At the end of USD's academic experience, students and faculty connect ideas across disciplines, synthesize disparate areas of knowledge, and pose the "big questions." Core Curriculum components connect and build on one another and integrative learning is an approach that creates an opportunity for students to make connections among ideas and experiences to synthesize knowledge.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Recognize: Recognize broad connections between multiple disciplines, perspectives, and/or approaches to learning.
- Articulate: Articulate how the integration of multiple disciplines, perspectives, and/or approaches to learning can enhance one’s understanding of practical issues and problems.
- Synthesize: Synthesize knowledge and/or skills from multiple disciplines or perspectives.
- Apply: Apply knowledge and/or skills from multiple disciplines or perspectives.
How are students prepared for Advanced Integration?
In first-year integration students practice recognizing and articulating connections between multiple disciplines, perspectives and/or approaches to learning. They are also prompted to reflect on how these connections can enhance one’s understanding of practical issues and problems. There are two major academic events designed to help students achieve initial benchmarks of integration: (1) the Integration Series or Interdisciplinary Faculty Exchange where students practice integration and (2) the First-Year Integration Project, which includes presenting at the Integration Showcase, where students demonstrate their understanding of integration.
Learn to Synthesize and Apply
Focus is placed on drawing meaningful connections between diverse perspectives to enhance the overall body of knowledge and applying these perspectives in a form appropriate to the students' particular academic discipline.
Integrative Core Project
The Integrative Core Project is the culminating experience for students nearing the completion of their core curriculum. Courses meeting Advanced Integration through this Core Project may be courses within the major or outside of the major. Students are asked to build on the integrative learning they experienced during First-Year Integration to further apply and synthesize integrative concepts at this advanced level. The Integrative Core Project prompts students to make connections between disciplines, apply knowledge in a variety of contexts, or make connections between curricular and co-curricular activities in order to synthesize Core competencies.
Class Formats
The Advanced Integration requirement can be met through a variety of possible courses and experiences; the most ideal of which are team-taught or linked/cluster courses. It is important to note that Advanced Integration is a flag that can be attached to a course regardless of the unit load for that course. See descriptions below for viable advanced integration options:
- Team-Taught
- Linked/Cluster
- Community Engagement
- Single-Instructor
Interdisciplinary upper-division courses, typically taught by faculty from two different departments and including one or more synthetic, applied integrative projects (the “Core Project”) evaluated by both instructors.
Example of Team-taught course
INST 350 - Epicuriosity
Team-taught by Dr. Atreyee Phukan (English) and Dr. Jonathan Bowman (Communication Studies)
"Epicuriosity" combines literary and cultural theory with communication theories to explore how habits and rituals surrounding food define cultural and communal identity. Together these lenses attend to how food culture shapes and is shaped by critical events such as colonialism, migration, globalization, and the ways that we communicate with one another. The Final Integration Core Project has a written and oral component. Through poster presentations, students will teach each other about a food-related need within a community of their choice. In their individual final papers, students will integrate both disciplinary perspectives on the role of food to answer a significant question about cultural identity in that community.