Interdisciplinarity

At Cascadia, interdisciplinarity can be explained in several ways. Not only are faculty grouped in interdisciplinary learning outcome teams, the administrators of the college each have job descriptions which include aspects of learning and cross-sectional duties between departments. This non-traditional aspect has created opportunity for multidisciplinary activity in these Administrative Council positions which enhances productivity and employee growth and learning.

Interdisciplinarity in Degrees

Interdisciplinarity of Cascadia's degrees is addressed in the Cascadia Community College Self Study for Consideration of Accreditation Candidacy 2002 (p. 2-12):

Associate in Integrated Studies Degree

Cascadia Community College's Associate in Integrated Studies (AIS) degree is a 90-credit, two-year degree that is designed to be the equivalent of the freshman and sophomore years of a baccalaureate degree. The AIS degree is designed to satisfy most, if not all, of the general education requirements of most public colleges and universities in Washington State. Breadth, depth, and sequencing of courses are outlined in full detail in Cascadia's 2001-2002 Catalog, pages 31 and 32 (1.5). The AIS degree includes:

General Requirements (23 credits) - Foundations for College Success (composition, quantitative and symbolic reasoning, multicultural communication and college strategies)
Cultural Knowledge Requirement (5 credits within distribution area)
Distribution Requirements: Humanities (15 credits), Natural Sciences (15 credits), Social Sciences (15 credits) and Electives (often determined by student's major, 22 credits)

Associate in Science Degree

Cascadia's Associate in Science (AS) degree is designed for students who are interested in earning a two-year academic degree. This degree is primarily intended for students planning to transfer to a four-year college or university with a major in the natural sciences, pre-med, engineering, or computer science. Both tracks of the Associate in Science degree meet recently published ICRC guidelines for preparation in the sciences. The AS degree was introduced into the program of study at Cascadia in spring 2001. Breadth, depth, and sequencing of courses are outlined in full detail in Cascadia's 2001-2002 Catalog, pages 33 through 36. The AS degree offers two concentration options:

Track 1: Biological Sciences, Environmental/Earth Sciences, Chemistry, or Geology

General Requirements (28 credits) - Foundations for College Success
Cultural Knowledge Requirement (5 credits within distribution area)
Distribution Requirements: Humanities and Social Science (15 credits total), Pre-Major Requirements (36 credits)
Additional Pre-Major Requirements (10-15 credits) and Electives (0-11 credits)

Track 2: Computer Science, Atmospheric Sciences, or Physics

General Requirements (28 credits) - Foundations for College Success
Cultural Knowledge Requirement (5 credits within Distribution Area)
Distribution Requirements: Humanities and Social Science (15 credits total), Pre-Major Requirements (30 credits)
Program Specific Requirements and Electives (17+ credits)

Associate in Applied Science

Professional technical programs are designed to prepare graduates for immediate employment. College staff have worked closely with business representatives (e.g., Business and Information Technology Advisory Committee) in the selection of programs and design of curriculum to ensure that program graduates will possess skills that are in high demand in the workplace. Skill standards are developed and continually revised by industry at the Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies. Curriculum includes components of work-based learning. Breadth, depth, and sequencing of courses are outlined in full detail in Cascadia's 2001-2002 Catalog, pages 38 through 40.

Associate in Applied Science (AAS) Degrees are offered in the following areas of concentration:

Network Technology
Web Technology
Software Programming Technology
Computer Application Specialist
E-Commerce Specialist
Network Specialist
Software Testing Specialist
Technical Support Specialist
Web Design Specialist (new fall 2001)
Web Specialist

Synthesis of Learning and Learning Outcomes

In addition to appropriate breadth and depth, there is synthesis of learning, assessment of learning outcomes, and consistency throughout the AIS, AS, and AAS degree and certificate programs. Distribution area learning outcomes are consistent regardless of a student's major course of study or the degree he or she chooses to pursue. These can be found in greater detail in the 2001-2002 Catalog, page 37. Distribution area learning outcomes include skill building in the areas of foundations, communication, quantitative reasoning, technology, cultural competence, humanities, social sciences, and the natural sciences.

Each degree ensures that students have the opportunity to succeed in the fundamental skills areas. Students' current skill levels are assessed as they enter the institution (either through self-adaptive computerized testing, or by evaluation of transcripts demonstrating successfully completed or directly equivalent courses brought from other colleges or universities) to ensure appropriate placement into degreeapplicable course work, or if necessary, remedial course work to build skills to the college level. Once a college-level skills base has been established, students progress through the sequence of courses associated with their respective programs.

In keeping with Intercollege Relations Commission (ICRC) guidelines, students are required to choose a variety of classes in different disciplines. To promote synthesis of learning, many of these classes can be taken together as Learning Communities, as well as linked classes in which the instructors design the curriculum to facilitate complementary class assignments and activities. In a Learning Commu- nity, the classes are team-taught and organized around a theme. The assignments are coordinated between the two areas of study, and the skills learned in one area carry over to the other area of study. Separate elements are combined to form the whole. Learning Communities offer 10 to 15 credits of degree-applicable courses and usually cross distribution areas. In general, students feel that information and issues are related from course to course. Of the 411 respondents on the Cascadia Student Survey, 82.2% agreed or strongly agreed that information and issues in one class at Cascadia are often connected to similar issues in other classes. It is noteworthy that only 1.7% strongly disagreed. Furthermore, of the 128 students responding to the Cascadia Student Survey that have participated in Learning Communities, 89.1% agreed or strongly agreed that it was a special feature of Cascadia's curriculum that enhanced their learning.

Candidates for the Business and Information Technology (BIT) AAS degrees complete courses of study, which include general education requirements and related instruction, depending on the chosen area of concentration. Cascadia's BIT curricula were designed to include the best elements of current research into professional and technical education. Among these elements are core curriculum, skills standards, work-based learning, threads of learning, and articulation between the BIT AAS degree and the BIT certificate programs. The assessment of course offerings, as well as all degree and certificate programs is an ongoing and evolving process including the processes listed below. Many of these are still in planning and early implementation phases:

Reviewing syllabi on an ongoing basis
Reviewing course content on an ongoing basis through the Student Learning Council
Continually assessing learning outcomes at the course, program, and college level
Analysis of the Learning Communities from which to choose
Surveying students
Conducting faculty evaluations
Reviewing programs for relevance and effectiveness by the Student Learning Council
Reviewing programs (e.g., BIT) by external, market-based groups for relevance and effectiveness

Cascadia Community College. (2002). Cascadia Community College Self Study for Consideration of Accreditation Candidacy 2002. Bothell, WA: Cascadia Community College.

Interdisciplinarity and the Library

Interdisciplinarity in the integration of library services into Cascadia's outcomes is addressed in the Cascadia Community College Self Study for Consideration of Accreditation Candidacy 2002 (p. 2-14):

Library and Other Information Sources

Faculty and librarians work together to ensure that students are provided opportunities to learn how to access, evaluate, and analyze information to solve problems throughout their course of study. Faculty and librarians collaborate in designing assignments and workshops that make the most effective use of the resources and services of the Campus Library and University of Washington Libraries, depending on student abilities and course content. One of the great advantages of the co-location is evidenced by Cascadia's contract for library services with the University of Washington (UW) Libraries. The breadth and depth of the UW Libraries collections allow instructors great flexibility in designing interdisciplinary assignments that make use of a wide range of general and specialized resources.

It is probably too soon to assess the effectiveness of Cascadia's collaborative information literacy instruction program, but it is hoped that the availability of the resources of the UW Libraries, in conjunction with close collaboration among faculty and librarians in designing research assignments and workshops, will benefit students, particularly those preparing to transfer to four-year institutions. The program should also benefit students within the professional and technical programs who have access to specialized databases and print resources that the Campus Library would otherwise be unable to afford. Information literacy has been embedded within the curriculum, subject knowledge, and the Learning Outcomes, so that the processes students are learning are applied within the context of subject-based problem solving experiences. (See section 2.A.8 of this Self Study for more discussion on information literacy.)

Faculty and librarians continue to develop assessment tools that address students' information literacy skills, including the ability to define and articulate the need for information, to identify relevant information from a variety of sources, to interpret and analyze the information accurately, and to incorporate this information into one's knowledge base and value system. Information literacy will also be evaluated within the context of subject knowledge and the College-wide Learning Outcomes.