The Interdisciplinary Education working group’s charge is to develop templates for flexible interdisciplinary majors, minors, certificates, and courses in alignment with employer, student, and community needs for the 21st Century.
- Create and pilot templates for flexible interdisciplinary majors, minors, and certificates in alignment with employer and accreditation needs for the 21st Century
- Incorporate transformative learning models and flexible, integrated pathways to support the development of students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes in pursuit of their passions, purposes, and/or interests (aka: mission)
- Design an advising structure to support students pursuing interdisciplinary degrees and certificates
- Incentivize interdisciplinary courses & programs and address institutional constraints
Moving Forward
Starting with a common definition of Interdisciplinarity as being the intentional meshing of disciplinary knowledge to address a problem and being able to synthesize that knowledge to more effectively address complex situations, taking into account multiple perspectives rather than just as assortment of classes from different disciplines, the goals this group identified include:
- Development of curricula and courses that are collaborative and that break disciplinary boundaries
- Appropriate incentives and budget models that facilitate and encourage these courses
- Development of, revisions to, or elimination of, key processes and policies that currently inhibit interdisciplinary collaboration. The first process this group has started to address is the cumbersome and labor intensive binder process. After preparing and distributing a survey to those most involved in the binder process, the group is now analyzing the 30 responses and preparing a report for the administration. The report will provide a recommended path forward including a cost breakdown to move to a digital process.
