Guest Lectures, Modules and Paired Courses
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Union College a grant to promote the integration of engineering and the liberal arts. This idea stems from the Strategic Plan (Differentiator 2), and we explored it in the June, 2007 “Designing Union” workshop, and more recently in the national Symposium on Engineering and Liberal Education hosted at Union last May.
The Mellon grant supports the development of cross-disciplinary guest lectures and modules (one or more individual class sessions) in which faculty from one discipline contribute material to different discipline. The grant also supports paired, or “sister” courses in which two courses share some lectures, labs, or other resources. We are particularly focused on cross-Center modules and pairs, and especially those involving engineering.
Guest Lectures: A guest lecture is one engineering class led by an instructor from the liberal arts or vice versa. Up to two guest lectures per course will be supported at $200 each (for MWF classes) or $250 each (T-Th).
Modules: One module is defined as one week (4 contact hours) of material, which could be in the form of class or laboratory time. Fractions of modules will also be considered.
We expect that once modules are developed, they will continue to be offered, and to encourage this, module-developers/presenters will receive half of the initial module compensation for a second presentation of the module (in the same target course, or others).
Goal: Create up to 30 modules over the next two years, at $500 each.
Paired Courses: Two courses taught in the same term are considered paired if they share three or more activities (lectures, labs, field trips, speakers, etc.) in the same term. Each instructor of a paired course receives $1,000 in compensation for re-structuring their course to accommodate the pairing.
We expect that once paired courses are developed, they will continue to be offered as paired. To encourage this, paired-course instructors will receive half of the initial compensation the second time they offer the courses as paired.
Goal: Create up to five pairs of courses (10 courses affected) over the next two years, at $2,000 per pair.