Now that fall schedules are settled, we are soliciting interest from faculty with assigned academic advisees as part of their work load to teach Exploring the Options, the one-credit interdisciplinary course for first semester students who have come to IC do discover their major.
There are numerous advantages of teaching in the Exploratory Program.
- The course meets once per week based on your schedule.
- Capped at 15
- We provide an established syllabus, large selection of readings from which faculty choose (and to which they contribute), guest speakers, common anchor assessments and rubrics, and professional development in advising Exploratory and first year students.
- Can be taught in load or on overload with chair/dean permission.
- Course is not required and students take it for personal and academic enrichment. We usually enroll 85% of incoming students voluntarily.
- Students are required not to declare a major, but to develop a four year plan after guided exploration of the role of "required" courses, the experiences they want in college, their personal philosophy of education, and how to make academic choices align with personal values.
- Course is a hybrid combination of interdisciplinary academics with academic advising, occupational investigation and values clarification.
- Mission is to help students understand the value of a liberal education, making connections among their courses, and developing integrative thinking and learning.
- Students become the faculty member's assigned advisees until they declare a major. In-class advising is supplemented with a mandatory individual preregistration meeting. Average time in the program is 2.5 semesters.
If you are interested or want to learn more about the course, please email me at ebleicher@ithaca.edu, and indicate why this is opportunity is appealing.
