Ithaca
(IC)
2
College
Demonstration
Projects
Periodic Update Report
Date of Submission:
December 7, 2009
Project Title:
Integration-Insight-Creativity-Character
Principal Investigator:
Gordon Rowland
Department:
Strategic Communication
School/Division:
Park School of Communications
Project Co-Principal Investigators (if any):
Reporting Period:
I.
Fall 2009
____X_____
Spring 2010
________
Fall 2010
__________
Spring 2011
________
Executive Summary of State of the Project:
The demonstration project involves developing and testing two in a sequence of four one-credit courses that will promote
integrative learning. The first course, Integration, is well along in development, and three sections are scheduled for spring 2009.
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II.
Key Accomplishments to Date (or Since Last Report):
* Articulation of sets of competencies for the four courses.
* Progress on selecting and designing assessment instruments matched to the competencies.
* Selection, design, and development of a wide range of learning activities for the Integration course.
III.
Key Challenges to Date:
* Withdrawel of key players (Derek Cabrera and Laura Colosi from ThinkWorks) from the project.
* Recruiting students to the Integration course; it became available on Homer just prior to advance registration and getting the word
out and building interest was difficult.
IV.
How were these Challenge(s) addressed:
* Gordon Rowland and Jason Hamilton stepped up to articulate the competencies, develop assessment instruments and design the
Integration course.
* Communications student Meghan Morales assisted with developing marketing plans, and the plans will be implemented at the outset
of the spring 2010 term.
V.
Expenditures to Date:
* None. Development work in fall 2009 will be incorporated into reassigned time and overload for spring 2010.
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VI.
Project Assessment:
Project Goal
Actions
Measure(s)
Develop Integration
course
Articulate competencies;
develop assessment
instruments and learning
activities
Course design completed
and documented;
Pre/post measures of
learning outcomes
Competencies articulated;
assessment instruments
under development; range
of learning activities
partially developed
Continue development
Develop Insight course
Articulate competencies;
develop assessment
instruments and learning
activities
Course design completed
and documented;
Pre/post measures of
learning outcomes
Competencies articulated;
assessment instruments
under development; ideas
for learning activities
generated
Continue development
Develop team-teaching
approach
Determine schedule for
team-teaching; develop
team-teaching processes
Success of transfer from
one instructor to another
Schedule determined
Develop team-teaching
processes
Document as a case of
design inquiry
Keep log of activities and Published case
careful records of issues,
decisions, and so on
Log kept current; careful
records kept
Continue keeping log and
records
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Outcome(s)
Next Steps
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VII. Student Learning Assessment:
The following competencies have been articulated for the Integration course. Learning activities and assessment instruments are under
development.
Integration
* actively synthesize knowledge from multiple sources
* appreciate complexity, multi-causality, and dynamics of situations
* recognize interdependencies
* recognize driving forces that influence our lives
* understand systems and design concepts, methods and tools (e.g., holism, system, boundary, environment, system types, hierarchy,
interdependence, perspective, complexity, systems models, open/closed, feedback, conceptualization, innovation, divergence,
transformation, convergence); use systems and design terms appropriately
* appreciate artificiality of systems and models (not just synthesis of XYZ but understanding that X, Y, Z, and XYZ are constructions)
* place one’s self in context of whole systems
* understand the nature of academic disciplines and fields (definition, constructed nature, objects of concern, assumptions, methods, criteria,
accomplishments, limitations, etc.); differentiate and appreciate multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinarity
* enhance one’s ability to cope with uncertainty
* distinguish solving problems in existing systems from designing new systems; appreciate benefits and limitations of both
* apply principled approaches to resolving complex real-world challenges; integrate for a purpose
* recognize how worldviews underly disciplines, systems, and one’s thinking and acting
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