A university's General Education program is a foundation for learning that introduces students to many different academic knowledge areas and competencies that students can use in their majors/degree programs and beyond graduation.
About SUNY Oneonta's Dragon Academy Program
SUNY Oneonta's General Education program—referred to as "Dragon Academy"—aligns with SUNY System’s General Education Framework in place at all SUNY campuses. Dragon Academy is a set of general education requirements for undergraduate students who declared their majors or started their Oneonta educations in or after fall 2023.
Dragon Academy Requirements
Completing Dragon Academy typically requires at least 36 credits. Included in those 36 credits are the following courses/types of courses students must successfully complete:
- a Red Dragon Seminar in their first year at Oneonta
- courses that meet the 11 Knowledge and Skill areas listed below
- courses that satisfy the 3 core competencies (double-dipping with Knowledge and Skills courses is allowed)
The Red Dragon Seminar (DRGN 1000) is a crucial course in SUNY Oneonta's new General Education Program, the "Dragon Academy." Taken during a student’s first year at SUNY Oneonta , the Red Dragon Seminar introduces students to three core competencies: Global Literacy, Critical Thinking and Reasoning, and Information Literacy.
Each seminar is offered in a small-class setting and offers students the opportunity to work with a faculty member and peers to explore a particular topic in depth and develop skills that will help ensure success at the university. Dragon Seminars cover a wide variety of topics and disciplines and all are discussion-based courses that engage students in investigation of relevant problems, topics or themes through an interdisciplinary lens.
Note: an individual course may carry a maximum of one Knowledge and Skill area attribute.
- Oral Communication (OCOM)
- Written Communication (WCOM)
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice (DESJ)
- Quantitative Reasoning (MAT)
- Scientific Reasoning (NSCI)
- Humanities (HUMA)
- Social Sciences (SOSC)
- Arts (ARTS)
- U.S. History and Civic Engagement (UHCE)
- World History and Global Awareness (WHGA)
- World Languages (WLAN)*
*Students can demonstrate that they have met the learning outcomes for the World Language Requirement, and fulfill their WLAN General Education Requirement, in one of the following ways:
- earn a State Seal of Biliteracy in high school: students demonstrate competency in high school, including by completing a final world language project;
- earn a diploma from a non-English-speaking high school;
- test out on the Gen Ed Proficiency Exam (administered by SUNY Oneonta’s Foreign Languages and Literatures Department); or
- take a course with a World Languages (WLAN) designation.
The 3 core competencies are:
- Critical Thinking and Reasoning (CRT);
- Information Literacy (IL);
- Global Literacy (GL).
The Red Dragon Seminar (DRGN 1000) course introduces students to these competencies, and then students build on them by completing Knowledge and Skill Area courses that satisfy the three competencies. Students may look online in the University Catalog under which they fall—or search in the Schedule of Classes—to see which Knowledge and Skill Area courses carry one or more of the competencies. Students must meet the three competencies by completing Knowledge and Skill Area courses that carry attributes for one or more of the competencies – “double dipping” is allowed.
Learning Outcomes for Critical Thinking and Reasoning (CRT) Courses
Students will:
- clearly articulate issue or problem;
- identify, analyze and evaluate ideas, data and arguments as they occur in their own or other’s work;
- acknowledge limitations such as perspective and bias; and
- develop well-reasoned (logical) arguments to form judgements and/or draw conclusions.
Learning Outcomes for Information Literacy (IL) Courses
Students will:
- look at information effectively using tools appropriate to their needs and discipline;
- evaluate information with an awareness of authority, validity and bias; and
- demonstrate an understanding of the ethical dimensions of information use, creation and dissemination.
Learning Outcomes for Global Literacy (GL) Courses
Students will:
- decipher the interdependencies, relationships and linkages (historical or contemporary) that exist between the Global North and the Global South;
- examine issues of sustainability;
- interrogate global relations in terms of questions of social justice; and
- be able to analyze the history and diversity of the U.S. and its relationship to the world.
Essential Learning Outcomes for All Oneonta Bachelor’s Degree Programs
Upon completion of any SUNY Oneonta undergraduate degree program, students will have demonstrated the following six “Essential Student Learning Outcomes”:
- awareness of global connectedness, diverse human cultures and principles of inclusivity;
- scientific and quantitative reasoning;
- oral and written communication skills;
- technological and information literacy;
- critical and creative thinking; and
- personal and social responsibility.
General Education areas met at one SUNY institution will meet the same General Education areas at SUNY Oneonta. It is possible that a General Education requirement may be met via exam and/or waiver. In such a case, credit is not earned, but the requirement is considered met. Waivers to requirements of SUNY Oneonta’s General Education Program, Dragon Academy, can be granted, when appropriate, to allow for seamless transfer between SUNY campuses.