Report of the Commission on Undergraduate Curriculum

1. Report of the Commission on Undergraduate Curriculum Final Recommendations

2. Curriculum Design Principles • A well-constructed curriculum: • Achieves the mission and the learning outcomes adopted by the University community • Is achievable by students in four years • Challenges and engages students • Goes beyond a list of courses • Includes consideration of pedagogy • Is transparent • Is coherent and synergistic • Features vertical integration • Strikes a happy balance between innovation and tradition • Has significant faculty support • Places reasonable demands on faculty, staff, and institutional resources • Includes a plan for demonstration of student learning • Satisfies our obligations to the State of Missouri

3. Underlying Objectives • Create first year experience • Decrease size of LSP within 42 hour constraint • Add Integration or coherence to LSP • Build sense of community • Increase engagement in learning • Increase student choice • Allow multiple opportunities for faculty, student and staff feedback

4. Common Curricular Elements • Portfolios – Student feedback • Critical Thinking Framework • Truman Seminar (first year seminar) • Incorporation of writing, speaking, critical thinking • 4 hours – 3 hours plus Truman Week • View broad common topic from multiple perspectives • Add speaking-enhanced requirement (3 courses including Truman Seminar) • Experiential Learning Component • Optional Clusters, linked courses, etc. • Provide additional opportunities for certain elements to be satisfied through test-out or approved non-class experience (i.e. Physical activity) • Allow “double counting” • 120 vs. 124 hours

5. Communities of Discourses Model • Broader than modes • No discipline “owns” a particular discourse and same course may satisfy more than one discourse (but can only count in one) • Intellectual conversations across disciplinary boundaries • Discourses of the Natural World • Discourses of Symbolic Systems • Discourses of the Creative Worlds • Discourses of Social Worlds

6. Communities of Discourse Model • Truman Seminar – 4 hours • Writing and Speaking enhanced courses to replace ENG 190 and COMM 170 • Replaces 1 hour from Truman Week • JINS • Complete 24 discourse hours • no more than two from any discipline can be used to satisfy a particular discourse • Must take at least 6 hours in each of four discourses • May use major courses to satisfy particular discourse, but won’t count toward 24 hour requirement • Offered sample learning objectives • 2 Intercultural/International courses • 120 hours

7. Modified Liberal Studies program with 7of 8 Modes • Truman Seminar – 4 hours • Writing and Speaking enhanced courses to replace ENG 190 and COMM 170 • Replaces 1 hour from Truman Week • Modes foundation – same modes and opportunity to choose 7 out of 8 • JINS • 1 Intercultural class • 120 hours

8. Modified Liberal Studies Program with 6 Modes • Truman Seminar – 4 hours • Writing and Speaking enhanced courses to replace ENG 190 and COMM 170 • Replaces 1 hour from Truman Week • Modes foundation • Decrease number of modes to 6 (Combines 2 Aesthetic Modes and 2 Science Modes) • Must take all six modes • 1 Intercultural course • 120 hours