Interdisciplinary Programs: Best Practices and Challenges

1
Interdisciplinary Programs Best Practices and
Challenges

• Marcia McDonald
• Associate Provost
• Belmont University
• ANAC Summer Institute June 2007

2
Interdisciplinary Programs

• Honors Program
• Limited enrollment
• Interdisciplinary core sequence
• Two tracks Research, Leadership
• 46 hours
• Individualized majors optional

• General Education
• All students
• Interdisciplinary seminar sequence (15 hours)
• Distribution requirements
• 45-55 hours (distribution varies by degree
  program)

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Gen Ed Seminar Sequence

• First Year Seminar topical common book common
  syllabus 1 faculty
• Linked Cohort 2 courses w/ linked assignments,
  topics 2 faculty common student enrollment
• Junior Cornerstone PBL main discipline 2
  secondary disciplines 1 faculty
• Senior Capstone major discipline Gen ed goals
  1 faculty

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Best Practices Challenges

• Creating institutional arrangements that foster
  interdisciplinary work in a disciplinary world
• Curriculum
• Administration
• Intellectual Inquiry Social Networks

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Best Practice Curriculum

• Design interdisciplinary curriculum for
  intellectual development
• Cultivate links between Gen Ed core and
  disciplines
• Enable students to see meaning of core (not get
  out of the way)
• Offer faculty multiple ways to teach in core,
  depending upon interest in interdisciplinary work

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Best Practice Administration

• Solve logistical and career issues
• Comprehensive Gen Ed administrative structure
• Course coordinators recruit faculty, facilitate
  faculty develop, mentor faculty
• Tenure Promotion asset--teaching in Gen Ed
• Beginning 2004--New faculty positions specify Gen
  Ed teaching
• Scheduling multiple formats

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Best Practice Intellectual Inquiry and Social
Networks

• Promote Intellectual Inquiry
• Within frameworks for courses, some flexibility
  in course design
• Faculty development sessions connect faculty
  across disciplines
• Students significant research, writing, and
  presentations in courses code words
  challenging, hardest course, really
  interesting

8
Best Practice Social Networks

• Foster Social Networks
• Course Coordinators facilitate faculty links
  campus leadership opportunity
• Students in FYS groups for Orientation prior to
  first class meeting begin experiential learning
  in Orientation

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Challenges

• Flexibility in course designstraying from
  interdisciplinary frameworks
• Stipends for inaugural faculty will not last
  forever
• Scheduling challengesimbalance in faculty
  participation
• Cultivating faculty leadership
• Using assessment data responsibly

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Interdisciplinary Impact on Disciplinary
Institutions

• Interdisciplinary work can influence new program
  development
• New directions in current programs Study Abroad
  Junior Cornerstones
• Adaptable pedagogies PBL, Experiential Learning

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ANAC Experimental Laboratory

• AS and Professional faculty--with their ideas
  and questions--live more closely together than at
  research institutions
• Common curricula, especially in Gen Ed, can bring
  faculty together
• Students making connections between Gen Ed
  majors can influence class and disciplinary
  dialogues

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Interdisciplinary Majors Minors

• Biochem/Molec Bio
• Environmental Science
• Pharmecutical Studies
• I-Cord
• Neuroscience
• Web Programming
• Applied Discreet Math
• Media Studies (Convergence Media)
• Political Economy
• International Business

• Music Business
• Entertainment Industry Studies
• International Economics
• Classics
• European Studies
• Asian Studies
• Religion and the Arts
• Ethics minor
• Writing minor