General Education
General Education Program for Undergraduate Degrees
The general education program is required for all bachelor’s degree students at the Daytona Beach, Florida, campus, the Prescott, Arizona, campus and the Worldwide campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Embry-Riddle’s General Education Program is intentionally designed to align with and reinforce the University’s mission, vision, and values. It prepares students with a strong foundation in skill development and a broad base of knowledge across disciplines to complement their educational journey. Through its eight competencies (Collaborative Learning, Communication, Critical Thinking, Cultural Literacy, Information Literacy, Quantitative Reasoning, Scientific Literacy, and Technological Literacy), the General Education Program ensures that students possess the attributes expected of all university graduates.
General Education courses help students develop essential life skills in critical thinking and reasoning. They strengthen students’ ability to conduct meaningful research, collaborate in diverse teams, and analyze and communicate both scientific and cultural concepts. This foundation supports success in capstone courses and contributes to Embry-Riddle’s continued recognition for academic excellence.
In the workplace, these competencies translate directly into stronger performance: employees use critical thinking and reasoning to solve complex problems, conduct meaningful research to inform decisions, collaborate in diverse teams to achieve organizational goals, and analyze and communicate both scientific and cultural concepts to a range of stakeholders. Graduates emerge prepared to think critically, collaborate effectively, and contribute as informed, responsible members of society.
Candidates for bachelor's degrees must complete coursework in the following credit areas:
| Communication | 9 | |
| The study of how information, meaning, identity, and culture are constructed and shared by means of speaking, writing, or common behaviors | ||
| Humanities/Social Sciences | 12 | |
| Humanities: The study of world cultures and the artistic expressions of the human experience from an analytical perspective | ||
| Social Sciences: The scientific study of human society and social relations | ||
3 hours of lower-level Humanities | ||
3 hours of lower-level Social Science | ||
3 hours of lower-level or upper-level Humanities or Social Science | ||
3 hours of upper-level Humanities or Social Science | ||
| Computer Science/Information Technology | 3 | |
| Computer Science: The study of computers and computational systems | ||
| Information Technology: The use of hardware, software, services, and supporting infrastructure to manage and deliver information using voice, data, and video | ||
| Mathematics | 6 | |
| The study of assumptions, properties, and applications | ||
| Physical/Life Sciences | 6 | |
| Physical Sciences: The study of the inorganic world | ||
| Life Sciences: The study of living things and life processes; broader than the definition of the physical sciences and includes the biological sciences | ||
| Total Credits | 36 | |
Associate Degree General Education Requirements
Candidates for AS degrees must complete the general education credit hours required by their respective programs. The university is committed to ensuring that students possess a general education knowledge that will help them be successful in whatever degree program they select.
State of Minnesota Course Requirement
Worldwide Campus students residing in the State of Minnesota are required to comply with Minnesota Degree Standards which require students to complete four (4) credits in Humanities.
State of Nevada Course Requirement
Worldwide Campus students who obtain their degree from a Nevada campus must complete a course that covers the United States and State Constitution. Students may satisfy this requirement by completing GOVT 320 American National Government or through transfer credit of an equivalent course from another institution. This requirement does not apply to students taking courses through the Online Campus outside Nevada.
Advising
Students should seek the assistance of their Academic Advisor if there are questions. The assigned Academic Advisor contact information can be found in the Campus Solutions Student Center. Daytona Beach, Prescott, and Worldwide Academic Advisors are assigned based on the student's college affiliation (COAS, COA, COB, COBSI, COE) and primary program of study.
General Education Program Student Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Participate effectively in teams.
- Express ideas effectively for a variety of audiences, contexts, and purposes.
- Evaluate information from multiple perspectives to develop reasoned conclusions.
- Analyze how practices, values, or artifacts shape and/or are shaped by culture.
- Synthesize information appropriately to explore problems.
- Interpret data from numeric, tabular, graphical, and related formats to solve problems or infer conclusions.
- Evaluate scientific concepts, findings, and methodologies to draw logical conclusions.
- Evaluate technology for appropriate applications.
General Education Program Courses
General Education courses offered at the Daytona Beach, Prescott, and Worldwide campuses are listed below. Course offerings vary by semester and campus. Review degree program catalogs for any recommended General Education courses. Any approved General Education course completed at an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus will count toward ERAU General Education requirements.
Communication
COMM courses with an MLW suffix (Multilingual Language Writers) will satisfy general education requirements.
| COMM 122 | English Composition | 3 |
| COMM 219 | Speech | 3 |
| or CHIN 310 | Speech in Chinese II | |
| or COMM 420 & COMM 430 | Advanced Technical Communication I and Advanced Technical Communication II | |
| COMM 221 | Technical Communication | 3 |
| or COMM 222 | Business Communication | |
| or COMM 223 | Intelligence Communication | |
| or COMM 226 | User Experience (UX) Writing | |
| or COMM 355 | Creative Writing | |
Humanities
HUMN courses with an LAS suffix (Latin American Studies) will satisfy general education requirements.
| HUMN 112 | The Rhetoric of Social Justice Movements and Public Advocacy | 3 |
| HUMN 118 | Digital Publics and Rhetorical Theory | 3 |
| HUMN 131 | History of Jazz | 3 |
| HUMN 132 | History of Rock and Roll | 3 |
| HUMN 140 | Western Humanities I: Antiquity and the Middle Ages | 3 |
| HUMN 141 | Western Humanities II: Renaissance to Postmodern | 3 |
| HUMN 142 | Introduction to Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 143 | Introduction to Rhetoric | 3 |
| HUMN 144 | Introduction to Art | 3 |
| HUMN 145 | Themes in the Humanities | 3 |
| HUMN 146 | Introduction to Music | 3 |
| HUMN 147 | Digital Media Storytelling | 3 |
| HUMN 148 | Art and History of Podcasting | 3 |
| HUMN 149 | Writing Games: Video Games as Rhetorical Texts | 3 |
| HUMN 154 | Artificial Intelligence Rhetorics | 3 |
| HUMN 162 | Art of the Prehistoric and Ancient World: Caves, Kings, and Pyramids | 3 |
| HUMN 163 | Art of the Classical World: Gods, Heroes, and Empire | 3 |
| HUMN 165 | Travel and Adventure Nonfiction Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 172 | Exploring Science Fiction Films | 3 |
| HUMN 173 | Myth and the Marvel Cinematic Universe | 3 |
| HUMN 200 | Warriors in World Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 210 | World Culture | 3 |
| HUMN 213 | Introduction to Islamic Studies | 3 |
| HUMN 220 | Asian Studies | 3 |
| HUMN 240 | History of Communication Technologies | 3 |
| HUMN 241 | Introduction to Digital Humanities | 3 |
| HUMN 250 | Generative Artificial Intelligence in Real-World Contexts | 3 |
| HUMN 256 | Baseball History and Statistics | 3 |
| HUMN 300 | World Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 302 | Contemporary Issues in Science | 3 |
| HUMN 305 | Modern Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 309 | British Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 310 | American Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 312 | Contemporary Texts | 3 |
| HUMN 315 | Studies in Drama | 3 |
| HUMN 316 | Studies in Music | 3 |
| HUMN 321 | Mythology | 3 |
| HUMN 322 | Imagining Space in Literature and Film | 3 |
| HUMN 323 | Arab Culture | 3 |
| HUMN 325 | Studies in Film | 3 |
| HUMN 327 | Foundations in Latin American Studies | 3 |
| HUMN 330 | Values and Ethics | 3 |
| HUMN 333 | How Fiction, Film and Popular Culture Represent Science and Mathematics | 3 |
| HUMN 335 | Technology and Modern Civilization | 3 |
| HUMN 338 | Interdisciplinary Explorations | 3 |
| HUMN 340 | Aviators and Aviation in Film | 3 |
| HUMN 341 | World Philosophy | 3 |
| HUMN 345 | Comparative Religions | 3 |
| HUMN 350 | War in Contemporary American Literature | 3 |
| HUMN 356 | Audio Production and Podcasting | 3 |
| HUMN 400 | Science and Aviation/Aerospace Technology in Society | 3 |
| HUMN 430 | Ethics in Aviation | 3 |
| HUMN 431 | Ethics and Artificial Intelligence | 3 |
Social Sciences
| COMM 332 | Cross-Cultural Communication | 3 |
| COMM 336 | Travel Communication | 3 |
| COMM 363 | Communication and Society | 3 |
| COMM 375 | The Nature of Language | 3 |
| COMM 415 | Nonverbal Communication | 3 |
| ECON 200 | An Economic Survey | 3 |
| ECON 210 | Microeconomics | 3 |
| ECON 211 | Macroeconomics | 3 |
| ECON 225 | Engineering Economics | 3 |
| ECON 317 | Global Economics, Politics and Culture | 3 |
| ECON 450 | Econometrics through the Lens of Data Science | 3 |
| GCST 115 | Introduction to International Relations | 3 |
| GCST 208 | Human Geography | 3 |
| GCST 300 | International Conflict Resolution | 3 |
| GCST 302 | Gender Security | 3 |
| GCST 304 | Political Violence | 3 |
| GCST 308 | Transnational Crime | 3 |
| GCST 310 | International Political Economy | 3 |
| GCST 312 | Understanding the European Union | 3 |
| GCST 314 | Religion, Conflict, and Peace | 3 |
| GCST 338 | History and Politics of the Gulf Region | 3 |
| GOVT 320 | American National Government | 3 |
| GOVT 325 | International Studies | 3 |
| GOVT 331 | Current Issues in America | 3 |
| GOVT 340 | U.S. Foreign Policy | 3 |
| GOVT 353 | Early U.S. Foreign Policy | 3 |
| GOVT 401 | American Constitutional Law | 3 |
| GOVT 402 | Globalization and World Politics | 3 |
| HFCT 300 | Principles and Fundamentals | 3 |
| HFCT 307 | Performance Processes | 3 |
| HFCT 310 | Human-Computer Interaction | 3 |
| HIST 110 | World History | 3 |
| HIST 119 | U.S. History to 1865 | 3 |
| HIST 120 | U.S. History | 3 |
| HIST 130 | History of Aviation in America | 3 |
| HIST 290 | History of Modern Europe | 3 |
| HIST 302 | Evolution of Scientific Thought | 3 |
| HIST 308 | Studies in Middle Eastern History and Culture | 3 |
| HIST 310 | History of Space Exploration | 3 |
| HIST 311 | U.S Military History 1775-1900 | 3 |
| HIST 321 | U.S. Military History 1900-Present | 3 |
| HIST 322 | Modern Russian History | 3 |
| HIST 324 | Topics in U.S. History | 3 |
| HIST 328 | History of U.S. Intelligence | 3 |
| HIST 329 | African American History | 3 |
| HIST 331 | Moments of Crisis in U.S. Military History | 3 |
| PSYC 101 | Introduction to Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 222 | Introduction to Industrial/Organizational Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 302 | Victimology | 3 |
| PSYC 306 | Psychology of Deception Detection | 3 |
| PSYC 310 | Sensation and Perception | 3 |
| PSYC 311 | Sensation, Perception, and Cognition | 3 |
| PSYC 313 | Psychological Profiling: Theory and Critique | 3 |
| PSYC 315 | Cognitive Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 320 | Aviation Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 321 | Psychology of Gaming | 3 |
| PSYC 336 | Forensic Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 337 | Criminality | 3 |
| PSYC 340 | Industrial-Organizational Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 345 | Training and Development | 3 |
| PSYC 350 | Social Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 352 | Personality: A Systems Approach | 3 |
| PSYC 354 | Developmental Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 355 | The Psychology of Creativity and Innovation | 3 |
| PSYC 356 | Sport Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 358 | Positive Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 360 | Cultural Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 365 | Abnormal Psychology | 3 |
| PSYC 370 | Occupational Health and Performance | 3 |
| PSYC 401 | Psychology of Leadership | 3 |
| PSYC 410 | Personnel Selection and Assessment | 3 |
| PSYC 412 | Drugs, Society, and Crime | 3 |
| PSYC 440 | The Psychology of Resilience | 3 |
| PSYC 445 | Tests and Measurements Theory | 3 |
| RSCH 200 | Inquiry and Discovery: Exploring Academic Sources | 3 |
| RSCH 310 | Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Research | 3 |
| SOSC 140 | Introduction to Middle East Mediterranean World | 3 |
| SOSC 200 | Introduction to the U.S. Legal System | 3 |
| SOSC 210 | Introduction to Sociology | 3 |
| SOSC 214 | Culture, History and Language I | 3 |
| SOSC 301 | Introduction to Public Health Science | 3 |
| SOSC 304 | Islam and Arabic Culture | 3 |
| SOSC 314 | Culture, History and Language II | 3 |
| SOSC 326 | Russian-U.S. Relations | 3 |
| SOSC 327 | International Relations | 3 |
| SOSC 333 | U.S.-Asian Relations | 3 |
| SOSC 334 | Contemporary Africa and the World | 3 |
| SOSC 336 | The Modern Middle East in World Affairs | 3 |
| SOSC 341 | Modern U.S. Foreign Policy | 3 |
| SOSC 363 | Inter-American Relations | 3 |
| SSES 110 | Critical Thinking in Contemporary Problems | 3 |
| SSES 111 | Countering Human Trafficking | 3 |
| SSES 401 | Applied Research Methods in Security and Emergency Services | 3 |
| SSES 440 | Geographic Information Systems for Disaster and Security Studies | 3 |
Computer Science/Information Technology
| BUAN 125 | Foundations in Business Data Analytics | 3 |
| BUAN 222 | Business Analytics Tools | 3 |
| CISE 119 | Introduction to Cyber Security for Non-Majors | 3 |
| CPSC 109 | Introduction to Computers and Applications | 3 |
| CPSC 118 | Fundamentals of Computer Programming | 3 |
| CPSC 120 | Introduction to Computing in Aviation | 3 |
| CPSC 123 | Introduction to Computing for Data Analysis | 3 |
| CPSC 125 | Computer Science I | 3 |
| CPSC 210 | Web Page Authoring and Design | 3 |
| CPSC 223 | Scientific Programming in C | 3 |
| CPSC 251 | Introduction to Programming for Data Science | 3 |
| CYBR 235 | Computer and Network Technologies | 3 |
| ENGR 115 | Introduction to Computing for Engineers | 3 |
| GEOS 210 | Introduction to Geographic Information Systems | 3 |
Mathematics
| CPSC 222 | Introduction to Discrete Structures | 3 |
| DSCI 310 | Data Storytelling | 3 |
| MATH 111 | Pre-calculus for Aviation | 3 |
| MATH 112 | Applied Calculus for Aviation | 3 |
| MATH 120 | Applied College Algebra | 3 |
| MATH 140 | College Algebra | 3 |
| MATH 142 | Trigonometry | 3 |
| MATH 143 | Precalculus Essentials | 3 |
| MATH 145 | College Algebra and Trigonometry | 5 |
| MATH 201 | Learning to Reason: Art and Quotient | 3 |
| MATH 202 | Learning to Reason: Commerce and Flux | 3 |
| MATH 210 | Introduction to Data Science | 3 |
| MATH 220 | Concepts of Calculus | 3 |
| MATH 241 | Calculus and Analytical Geometry I | 4 |
| MATH 242 | Calculus and Analytical Geometry II | 4 |
| STAT 211 | Statistics with Aviation Applications | 3 |
| STAT 222 | Business Statistics | 3 |
Physical/Life Sciences
| ASTR 204 | General Astronomy | 3 |
| ASTR 224 | Astronomy | 3 |
| ASTR 224L | Introductory General Astronomy Laboratory | 1 |
| BIOL 120 | Foundations of Biology I | 3 |
| BIOL 120L | Foundations of Biology I Laboratory | 1 |
| BIOL 121 | Foundations of Biology II | 3 |
| BIOL 121L | Foundations of Biology II Laboratory | 1 |
| BIOL 245 | Natural History of the Region | 3 |
| BIOL 245L | Natural Hist of the Region Laboratory | 1 |
| BIOL 330 | Environmental Consulting | 3 |
| CHEM 101 | Basic Chemistry | 3 |
| CHEM 110 | General Chemistry I | 3 |
| CHEM 110L | General Chemistry I Laboratory | 1 |
| CHEM 111 | General Chemistry II | 3 |
| CHEM 111L | General Chemistry II Laboratory | 1 |
| CHEM 113 | General Chemistry for Engineering | 3 |
| CHEM 140 | Chemistry for Engineers | 4 |
| CHEM 140L | Chemistry for Engineers Laboratory | 1 |
| EVSC 142 | Introduction to Environmental Science | 3 |
| EVSC 304 | Environmental Science | 3 |
| EVSC 359 | Self-Directed Exploration of Environmental Science | 3 |
| FRSC 220 | Investigative Methodology and Forensic Science | 3 |
| FRSC 220L | Investigative Methodology and Forensic Science Laboratory | 1 |
| GEOS 215 | Introduction to Geoscience | 3 |
| GEOS 220 | Geography of Natural Hazards | 3 |
| HFCT 312 | Ergonomics and Bioengineering | 3 |
| PHYS 102 | Explorations in Physics | 3 |
| PHYS 113 | Introductory Physics I | 3 |
| PHYS 113L | Introductory Physics I Laboratory | 1 |
| PHYS 116 | Foundations in the Sciences | 3 |
| PHYS 117 | Introductory Physics II | 3 |
| PHYS 117L | Introductory Physics II Laboratory | 1 |
| PHYS 123 | Science of Flight | 3 |
| PHYS 150 | Physics with Calculus I | 3 |
| PHYS 160 | Physics with Calculus II | 3 |
| PHYS 161 | Physics with Calculus I and II | 4 |
| PHYS 226 | Physics I | 3 |
| PHYS 226L | Physics I Laboratory | 1 |
| PHYS 227 | Physics II | 3 |
| WEAX 201 | Introduction to Meteorology | 3 |
| WEAX 203L | Survey of Meteorology Laboratory | 1 |
| WEAX 261 | Applied Climatology | 3 |
| WEAX 270 | Weather Information Systems | 3 |
| WEAX 312 | Mountain Meteorology | 3 |
| WEAX 321 | Atmospheric Environmental Studies | 3 |