is clear and moves the argument forward.

Communication skills are assessed as part of the General Education Program through papers, exams, and projects completed in ENC 1101 Composition I, ENC 1102 Composition II, and HUM 2510 Understanding the Visual and Performing Arts. Communication skills are also assessed in GEB 4890 Business Strategy, FIN 3244 Money & Capital Markets, and ECP 4040 Moral Foundations & Capitalism.

Graduates will be able to:

1. Select and organize economic information.
2. Identify and explain the underlying assumptions of an economic analysis. Synthesize information, and draw and defend reasoned inferences.
3. Formulate an appropriate problem-solving strategy while identifying both the costs and the benefits of the proposed solution.
4. Evaluate the feasibility of the success of a particular social strategy based upon the underlying economic realities.

Critical thinking skills are assessed as part of the General Education Program through papers, exams, and projects completed ENC 1101 Composition I, ENC 1102 Composition II, and HUM 2510 Understanding the Visual and Performing Arts. Critical thinking skills are also assessed in the capstone course.