Curriculum Initiatives
Communication Across the Curriculum
The mission of Bentley’s Communication Across the Curriculum Program is to promote excellence in communication as an integral part of undergraduate education. To ensure that all Bentley students are adequately prepared to communicate effectively in their chosen professions, the program seeks to familiarize students with state-of-the art communication practices and technologies currently used in the workplace.
To further its goals, the Communication Across the Curriculum Program advocates communication as a means of improving teaching and enhancing learning, and offers communication-intensive courses across the curriculum in which students and professors work closely on written and oral assignments within the course context.
The program also offers regular workshops for faculty to learn how to incorporate communication into their teaching, and provides free consultation and class visits for faculty members on an individual basis. Program members work closely with the Writing Center, the ESOL Tutorial Center, the Service-Learning Center, the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee, the Wilder Professors, and new teaching initiatives on campus to foster the teaching of written and oral communication skills in the Bentley curriculum.
The Communication Across the Curriculum Program plays a central role in Bentley’s liberal studies which include ethics and social responsibility, technology and effective communication, creative thinking and critical analysis, service to the community, and diversity and global citizenship.
Requirements
All undergraduate students are required to take two communication-intensive courses, one in their major and one elective.
Guidelines for communication-intensive courses
Proposals for new communication-intensive courses
Guidelines For Communication Intensive (CI) Courses
General Criteria for Communication-Intensive Courses:
- The course will include regularly assigned written and/or oral communication components.
- Communication components normally should constitute at least one-third of the course grade.
- The course must include instruction in, as well as evaluation of, communication components.
- Classroom instruction and feedback should focus on issues of effective communication skills appropriate to the field being studied.
Criteria for written work:
- Formal written assignments should have explicit instructions regarding content and form.
- Writing should be used to facilitate learning the course content.
- The instructor should provide feedback on a draft of the assignment to encourage improvement and provide opportunity for revision of that draft.
Criteria for oral communication:
- The instructor should provide formal written guidelines including goals and format.
- Oral communication and participation should facilitate learning in the discipline.
- Oral communication-intensive courses normally should provide students at least two opportunities to present or otherwise demonstrate these skills. Expectations for improved performance should be specified.
Proposals for new communication-intensive courses
Calls for new communication-intensive courses are announced each semester by the Director of the Communication Across the Curriculum Program. The Communication Across the Curriculum Committee works closely with faculty, reviews all proposals, and forwards its recommendations to the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee. Instructors planning to develop new communication-intensive courses are encouraged to consult with the director of the program and to attend the annual faculty development workshop, “Using Writing to Enhance Learning,” offered every summer.
For more information, contact:
Gesa Kirsch
Program Director and Professor of English,
781.891.2506
