As one can deduce from the history of the development of our Core Curriculum, the road to general education reform at MCLA has not been without its challenges. The original vision of the Core included common interdisciplinary syllabi in four domains: Human Heritage (CCHH), Self and Society (CCSS), Creative Arts (CCCA), and Science & Technology (CCST). The faculty quickly determined that agreeing on common syllabi in each of these domains was not realistic, nor was creation of and providing a whole new set of courses economically feasible for a resource poor institution. But they were able to agree on a common set of learning outcomes within each domain.

While Tier II courses are not mandated to be integrative within a domain, such courses are encouraged, and several are offered and quite popular with students. To encourage integration within the domains, we have designations for courses that would not normally have a departmental home. Most of these courses have no prerequisite; all are intended for first-year students and sophomores. Some examples are:

CCHH 210: American Women Regionalist Writers

CCSS 267: Real Men

CCCA 102: The Art of Madness

CCST 244: Sleep and Dreams

Our primary ILP project was the creation of learning outcomes for Tier III integrative courses, our Core capstone. The ILP team also recruited faculty and guided the creation of Tier III courses. There are now six new courses which meet Tier III guidelines, and three more courses are currently being developed. Given our small faculty and limited resources, we expected difficulty finding faculty members willing to teach courses that included material outside their fields. (For economic reasons, team-teaching a small class is currently not an option at MCLA.) What we didn't predict was the number of faculty members who have passions outside, but related to, their specialties. They are eager to share these passions with students, and the Core capstone provides for them a way to do that. The Tier III capstone course is a graduation requirement for all students entering fall 2006 or later. Thus MCLA will need to offer at least ten Tier III courses each semester by fall 2008. With a current offering of two or three per semester, we are on our way to meeting that goal, but we need to broaden our recruiting efforts to include the academic dean and department chairs. Department chairs must be willing to 'lend' their faculty to the capstone staffing needs.

We came to the Integrative Learning Project with the goal of developing outcomes for Tier III courses, but as we worked with other ILP participants and experts from the Carnegie Foundation and the AAC&U, we came to understand that our true institutional challenges lie far beyond the scope of a simple set of learning outcomes for one integrative experience. Our mission statement clearly states that we seek to graduate students with broad perspectives, excellent critical thinking skills, and values necessary to become leaders in their communities and professions. In order for us to fulfill that mission, we propose the embracing of the following goals:

- Campus-wide ongoing professional development in the scholarship of teaching and learning

- Consistent, useful assessment at the classroom, program, and institution levels

- A culture of intentional learning

- Expansion of courses and programs that are integrative

Other programs and actions that we think will contribute to the fulfillment of our college mission are:

- Implementation of e-portfolios

- Expanded community-based learning opportunities

- Expanded local internship programs.

MCLA has already begun work towards becoming a college with a culture of assessment at all levels. MCLA is an active member of NEEAN (New England Education Assessment Network). Departments undergo program assessment every five years, and MCLA has brought in several assessment specialists to aid in that process, the most recent visitors being Dick Gerber, President of NEEAN, and Martha Stassen of the University of Massachusetts. Assessment at the course level is more of a challenge, but as more and more faculty become familiar with the goals and ideals of classroom assessment, they begin to implement it into their courses.

As a continuation of our participation in ILP, MCLA has become a participant in the CASTL Leadership Program. If we are to have a culture of assessment and intentional, integrative learning, if we are to grow as teachers and mentors, we must educate ourselves in the best classroom and assessment methods. Beginning Fall 2006, 10 -12 faculty members will meet twice a month as the SoTL Roundtable. Each member of this group will commit to researching and presenting one aspect of the scholarship of teaching and learning to the other participants. In addition to the sharing of new information, there will be discussion as to how we can incorporate that information into our own classrooms. Examples of subjects covered would be active learning, classroom assessment, intentional learning, syllabus development, electronic portfolios, etc.

We expect that these discussions will take place over the next two years (2006-07 and 2007-08) for two groups of 12-member teams. During the third year (2008-09), when we feel we should have sufficiently understood the literature and integrated it with our own experiences in integrative learning, we will plan and offer a summer workshop (Summer 2009) for faculty from nearby colleges, both 4-year and community. We hope to offer participants the same experiences of learning and sharing in a supportive and restful atmosphere that the ILP team experienced at the Carnegie Institute in Palo Alto.