ONE CLASS AT A TIME: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO INCORPORATING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING INTO THE UNDERGRADUATE GEOSCIENCE CURRICULUM

Geoscience professors are no strangers to utilizing experiential learning in the undergraduate geoscience curriculum. However, working within a traditional academic schedule presents problems for professors who want to do more than lecture and run standard college labs. At The University of Montana-Western we are instituting a change to one-class-at-a-time scheduling in order to overcome the time limitations of the traditional scheduling system. This scheduling has worked well for Colorado College and a few other private colleges for years, but it has never been tried at a public university.

Change results from the interaction of driving and resisting forces. Although this change was driven by faculty who wanted to improve student learning and retention, the administration ultimately supported it to stabilize the finances of the campus. Administrators recognized the value of niche marketing and increased student retention, and ultimately supported the change as a way to increase student enrollment. Resistance came primarily from a few faculty, staff, students and community members. The resistance took the form of campus and community petitions, appeals to higher level administrators and misinformation designed to derail the process. These obstacles were overcome by faculty solidarity and persistence. After receiving U.S. Department of Education (FIPSE) funding for a two-year pilot program and a unanimous Faculty Senate vote in favor of the change, the UM-Western Chancellor approved campus-wide adoption of one-class-at-a-time scheduling. In the fall semester of 2004, Western will become the first public university in the United States to adopt this system campus wide.