IDEAs in Action General Education Curriculum

The IDEAs in Action general education curriculum empowers students to design their own educational journey, while providing them with a foundation that prepares them for the intellectual growth associated with a Carolina education and in their future roles as leaders, creative problem-solvers, lifelong learners, and engaged citizens. Additional information can be found on the IDEAs in Action website.

The IDEAs in Action General Education curriculum applies to all first-year students and transfer students who matriculate as degree-seeking undergraduate students in fall 2022 or later. 

Students who matriculated to the University prior to fall 2022 should follow the Making Connections General Education curriculum. Information and approved courses can be found in archived editions of the Catalog.

The IDEAs Approach: 

• Identify pressing questions, problems, and issues
• Discover ideas, evidence, and methods that inform these questions
• Evaluate these ideas, evidence, and methods 
• Act on the basis of these evaluations 

First-Year Foundations 

Start strong! This is a set of special courses and experiences in the first year designed to help students navigate their transition to the college environment, get them ready to take ownership of their education, and make the most of the opportunities at Carolina.

Students must complete the First-Year Foundation requirements during the first academic year on campus (two semesters), with the exception of Global Language. Students are strongly encouraged to begin Global Language during their first year. 

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
First-Year Foundations
IDST 101	College Thriving H, 1	1
First-Year Seminar or First-Year Launch 1		3
Triple-I and Data Literacy 1		4
ENGL 105	English Composition and Rhetoric	3
or ENGL 105I	English Composition and Rhetoric (Interdisciplinary)
Global Language through level 3 2		varies
Total Hours		11

H

Honors students may use HNRS 101 to fulfill the College Thriving requirement. 

¹

Must be completed at UNC–Chapel Hill. Transfer credit and by-examination credit are not awarded. 

²

Some majors require additional levels. Students are strongly encouraged to begin Global Language during their first year. 

Transfer students who completed at least 24 hours of post-high school transfer credit are required to complete ENGL 105 (or ENGL 105I) and Global Language, but not the other First-Year Foundation requirements. Test credit (e.g., AP, IB, SAT II) does not apply to this calculation. More information for transfer students, early college Students, and transfer credit from a North Carolina community college can be found in this catalog. 

Additional First-Year Foundation Policies 

• Courses used to satisfy First-Year Foundation requirements may not be declared Pass/Low Pass/Fail. This includes level 1, level 2, and level 3 language courses being used to fulfill the Global Language (through level 3) requirement. Note that IDST 101 is only offered as Pass/Low Pass/Fail. 
• Students may take and receive credit for only one course in each of the following requirement categories: 1) College Thriving (IDST 101), 2) First-Year Seminar or First-Year Launch, 3) Triple-I + Data Literacy, 4) ENGL 105 or ENGL 105I. 
• All First-Year Foundation requirements must be satisfied by taking courses at UNC–Chapel Hill, with three exceptions: 
  • UNC faculty-led First-Year Seminars awarding UNC graded credit in study abroad programs may be used to satisfy the First-Year Seminar requirement.
  • ENGL 105 may be satisfied with transfer credit, but not with by-examination (BE) credit. 
  • Global Language may be satisfied with college transfer credit, UNC language placement test credit (PL), by-examination (BE) credit, or from prior educational experience. Additional information can be found in this catalog and on the Language Placement website. 
• Students must maintain continuous enrollment in Global Language courses until they have completed the requirement. See "Continuous Course Enrollment" section in this catalog.  
• Students are not permitted to drop ENGL 100, ENGL 105, ENGL 105I, or Global Language levels 1 through 3 being used to fulfill the Gen Ed requirement after the second week of the semester, unless approved by a dean in the Academic Advising Program. See "Continuous Course Enrollment" section in this catalog.  
• Students are not permitted to drop only Triple-I and not the data literacy lab (or vice versa). These are enforced corequisite courses that must be taken together.
• A First-Year Seminar/First-Year Launch course may overlap with one or more of the following Gen Ed requirements: 1 Focus Capacity (+Lab), Research and Discovery, High-Impact Experience, Communication Beyond Carolina.  

Focus Capacities 

Design your course of study! Students take one course for each of the nine Focus Capacity courses (3 credits each) plus a one-credit Empirical Investigation Lab. Focus Capacity courses introduce and reinforce a broad set of capacities for identifying, discovering, evaluating, and taking action upon ideas, knowledge, evidence, and argument. 

¹

A single course may be used to fulfill only one Focus Capacity requirement (not including lab). 

²

Students may fulfill up to five Focus Capacity courses (+Lab) using by-examination (BE) credit

³

Every Focus Capacity course includes the following recurring capacities: 

• Writing, totaling at least 10 pages in length or the intellectual equivalent
• Presenting material to the class, small groups, or the public through oral presentations, webpages, or other means that enable corroboration of fact and argument
• Collaborating in pairs or groups to learn, design, solve, create, build, research, or similar.

Disciplinary Distribution

All students must take at least one general education course (Focus Capacity, FY-Seminar/FY-Launch, High-Impact Experience, Research and Discovery, or Communication Beyond Carolina) in each of the three major divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences: 

1. Humanities and fine arts
2. Mathematics and natural sciences 
3. Social and behavioral sciences

Additional Focus Capacity Policies 

• Courses used to satisfy Focus Capacity requirements may not be declared Pass/Low Pass/Fail.
• A Focus Capacity course may overlap with one or more of the following Gen Ed requirements: FY-Seminar/FY-Launch, Research and Discovery, High-Impact Experience, Communication Beyond Carolina. 
• A Focus Capacity course may not double count with a Supplemental General Education course. 
• The degree programs in Clinical Laboratory Science, Dental Hygiene, Nursing, and Radiologic Science require at least six of the nine Focus Capacities (plus lab). If a student pursues a different second major, then all nine Focus Capacities (plus Lab) are required. 
   

Reflection and Integration 

Put your learning into action! As students move through the curriculum, IDEAs in Action calls for them to put their capacities into practice through concrete experiences. These opportunities help students reflect upon, deepen, and connect knowledge and capacities.

¹

The same course or experience may not be counted for both the Research and Discovery and the High-Impact Experience requirements. 

²

Students in the 2024-2025 cohort class must earn credit for a Communication Beyond Carolina course to fulfill this requirement. 

Students in the 2022–2023 cohort class and the 2023–2024 cohort class may fulfill this requirement by earning credit for a Communication Beyond Carolina course from the IDEAs in Action curriculum or by earning credit for a Communication-Intensive course from the Making Connections curriculum. 

³

Varsity student athletes who participate in a sport for at least one semester are exempt from this requirement. ROTC students who participate in the program for at least one semester are exempt from this requirement. These students still have the option to take an LFIT course. 

Additional Policies 

• Courses used to satisfy Reflection and Integration requirements may not be declared Pass/Low Pass/Fail. Note that all Lifetime Fitness courses, some Research and Discovery courses, and some High-Impact Experience courses are only offered as Pass/Low Pass/Fail. 
• A Research and Discovery course may overlap with one or more of the following Gen Ed requirements: FY-Seminar/FY-Launch, 1 Focus Capacity, Communication Beyond Carolina, Supplemental General Education. 
• A High-Impact Experience course may overlap with one or more of the following Gen Ed requirements: FY-Seminar/FY-Launch, 1 Focus Capacity, Communication Beyond Carolina, Supplemental General Education. 
• A Communication Beyond Carolina course may overlap with one or more of the following Gen Ed requirements: FY-Seminar/FY-Launch, 1 Focus Capacity, Research and Discovery, High-Impact Experience, Supplemental General Education. 
• Research and Discovery, High-Impact Experience, and Communication Beyond Carolina courses may count towards the Disciplinary Distribution requirement (see above).
• Transfer students from the Carolina Global Launch program may use the experience to fulfill the High-Impact Experience requirement. 

Supplemental General Education

Students who pursue a bachelor of arts degree must also satisfy a Supplemental General Education requirement. The intent of this requirement is to broaden a student’s perspective on the major by examining its relationship to work in at least one other field. Students may fulfill the requirement in three ways:

1. By completing a second major
2. By completing a minor
3. By completing three courses (nine hours) above 199 that are offered outside the home department or curriculum of the first major. These three courses can neither be used to fulfill the requirements of the first major nor be cross-listed with courses that a student has used to satisfy major requirements

Additional Policies 

First-Year Foundations

College Thriving (FY-THRIVE)

Learning Outcomes

1. Increase and appreciate the significance of self-awareness.
2. Value a liberal arts education.
3. Set goals, plan, and reflect upon learning using aspects of using learning science: metacognition, self-regulated learning, and motivation.
4. Describe academic strategies, policies, and pathways and their link to resources such as academic advising and career services.
5. Reflect on the science of thriving: positive emotion, engagement, meaning, healthy relationships, resilience, stress, and other aspects of well-being.
6. Demonstrate mastery of basic mental health, drug and alcohol, and sexual wellness practices.

Writing at the Research University (FY-WRITING)

Learning Outcomes

1. Employ conventions, genres, and rhetoric practiced in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
2. Conduct research using a variety of methods, databases, and sources.
3. Discuss and present research-based arguments and information.
4. Identify how best to use research and evidence in discipline-specific compositions.
5. Compose using written, oral, and multimedia modes.
6. Review and revise one’s own work and assist others in revising their work.

First-Year Seminar/First-Year Launch (FY-SEMINAR & FY-LAUNCH)

Learning Outcomes (First-Year Seminar)

1. Connect with a faculty member early in the educational process.
2. Learn intensively among a small cohort of students.
3. Apply methods for how scholars pose problems, discover solutions, resolve controversies, and evaluate knowledge.
4. Produce knowledge through self-directed inquiry and active learning.

Learning Outcomes (First-Year Launch)

1. Connect with a faculty member early in the educational process.
2. Learn intensively among a small cohort of students.
3. Learn the foundation of a discipline.
4. Analyze and communicate issues associated with a broad, introductory topic, covering a wide range of knowledge.

Approved FY-SEMINAR & FY-LAUNCH courses.

Ideas, Information, and Inquiry (FY-TRIPLE)

Learning Outcomes

1. Gain exposure to the three disciplines and their methods of inquiry.
2. Compare and contrast different ways that scholars address a question, problem, or theme.
3. Understand the power of approaching a topic from multiple perspectives.
4. Learn how different disciplines understand and use data and evidence.

Approved FY-TRIPLE courses.

Global Language (GLBL-LANG)

Learning Outcomes

1. Communicate orally (as appropriate) and in writing in a foreign language about a variety of situations with a variety of audiences.
2. Demonstrate comprehension of oral (as appropriate) and written texts in a foreign language on a wide range of topics to aspects of human experience, as well as life in a cross-cultural context.
3. Apply perspectives, practices, and ideas associated with the culture(s) of a foreign language.

Approved GLBL-LANG courses.

Focus Capacities  

Every Focus Capacity course includes the following recurring capacities: 

1. Writing, totaling at least 10 pages in length or the intellectual equivalent
2. Presenting material to the class, small groups, or the public through oral presentations, webpages, or other means that enable corroboration of fact and argument
3. Collaborating in pairs or groups to learn, design, solve, create, build, research, or similar.

Aesthetic and Interpretive Analysis (FC-AESTH) 

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Interpret and critique literary and artistic expression.
2. Analyze literary and artistic works in various contexts (social, political, historical, philosophical, etc.) and with regard to style, period, and the circumstances of composition.
3. Explain how aesthetic expression enhances human experience.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What is the particular value of aesthetic experience and how does it generate meanings, responses, and acts of reflection?
2. What makes an artistic work different from other forms of expression?
3. How does creative attention to an aesthetic object reveal new ideas, articulate values, and reflect or enact art’s functions in the world?

Approved FC-AESTH courses. 

Creative Expression, Practice, and Production (FC-CREATE)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Compose, design, build, present, or perform a work that is the result of immersion in a creative process using appropriate media, tools, and techniques.
2. Explain the roles and influences of creativity, technologies, materials, and design processes in the creation of knowledge, expression, and effective solutions.
3. Evaluate their own and others’ creative work to demonstrate how critique creates value in creative domains.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What processes and practices can I use to produce meaningful expression or effective solutions with lasting impact?
2. How does collaboration and teamwork change or enhance the creative process?
3. How does a design strategy affect or enhance the creation and evaluation of a work of value?

Approved FC-CREATE courses. 

Engagement with the Human Past (FC-PAST)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Develop knowledge of different spatiotemporal scales, patterns, ideas, figures, and events from the past.
2. Evaluate primary source material and/or other historical evidence of past conditions (e.g., behaviors, events, and social, cultural, economic, and/or political structures); assess divergent or complementary methods, materials, and/or methodologies in interpreting the human past.
3. Assess conflicting historical narratives based on evidence and methodologies.
4. Generate and evaluate arguments based the analysis of primary and scholarly sources.
5. Apply historical methods and knowledge to make informed judgments about the past and the present.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What events, conflicts, and continuities shaped an era of the human past?
2. What distinctive kinds of evidence do we use to interpret and understand the human past?
3. How have people made decisions and acted in light of historical knowledge?
4. How does the material and historical past survive in the present and affect our perception of both the past and the present?
5. What conditions and processes shape our approach to the human past?

Approved FC-PAST courses. 

Ethical and Civic Values (FC-VALUES)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Explain the contexts in which questions of justification arise.
2. Assess ethical values in terms of reasons offered
3. Recognize different ethical perspectives and the distinctive approaches these perspectives bring to questions of value, evaluating ethical justifications for different ways of organizing civic and political communities.
4. Analyze the differences between personal ethical decisions and those bearing on the public and civic spheres.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. How can people think fruitfully (individually and together) about how they should live their lives?
2. What is required to judge a standard or value as worthy of support?
3. How should we distinguish between prejudices and reasonable grounds for value judgments?
4. What considerations – stories, reasons, testimony, documents, data, etc. – can justify our values and commitments, whether personal or social?

Approved FC-VALUES courses.

Global Understanding and Engagement (FC-GLOBAL)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Classify and analyze diverse historical, social, and political exchanges that shape nations, regions, and cultural traditions of the world.
2. Translate among contrasting civic cultures, social values, and moral commitments that characterize differences among peoples and societies, including those beyond the North Atlantic region.
3. Assess ways that political and economic institutions shape contemporary global relations.
4. Explain human and environmental challenges that transcend national borders.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What forces connect and distinguish the experiences of peoples, societies, and human organization around the world?
2. How can I understand and compare differing worldviews?
3. What connections and differences exist between particular worldviews, experiences, societies, or power structures?
4. What ideas, approaches, and international sources allow scholars to compare societies?

Approved FC-GLOBAL courses.

Natural Scientific Investigation (FC-NATSCI)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Demonstrate the ability to use scientific knowledge, logic, and imagination to construct and justify scientific claims about naturally occurring phenomena, including validation through rigorous empirical testing.
2. Analyze and apply processes of scientific inquiry as dictated by the phenomena and questions at hand. These include generating and testing hypotheses or theories pertaining to the natural world; using logic and creativity to design investigations to test these hypotheses; collecting and interpreting data about the natural world; making inferences that respect measurement error; building and justifying arguments and explanations; communicating and defending conclusions; revising arguments and conclusions based on new evidence and/or feedback from peers; and synthesizing new knowledge into broader scientific understanding.
3. Evaluate science-related claims and information from popular and/or peer-reviewed sources by examining the relationship between the evidence, arguments, and conclusions presented and by assessing consistency with existing knowledge from valid and reliable scientific sources.
4. Identify, assess, and make informed decisions about ethical issues at the intersections of the natural sciences and society.

The General Education Oversight Committee approved changes to the learning outcomes on 3-26-2021.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What rules govern the natural world and how are they discovered, tested, and validated?
2. What is distinctive about the approach to understanding employed in the natural sciences?
3. What challenges are encountered in making measurements of the natural world?
4. What are the limits of investigation in the natural sciences?

Approved FC-NATSCI courses.

Power, Difference, and Inequality (FC-POWER)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Recognize the relationship between inequality and social, economic, and political power.
2. Analyze configurations of power and the forms of inequality and bias they produce.
3. Evaluate dynamics of social, economic, and political inequality in relation to specific historical contexts.
4. Interrogate the systemic processes by which forms of inequality are sustained and how these processes have been and are resisted and transformed.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What are the relevant structures, institutions, ways of thinking, and practices that create, maintain, and change social, economic, and political inequalities?
2. What practices have been implemented and institutionalized to address social, economic, and political inequalities?

Approved FC-POWER courses.

Quantitative Reasoning (FC-QUANT)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Summarize, interpret, and present quantitative data in mathematical forms, such as graphs, diagrams, tables, or mathematical text.
2. Develop or compute representations of data using mathematical forms or equations as models, and use statistical methods to assess their validity.
3. Make and evaluate important assumptions in the estimation, modeling, and analysis of data, and recognize the limitations of the results.
4. Apply mathematical concepts, data, procedures, and solutions to make judgments and draw conclusions.
5. Synthesize and present quantitative data to others to explain findings or to provide quantitative evidence in support of a position.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What is the role of mathematics in organizing and interpreting measurements of the world?
2. How can mathematical models and quantitative analysis be used to summarize or synthesize data into knowledge and predictions?
3. What methodology can we apply to validate or reject mathematical models or to express our degree of confidence in them?

Approved FC-QUANT courses.

Ways of Knowing (FC-KNOWING)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Recognize and use one or more approach(es) to developing and validating knowledge of the unfamiliar world.
2. Evaluate ways that temporal, spatial, scientific, and philosophical categories structure knowledge.
3. Interrogate assumptions that underlie our own perceptions of the world.
4. Employ strategies to mitigate or adjust for preconceptions and biases.
5. Apply critical insights to understand patterns of experience and belief.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. What norms and expectations do I take for granted?
2. What categories and concepts frame my assumptions, experiences, and beliefs?
3. What practices of investigation or inquiry best challenge those assumptions and expectations?
4. How can I consider whether my beliefs might be wrong?

Approved FC-KNOWING courses.

Empirical Investigation Lab (FC-LAB)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Take empirical measurements using appropriate apparatus.
2. Generate and test hypotheses.
3. Gather, store, and organize data.
4. Analyze and report on data and hypothesis testing.

Approved FC-LAB courses.

Reflection and Integration

Research and Discovery (RESEARCH)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Frame a topic, develop an original research question or creative goal, and establish a point of view, creative approach, or hypothesis.
2. Obtain a procedural understanding of how conclusions can be reached in a field and gather appropriate evidence.
3. Evaluate the quality of the arguments and/or evidence in support of the emerging product.
4. Communicate findings in a clear and compelling ways.
5. Critique and identify the limits of the conclusions of the project and generate ideas for future work.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. How do I establish my point of view, take intellectual risks, and begin producing original scholarship or creative works?
2. How do I narrow my topic, critique current scholarship, and gather evidence in systematic and responsible ways?
3. How do I evaluate my findings and communicate my conclusions?

Approved RESEARCH courses.

High-Impact Experience 

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Explain the connections between academic studies and outside-the-classroom experiences and observations.
2. Apply knowledge in complex or ambiguous situations.
3. Develop questions from experiences and observations to deepen and extend academic inquiry.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. How do things I’ve learned in the classroom apply to outside settings?
2. How can experiences and observation raise or answer questions in academic settings?
3. How can I meaningfully reflect to help navigate complexities and ambiguities I encounter?

Approved High-Impact Experiences.

Communication Beyond Carolina (COMMBEYOND)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Ascertain the expectations, opportunities, and barriers to oral communication in distinct situations.
2. Tailor oral communications to different kinds of settings, including individual, small group, and public communication.
3. Tailor oral communications to different levels of expertise (inexpert, informed, expert), and to varying levels of alignment (resistant, ambivalent, supportive) and distinct contexts.
4. Make informed situation- and audience-sensitive strategic choices in content and delivery.
5. Improve ability to move audiences, as measure by best practices, audience feedback, and instructor feedback.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. How can I engage with audiences through oral communication?
2. How do I best convey knowledge, ideas, and information effectively to different audiences in situations?
3. How can I best understand the views and ideas of others, both individually and collectively?
4. What are the best ways of strategizing and delivering oral communication for achieving my intended outcomes?
5. How can media or digital compositions extend my ability to communicate?

Approved COMMBEYOND courses.

Lifetime Fitness (LIFE-FIT)

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing a course.

1. Engage in healthy physical activity and nutritional behaviors. 
2. Assess your own physical activity and fitness. 
3. Design and initiate a personal physical activity plan for aerobic and muscular fitness.
4. Create solutions for overcoming barriers to maintaining lifetime fitness and proper nutrition throughout life.

Approved LIFE-FIT courses.

Campus Life Experience

Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes that are expected of students after completing this requirement.

1. Attend a diverse set of campus performances, lectures, and events.
2. Interpret performances, lectures, and events in light of academic study.
3. Participate in the life of a university campus and its activities outside the classroom.

Questions for Students 

These are the types of questions you should be able to answer after completing a course.

1. How do public and campus events enrich and broaden college learning?
2. How do performances and intellectual talks inspire new ways of interpreting and understanding the world?
3. How do political lectures and debates bridge or illuminate important differences?

If you applied to UNC as a transfer student, there are a few elements of the IDEAs in Action curriculum that are different for you. 

If you completed 24 or more credits at another institution (earned after graduating from high school), you are exempt from the following 3 First-Year Foundation requirements (and you may not enroll in these classes): 

1. College Thriving 
2. First-Year Seminar/First-Year Launch 
3. Ideas, Information, and Inquiry (Triple-I)

All other Gen Ed requirements must be fulfilled, including ENGL 105 and Global Language from the First-Year Foundations. 

Transfer Students from a North Carolina Community College

If you earned an associate's degree from a North Carolina community college and qualify under the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA), all IDEAs in Action requirements are satisfied, with the following exceptions: 

• Global Language
• Research and Discovery
• Communication Beyond Carolina
• Lifetime Fitness
• Campus Life Experience (for the semesters at UNC)
• Supplemental General Education (BA degree only)

​If you receive equivalent course credit, you may use the transfer credit to fulfill any of the requirements listed above. 

First-Year Students from a North Carolina Early College

If you were admitted as a first-year student and earned an associate's degree from a North Carolina early college (Cooperative Innovative High School) and qualify for the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA), all IDEAs in Action requirements are satisfied, with the following exceptions: 

• Global Language
• Research and Discovery
• Communication Beyond Carolina
• Lifetime Fitness
• Campus Life Experience (for the semesters at UNC)
• Supplemental General Education (B.A. degree only)

​If you receive equivalent course credit, you may use the transfer credit to fulfill any of the requirements listed above. 

Although not required, as a first-year student you may elect to enroll in IDST 101, Triple-I, and a FY-Seminar or FY-Launch course.