Teaching Across Boundaries: Examining the Institutional Process of Establishing Multidisciplinary Courses

Abstract

Virginia Tech. Through real-world engineering applications, Dr. Bairaktarova's experiential learning research spans from engineering to psychology to learning sciences, as she uncovers how individual performance is influenced by aptitudes, spatial skills, personal interests and direct manipulation of mechanical objects.

Description, Assessment, and Outcomes of Three Initial Interventions Within a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT): Onboarding Event, Career Exploration Symposium, and Multidisciplinary Introductory Course

“…In the literature, reports on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary courses are not uncommon [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. However, the literature progressively becomes more and more scant for multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary courses that are focused on the graduate level [21,22,32,33], on interdisciplinary knowledge about complex systems and systems thinking [23,32,34], and on specific topics (e.g., renewable energy [29,33]).…”

“…Moreover, the authors discuss how their courses were designed to work within the constraints of typical graduate programs [35]. Along the same lines, Snyder et al have reported on different ways to navigate the institutional process of establishing multidisciplinary courses [37]. Indeed, these authors have reported that some faculty strategically use co-listing and co-teaching to fulfill curricular needs for multiple departments.…”