The Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs) were developed in 1997 and have been praised by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as being instrumental in shaping the LEAP (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) Essential Learning Outcomes. The PULs have provided a framework of learning outcomes that every undergraduate student at IU Indianapolis should attain. Through the years, the PULs have been revised with the final revision adding the Principles of Co-Curricular Learning (PCLs) in 2013. Recently, the PULs were revised to ensure that they continue to represent the knowledge, skills, values, and competencies that faculty aspire our students to acquire across our academic programs heading into the campus’s 50th anniversary.
After an extensive process and through feedback from many faculty, staff, and students, the PULs were revised and renamed the Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success, or IU Indianapolis+. IU Indianapolis+ was approved by the IU Indianapolis Faculty Council on May 1, 2018.
IU Indianapolis prepares all students to communicate, innovate, and engage local and global communities to solve the problems of the 21st century. Along this journey, students have many opportunities to reflect upon their classroom and co-curricular learning, develop expertise in their chosen field(s), and grow as human beings. Students become acquainted with each of the profiles of communicator, problem solver, innovator, and community contributor in general education and first year experiences and progress along these pathways through their major coursework and co-curricular activities toward the capstone/culminating experience. Each profile is not distinct but supports and enhances the others in multiple ways, providing students with various occasions to deepen disciplinary understanding and refine what it means to be a well-rounded, well-educated person prepared for lifelong learning.
Communicator
The IU Indianapolis student conveys ideas effectively and ethically in oral, written, and visual forms across public, private, interpersonal, and team settings, using face- to-face and mediated channels. Communicators are mindful of themselves and others, listen, observe, and read thoughtfully, ask questions, evaluate information critically, create messages that demonstrate awareness of diverse audiences, and collaborate with others and across cultures to build relationships. The communicator:
- Evaluates Information
- Listens Actively
- Builds Relationships
- Convey Ideas Effectively
Problem Solver
The IU Indianapolis student works individually and with others to collect, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to implement innovative solutions to challenging local and global problems. The problem solver:
- Thinks Critically
- Collaborates
- Analyzes, Synthesizes, and Evaluates
- Perseveres
Innovator
The IU Indianapolis student builds on experiences and disciplinary expertise to approach new situations and circumstances in original ways, is willing to take risks with ideas, and pose solutions. Innovators are original in their thoughts and ask others to view a situation or practice in a new way. Innovators are good decision makers, can create a plan to achieve their goals, and can carry out that plan to its completion. Innovators use their knowledge and skills to address complex problems in order to make a difference in the civic life of communities, and to address the world’s most pressing and enduring issues. The innovator:
- Investigates
- Creates/Designs
- Confronts Challenges
- Makes Decisions
Community Contributor
The IU Indianapolis student is an active and valued contributor on the campus and in communities locally and globally. They are personally responsible, self-aware, civically engaged and they look outward to understand the needs of the society and their environment. They are socially responsible, ethically oriented, and actively engaged in the work of building strong and inclusive communities, both local and global. The community contributor:
- Builds Community
- Respectfully Engages Own and Other Cultures
- Behaves Ethically
- Anticipates Consequences
