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FIRST YEAR LEARNING COMMUNITIES
An evolving integrative pedagogy on the Salve Regina University Campus is the First Year Experience Learning Communities. In cohorts of fifteen, all freshmen take three courses in common in the first year: a two-semester, one credit freshman seminar, a thematic literature course, and an interdisciplinary philosophy/religious studies course. The three are linked by common themes, service learning activities, a common summer reading, and a writing portfolio.
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THE QUESTION OF GOD
An important text for the Salve Core - used as both the summer reading and as a selection for the Faculty Colloquium - is Dr. Armand Nicholi\'s The Question of God. This engaging work introduces students to the idea of developing a worldview by contrasting the worldviews of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. Students read and reflect on the book in a series of guided journal exercises in the summer before matriculating, and the text is used in the Learning Community courses.
Dr. Nicholi\'s book was recently made into a PBS special.
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SALVE REGINA ILP TIMELINE
May 2004: Salve team attends NERCOMP Workshop at Simmons College on electronic portfolios.
May 2004: Salve team attends AAC&U; General Education Institute.
July 2004: Salve team attends ILP Summer Institute at Carnegie Foundation in California.
August-October 2004: NERCOMP team, General Education Institute team, and ILP teams report to Undergraduate faculty groups on assessment and capstone findings.
September 2004: Establishment of a Core assessment team in cooperation with the Core Curriculum Advisory Committee.
September 2004: Selection and distribution of assessment readings to undergraduate faculty.
September-December: Development of pilot of integrative learning portfolio for freshman courses for spring 2005.
October 2004: Inventory and mapping of Core Curriculum learning objectives based on one year\'s actual offerings.
November 2004: Workshop on Assessment with Peggy Maki at Salve Regina University.
Spring 2005: Pilot of Integrative Learning e-Portfolio in five First Year Experience Learning Communities.
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The Salve Regina ILP team consists of Dr. Paula Martasian, Associate Professor of Psychology, Dr. Mary Montminy-Danna, Assistant Professor of Social Work, and Dr. Stephen Trainor, Dean of Undergraduate Studies. All three have been actively engaged in Salve\'s general education curricular reform since its inception in the fall of 2000.
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Timeline Progress
Assessment Workshop
Salve Regina kicked off its ILP assessment initiative with a campus wide workshop conducted by Peggy Maki on Friday, November 5, 2004. Faculty from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and Bishop Feehan High School also attended this event. The workshop provided an excellent vehicle for enhancing the assessment culture on campuses and provided Salve Regina University participants with the tools to begin a mapping exercise of the Core Curriculum.
The Capstone Course
A Capstone committee has been convened and is working to develop a model for a liberal arts integrated senior experience. An open faculty forum will take place in December of 2004 to continue with the Capstone visioning process.
E-portfolio Pilot
Salve\'s Information Technology department is working to create a template for the pilot testing of the e-portfolio project. Five of the First Year Learning Communities of students and faculty will be developing electronic portfolios in the spring semester.
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