First Year Experience Program

Having taught PS 104: World Governments, Economies and Cultures on-ground (19 times) and on-line (three times) since January 1998, I believe that it would be an excellent course for the First Year Experience program since it integrates several disciplines in the Social Sciences and Business programs at WCSU.

Through the years we have had several guest speakers. A majority of them have been from outside of government. This has been primarily because since this Political Science course is required for the students in the Nathan Ancell School of Business, it focuses on trade and technology issues that can be best covered by professionals in those fields.

Most semesters at least 70 percent of the students are either freshmen or sophomores.

My proposed course for Fall 2007 would include presentations by business professionals and college administrators, as well as state Rep. David Scibner (R-107th) of Brookfield and U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy (D-5th) of Cheshire.

The course would cover such topics as the North American Free Trade Agreement, Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, the European Union, India's economy, Russia's economy, the growth of fuel cell technology and the future development of Connecticut's economy.

(The course syallabus and the guidelines for the projects and the evaluation criteria are attached.)

Students would benefit from being able to interact with professionals in fields related to their future careers.

Also, Tony Ciarleglio, the director of the university's Cooperative Education program, would again deliver a talk on the work-study program and the Career Fair. This would provide a link between academics and jobs.

On another subject, each student would have to submit a project during the semester in which they interview someone on a topic related to the course

On a separate topic, the students would have their writing and critical thinking evaluated on every written assignment according to guidelines that would be reviewed at the beginning of the semester.

Additionally, they each each would be responsible for a 5 to 7 minute oral presentation near the end of the semester that would be avalauted according to guidelines that would be reviewed early in the semester.

The students, as has been the case each semester that I have taught the course on-ground, would participate in discussion group presentations each week during the semester.

They also would become familiar with technology by sending projects to assignment links and discussion boards in WebCT Vista. I starting using WebCT in January 2004 and advanced to WebCT Vista in January 2006 after I was selected as one of the eight instructors for the pilot program at WCSU. Additionally, I have taught 12 online classes at the university.

The Academic Skills and Methods utilized in the course would include oral communication, writing, critical thinking and primary research.

The attached syllabus includes guidelines and evaluation criteria for critical thinking and writing on all written projects. Students would be evaluated according to how well they provided their positions with clarity and sound reasoning.

Also attached are guidelines and evaluation criteria for their oral presenation from a section of a chapter in "The World Is Flat," by Thomas Friedman.

There also are standards for their interview project in which they would have to generate questions, pose them to a subject and then record their responses for use in the project.

The University Success Factors utilized would be co-curricular involvement, organizational, technology skills and working in groups.

The co-cuirricular element would be covered through material provided by the instructor and guest speakers on business, economics, trade, politics, government, culture and geography.

The organizational dimension would be provided through requirements that the students contact an interview subject, pose questions, record the answers and then write a paper or assemble a power point presentation. They also would be resoponisble through the first nine weeks of the semester for posting disucssion board essays in WebCT Vista and briefly responding to essays posted by classmates.

Technology skills would be covered through the use of WebCT Vista discussion boards and assignment links. Students also would be required to use some visual component in their oral presentations near the end of the semester.

Working in groups would be accomplished through weekly discussion group projects near the end of class and the discussion group oral projects in which each individual would have to select a section of a chapter to cover in "The World Is Flat" and then provide his/her 5 to 7 minute oral presentation.