Example: The University of Washington's Interdisciplinary Writing Program is a large-scale Writing-Across-the-Curriculum effort. Students take an expository writing course that is linked to one of 27 general education lecture courses. The writing course develops thinking and writing skills in the disciplinary content. The writing and the lecture courses carry an equal number of credits. Students get 5 quarter hours for each course in this program. Instructors work together to generate ideas for the writing assignments based on questions that arise during the content course.
Example: LaGuardia Community College has created a learning cluster that requires students to take English Composition in an 11-credit block that includes Freshman Composition, Writing the Research Paper, and course work in either social science (Introduction to Social Sciences or Work, Labor and Business in American Literature) or humanities (Introduction to Philosophy or Introduction to Art). The Social Science Cluster is built around the theme of work and the Humanities Cluster explores the theme of freedom. The courses are scheduled back to back and students attend classes as a group. The faculty team does collaborative planning to ensure that connections are built around the themes. The team also meets regularly throughout the term to discuss how the learning cluster is progressing.
Example: At the University of Oregon, courses that are linked are coherent and serve as foundation courses for a major. Course content and process follow traditional guidelines. The Freshman Interest Groups are built around a theme. For example, under Pre-Health Sciences, the courses to be taken include Biology lecture and lab, Psychology, and English Composition. Faculty are not expected to coordinate syllabi or activities.
Students also meet weekly with a peer advisor to discuss class activities and issues related to life on campus and campus resources, to form study groups, or just to spend time informally. The peer advisor receives upper-division credit for leadership.
A unique component of the Federated Learning Communities is the Master Learner-a faculty member from a discipline other than the ones included in the federated community. The faculty member is relieved of all teaching assignments to become a learner with the students and to fulfill all the academic responsibilities of a student in each course. The Master Learner is expected to assist students in synthesizing the material and clarifying issues and to provide the content faculty with feedback about the effectiveness of their teaching.
Example: At the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the theme for a Federated Learning Community is World Hunger. The courses included are the Ecology of Feast and Famine, the Economics of Development, and the History of Latin America. In addition to the three courses, students also enroll in a 3-credit seminar led by the Master Learner.
Coordinated studies are usually team taught by 3-5 faculty. Faculty plan and design the curriculum together and participate in all aspects of the program. The pedagogy includes active and collaborative learning, readings, writing, lectures, seminars, field trips, workshops, and other activities designed to explore the theme.
Example: The Coordinated Studies program at Daytona Beach Community College involves 3 courses integrated around a theme each semester of the first year of studies. During the first semester, students are required to take Freshman English I, Humanities I, and Psychology of Adjustment. The courses are designed to explore the theme "The Quest," which relates to the human search for understanding of who we are. The following semester, students take Freshman English II, Humanities II, and General Psychology, integrated around the theme "The Shaping of the Modern Mind." The faculty team teach and are all present during the 3-hour period. During class time, students are engaged in active and collaborative learning, group discussions, role playing, and projects. The format may change with each class meeting. Sometimes, the entire group is involved in a discussion of the assigned topic for the day; other times, one-third of the students are involved with each teacher or are working in collaborative tasks in small groups.
Faculty and students predetermine assessment criteria for such alternative processes. For example, in the Student Voices Project, students at Seattle Central Community College used some of the following criteria to evaluate their own process of learning and/or the classroom environment (teachers, peers, activities) that relate to perceived development of analytical or thinking skills.