Cross Curricular Initiatives - Overview - Faculty Technology Resources

Tech Resource Home • Cross Curricular Initiatives
Overview

University of Maryland University College aims to produce graduates who are well-prepared to be responsible citizens of global society as well as effective participants in the complex, fast-changing world of work. A bachelor's degree from UMUC offers a multidimensional experience, combining a solid educational foundation with cross-curricular breadth as well as focused study in an academic discipline. Through that experience, UMUC graduates develop and demonstrate the hallmarks of the educated person: intellectual ability, curiosity, and flexibility; fundamental skills in reasoning, analysis, and expression; understanding of the principles of scientific and intellectual inquiry; awareness of global and historical context; and civic and ethical responsibility. UMUC demands that students demonstrate the ability to learn and to apply that learning to career and life experience.

The UMUC degree begins with basic intellectual tools, including general education requirements in communication, humanities, social and natural sciences, mathematics, computing, and library skills. With the further pursuit of the academic major and minor, the UMUC student acquires mastery of a body of knowledge in a specific subject area. The six cross-curricular initiatives - in effective writing, fluency in information technology, historical and international perspectives, civic responsibility, and information literacy - are integrated throughout the undergraduate degree. Cross-curricular initiatives are promoted both by specific general education courses and by integration into all programs, thus building the student's ability to analyze, synthesize, and integrate knowledge, perspectives, and techniques. Their goal is to ensure that students are able to:

communicate appropriately within the discourse conventions of disciplinary fields as well as differing cultural contexts;
use libraries and other information resources to locate, evaluate, and use needed information effectively; and
understand information technology and apply it productively;
function in professional roles requiring an appreciation and understanding of the interdependency among all disciplines in the global workplace;
put learning and experience in the context of historical events and periods; and
function responsibly as global citizens who think critically and systematically, and who develop informed judgments.

Each cross-curricular initiative is implemented at the basic level through a general education requirement and at higher levels through learning objectives and courses in the academic major and minor.

The following materials provide the operational definitions and desired student competencies for each of the cross-curricular initiatives, as well as suggested and model class activities to support those competencies in a variety of class activities.