Welcome to QUANTA

Welcome to QUANTA! What is this weird acronym? QUANTA is Daytona State College’s branded learning community. It is also going to be the focus of my writing for the next two years. This two year program is designed to prepare students for higher level academic work and culminates with students producing original research. Classes proceed through the program together (approximately seventy to eighty students per class) and are sub-divided into home groups (approximately 6–8 students per group).

One of the defining elements of QUANTA is collaboration. Not only do students work together in home-groups, but three professors co-teach every semester. Classes in QUANTA are deeply linked — which is unique from some learning communities. Each semester in QUANTA three linked classes are taught by three professors. In the fall you take a Critical Thinking, English I, and Humanities I. The spring is English II, Comparative Politics, and World Religions. The following fall is American Government, Research Writing, and Statistics. The program culminates with a thesis — a piece of publishable original research written under the direction of a supervising faculty member.

Currently QUANTA is in the process of an iPad pilot project. All students in the program receive an iPad for their book. The classes are now designed to be electronic first. Because the program is also hybrid — two class periods in person per week and one online — we have experimented with a lot of different technologies to help engage students. This iPad pilot will be the subject of continued investigation and the topic of future posts.

Purpose

All of the faculty members deeply believe in collaborative learning. It is the foundation of our program. We are also purposefully in the trans/interdisciplinary ethos. QUANTA presupposes students learn best when they can see connections. For example, instead of having students take a class on India that focuses on the religion of India and the politics of India, to take a single course set which focuses on colonialism and the deep links between religious experience and state building. And to then hook student’s writing experience directly to the course content, instead of having English classes stand to the side of content.

The purpose of this publication is to chronicle and overview the projects, ideas, successes and failures of QUANTA. I believe deeply in collaborative learning as a scholar and in my informal conversations which faculty members they agree. Yet, there is little pragmatic advice available for program development. Further, the traditional publication method for the academy is not the proper venue for anecdotal program development.

I hope to offer some insights into what we do in QUANTA to help other institutions build similar (or better) programs. The goal is to create a space to think about collaborative learning. So while the connecting theme will be the QUANTA program, the articles in here will also focus on the larger ideas of interdisciplinary student learning and student collaboration.

It should be no surprise that I find collaborative learning projects important. They were, in fact, a part of my own educational life as an undergraduate. My happiest undergraduate days took place in the Honors Program at Northern Kentucky University. Yet these programs seem largely disconnected from each other. I hope readers can find this space a location for information and a place to dialogue.

What is next?

The goal will be to post insights into the program every other week. QUANTA has collected and is continuing to collect a lot of data about our students, their success, and their post-QUANTA careers. I intend to share a lot of that data in this space, but recognize that the data will be in early stages. If you are interested in it please feel free to contact me. But I will also be writing on the day-to-day analysis of the program. There will also be pieces from colleagues, students, and others about both the program and the broader goals of student collaboration.

I look forward to seeing what kind of response might come from some open and honest discussion of one honor’s learning community’s program. It is an exciting time in higher education.