Skip to Main Content Skip to Main Navigation Skip to Footer
UNG Logo
  • Info For...
    • Accepted Students
    • Current Students
    • Parents & Family
    • Faculty & Staff
    • Alumni
    • Business & Community
    • International Students
  • Quicklinks
    • Directories
    • myUNG
    • Academic Catalogs
    • Athletics
    • Banner
    • Bookstore
    • Calendars
    • Campuses & Maps
    • Continuing Education
    • D2L
    • Employment / HR
    • IT Service Desk
    • Libraries
    • UNG Foundation
  • Admissions
  • Corps of Cadets
  • Academics
  • Cost & Aid
  • Student Life
  • News & Events
  • Athletics
  • About Us

Find the most up-to-date information on the Presidential Search site.

Center for Teaching, Learning, & Leadership
  • Programs
    Academic Leadership
    Academic Leadership Programs New Department Heads Workshop Series UNG Leadership Series
    Career Milestones
    Career Milestone Programs New Faculty Orientation New Faculty Institute New Faculty Mentoring Promotion/Tenure & ePortfolio Workshops Promotion & Tenure Resources
    Scholarly Productivity
    Scholarly Productivity Programs Faculty Academy on Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) Write@UNG
    Teaching & Learning
    Teaching & Learning Programs Chancellor's Learning Scholars (CLS) Faculty Academy on High Impact Education Practices Research-Based Teaching Series (RBTS) Teaching Conversations Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)
  • Resources
    CTLL Resources
    CTLL Programs Career Milestones Events and Workshops Video Resources Request Assistance Lending Library Subject Guides Teaching Academic Blog
    UNG Resources
    DETI Integration Online Learning at UNG Sponsored Programs
    USG
    Faculty Development
  • Awards
  • Services
    Faculty Writing Group Program Apply to be Observed by a Peer
    Teaching Circles Apply to be a Peer Observer
    Request Assistance
  • News
    Teaching Academic Blog
    UNG Connect Newsletters
  • Contact
    1. UNG
    2. Academics
    3. CTLL
    4. Blog
    5. Teaching and Learning
    6. 2022

    Collaborative student projects across classrooms and disciplines: How to foster academic skills through shared experience

    Posted September 8, 2022

    Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of posts in which past LEAP Action Grant recipients report on their projects.
    Dr. Ralph Hale is Assistant Professor of Psychological Science.
    Dr. Valerie Surrett is Assistant Professor of English.

    Overview: Cross-disciplinary student projects are effective in transforming student attitudes, incentivizing hard work, and enhancing learning. For this project, students in an upper-level special topics course on human memory (PSYC4403) were divided into "Research Teams" that designed futuristic memory replacement systems (MRSs), and students in an English composition course (ENGL1102) were divided into "Journalism Teams" that wrote editorials about the MRSs, translating science for a general audience. These classes met at different times in different buildings, so all interactions and collaborations between classes occurred virtually and often asynchronously.

    Ralph Hale
    Valerie Surrett

    The idea for this project came about as a result of our shared interest in fostering more interaction between disciplines. Coincidentally, our research interests overlap quite a bit as well: a psychology professor who studies sensory systems and memory – and an English professor interested in literature related to cyborgs and the human body. We applied for a LEAP Action Grant to help us undertake this collaborative effort involving two of our classes – two classes that typically would have very little in common and certainly would not interact with one another. The project underscored the possibility, and perhaps even the necessity, of developing partnerships and communication channels between disciplines. Students demonstrated awareness of real-world implications of academic work and viewed their projects from outside their disciplines. This post will focus on the development of academic skills and emphasize how these

    benefits can be obtained through many cross-disciplinary pairings.

    Empirical support:

    • Cross-disciplinary student projects have been shown to be an effective method of…
      • …incentivizing hard work (Chiriac, 2014)
      • …transforming student attitudes (Little & Hoel, 2011)
      • …enhancing learning (Blumenfeld et al., 1996)
      • …improving self-efficacy (Schaffer et al., 2012)
    • Cross-disciplinary projects have been successfully tested in a wide array of pairings including…
      • …business administrating and accounting (Kruck & Teer, 2009)
      • …environmental science and business (Little & Hoel, 2011)
      • …marketing and engineering (McKeage et al., 1999)
      • …music and biology (Burrack & McKenzie, 2005)

    Journal-to-journalism project: Each Research Team (Memory class) had to design an MRS based on current research. Then the design had to be explained in detail to the corresponding Journalism Team (English class). Research Teams wrote an extensive research proposal and then presented it virtually to be viewed by both classes. They then formally reflected on the project as a group. Journalism Teams had to convert the MRS design into an editorial explaining the system and its potential implications to a general audience. They also presented their final editorials and reflected on the project at large. Both teams worked together throughout the semester by asking many questions, providing constant clarification, and completing multiple revisions, thereby enhancing the content of their respective products.

    Source: phdcomics.com

    UNG Logo
    • Contact Us
    • Request Information
    • Quick Facts
    • Campus Maps & Directions
    • Student Consumer Information
    • Campus Safety
    • Emergency Information
    • Employment/HR
    • UNG Policies & Procedures
    • UNG Alumni Association
    • UNG Foundation
    • Ethics & Compliance Hotline
    • Human Trafficking Notice
    • Equal Empl. Opportunity

    © 2023 The University System of Georgia and the University of North Georgia.

    UNG follows the section 508 Standards and WCAG 2.0 for web accessibility. If you require this content in another format, please send an email to the ADA Coordinator.

    Use of military-themed imagery does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Department of Defense.

    • Accreditation
    • Accessibility
    • Privacy Policy
    Establishing Connection...
    AskNigel