"Keeping Faith": A Plan to Strengthen the University Core Curriculum


Keeping Faith A Plan to Strengthen the University Core Curriculum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2001-2006 March 30, 2000
Executive Summary The Plan Core Problem 1: Budgetary Resources Core Problem 2: Course Sufficiency Core Problem 3: Instructional Quality Core Problem 4: Learning Technology Whether technology is a problem or an opportunity depends upon the faculty's use of it. Right now, only a small portion of the Core is web-based, primarily because few faculty have had the training necessary to attempt it. And very few of the largest Core classes use the new interactive technology to help our entering students with the difficult transition from passive to active learning. For some faculty, the up-front investment in such instruction is not yet worth the effort. There is considerable frustration with the training, equipment, and internet infrastructure at SIUC. It is thus no accident that as of now no Core class is offered in a distance learning format, even though the New Media Center in the College of Liberal Arts and Instructional Support Services in Morris Library have worked long and hard on this development. Yet we know that the new learning technologies can and do make a difference in the classroom. Web-based courses are visually powerful, inherently interactive, personally inviting, and more often humane than many large lecture classes. In combination with other time-honored techniques such as Socratic questioning and small group work, power-point, the internet, and e-mail have enormous potential for improving student learning in the University Core Curriculum. We need to seize these new opportunities. Possible approaches to promoting Learning Technology are: earmarking for faculty teaching in the University Core Curriculum a portion of the summer fellowships for web-based instruction at the U of I, the summer fellowships for instructional technology, and the money already allocated for web-based technology and distance learning. Cost: None Responsibility: Core, Academic Affairs identification of technology-intensive Core courses that can serve as the basis for the Information Technology minor across different degree programs, especially to help technology-phobic, non-traditional students to acquire new learning skills. Cost: RAMP request 2000 Responsibility: Core, Academic Affairs creation of a technology proficiency requirement for graduation -- a requirement in keeping with the development of national K-16 proficiency standards -- to be determined by the Core Curriculum Executive Council in cooperation with the Communications Across the Curriculum Task Force and the Faculty Senate's Undergraduate Education Policies Committee. Cost: None Responsibility: Core, Communications Across the Curriculum, Faculty Senate establishment of team-teaching opportunities for faculty and GTAs who can learn from each other about the new instructional technology. Cost: $10,000 Responsibility: Core, Academic Affairs appointment of a faculty member to chair the Communications Across the Curriculum Task Force, to replace Professor David Blakesley, with a larger budget to conduct faculty development workshops for technology intensive courses in the Core. Cost: As budgeted FY 2000 Responsibility: Academic Affairs establishment of a masterplan for distance learning, technology-assisted instruction and pedagogy in the next three to five years, by members of the University's Computing Affairs Advisory Committee, Instructional Support Services, Communication Across the Curriculum, and Faculty Senate's Undergraduate Educational Policies Committee. Cost: None Responsibility: Academic Affairs completion of the University's technology infrastructure needs in classrooms, faculty offices, and student dormitories. Cost: Unknown Responsibility: Chancellor's Office Conclusion Acknowledgment The generous assistance of Todd Bernhardt and Brenda Yucas in the Core Curriculum office is gratefully acknowledged.