Current research at Brigham Young University (BYU) determined that basic visual literacy instruction is needed in disciplines outside of the arts. Following a needs assessment survey of BYU's 83 departments, an honors general education Arts and Letters course in visual literacy was piloted in the 1996 winter semester. Lectures were presented by full-time, part-time, and retired faculty while the desktop publishing and multimedia production was taught by full-time working professionals. Students gave the course an excellent rating. Another survey, combined with personal interviews, was administered to the colleges of Nursing, Engineering, Social and Family Sciences, Business, and Fine Arts and Communications to determine the level of importance of visual literacy and the level of proficiency needed for the different disciplines. Statistical analysis of the data revealed visual literacy to be somewhat important across all the disciplines and identified an intermediated level of proficiency as needed by students in all five of the colleges. It was concluded that a visually literate person should be able to: (1) interpret, understand, and appreciate the meaning of visual messages; (2) communicate more effectively through applying the basic principles and concepts of visual design; (3) produce visual messages using the computer and other technology; and (4) use visual thinking to conceptualize solutions to problems. The study also indicated that even though giving students individual feedback was very labor- intensive, it was critical to the learning experience. (AEF)