Candidates for the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree must satisfactorily complete the University’s Integrated Studies curriculum. This scaffolded program develops critical thinking skills, fosters common academic experiences and culture, and culminates in a transdisciplinary application of concepts to relevant world issues.
All Honors Program candidates complete the Honors Program curriculum listed within the Program of Study section, rather than the Integrated Studies curriculum described on the following pages.
Level 1. Learning Communities: 14 credit hours
Learning communities bring students together with multiple faculty members to examine modes of thinking across multiple disciplines. These courses include skills training for successful integration into the academic community. Each learning community is paired with a course in either college writing or oral communication. Students complete INT 100 , INT 101 , COM 100 , and WRI 101 .
INT 100 - Think Like a Humanist and Social Scientist
COM 100 - Public Speaking and Engagement (taken concurrently)
Learning Objectives
Humanist
- Draw inferences about social, historical, and cultural contexts portrayed in various artifacts.
- Apply humanist methodologies to historical and contemporary issues.
Social Sciences
- Describe the complexity of the human experience while also exploring historical, cultural, and current social dimensions of real world issues.
- Distinguish fact from opinion, primary from secondary sources, and understand the peer-review system of science.
Quantitative Literacy
- Recognize and interpret statistical data, including basic probabilities.
- Create schematic and graphical representations of quantitative relationships.
Communication
- Utilize critical thinking to verbally present a clear purpose/thesis supported by appropriate examples and evidence.
INT 101 - Think Like an Artist and Natural Scientist
WRI 101 - College Writing II (taken concurrently)
Learning Objectives
Arts
- Identify/describe the ways arts represent what people see, hear, feel, and believe.
- Reflect on the artistic process, experience and connection to the world around you.
Natural Sciences
- Recognize and understand scientific inquiry as a method to explore the natural and physical world, e.g., observation, hypothesis development, data collection, experimentation, and evaluation of evidence.
- Recall, observe, and recognize facts, properties, and principles.
Quantitative Literacy
- Solve basic quantitative problems (arithmetic and algebraic).
- Use appropriate units of measurement.
- Recognize and interpret basic graphical representations of quantitative relationships.
College Writing
- Investigate/explore interrelated concepts of writing as a process, writing as a mode of learning, and writing as a means of academic communication.
- Incorporate original and others’ ideas into college-level English prose writing.
Level 2. Interdisciplinary Connections: 9 credit hours
Connections courses are designed to approach a single topic from two (or more) disciplinary perspectives. Students explore the relationship between the disciplines to develop a holistic understanding of the course topic. These courses also connect writing, communication, and quantitative literacy skills introduced in INT 100 and INT 101 .
Connections courses combine learning outcomes from any two of the following four disciplines: Natural Science, Arts, Social Science, Humanities. Students must complete 9 semester hours of courses with Connections designations. Students may only have one Connections course count towards both their major and the Integrated Studies Program. Additionally, students must complete Connections courses covering at least two different designations. Connections course designations include: C-AH, C-AN, C-AS, C-HN, C-HS, C-NS.
Learning Objectives applied to Connections Courses
Natural Sciences
- Apply scientific concepts, models, evidence, and data to investigate relevant questions and generate additional questions using the scientific method.
Arts
- Engage in artistic processes that express and challenge human perceptions.
Social Sciences
- Synthesize information from multiple sources, historical ideologies, and cultures that impact research, policy, and the world around us.
Humanities
- Examine world issues through various theoretical lenses.
Connections Courses must also meet these additional learning objectives.
Writing
- Articulate through writing the perspectives of various disciplines involved in world issues.
Communication
(Required of Arts and/or Humanities courses: C-AH, C-AN, C-AS, C-HS, C-HN)
- Effectively and ethically adapt media content and delivery to the audience, communication context, and available technology.
Quantitative Literacy
(Required of Natural Science and/or Social Science courses: C-AN, C-AS, C-HN, C-HS, C-NS)
- Formulate a quantitative problem and devise solution methods.
Level 3. Exploration and Synthesis: 6 credit hours
Exploration and Synthesis courses are taken across two semesters at the 300 level and provide the context for students to collaboratively explore and examine ideas and methods from their majors in a broader context. The first semester (INT 300 - Exploration and Investigation ) explores a relevant concept, issue, problem, or theme that crosses multiple disciplines. Students collaboratively develop essential questions to guide exploration and research of the theme. In the second semester, students synthesize their research to create a response. (INT 301 - Synthesis and Response ). INT 301 culminates in a campus wide presentation.
Learning Objectives for Exploration and Synthesis courses:
INT 300 - Exploration and Investigation
- Analyze complex global issues through interdisciplinary resources.
- Design tools to collect information related to complex global issues.
- Evaluate responses to complex global issues from different cultural perspectives, incorporating intellectual and emotional dimensions.
INT 301 - Synthesis and Response
- Develop an interdisciplinary solution-based response to complex global problems.
- Evaluate effectiveness of solution-based response using quantitative and qualitative evidence.
- Adapt and deliver a creative response to potential stakeholders.
Level 4. Capstone: 3 credit hours
All programs at Heidelberg have a capstone project or culminating experience aligned to discipline specific outcomes for a final assessment prior to graduation. Capstone experiences will serve both as a major requirement and the Integrated Studies Program and may occur over more than one course in a major. In their capstone course or courses, students generate an artifact that demonstrates how they have met the following four capstone Integrated Studies learning objectives.
Information Literacy:
- Collect, compile, analyze, and evaluate information/data across multiple sources for a complex theme/topic/problem.
Critical Thinking and Curiosity:
- Apply multiple modes of thinking to pose complex question(s) and articulate answers to complex theme/topic/problem.
Creativity and Expression:
- Use multiple tools and media to communicate a point of view, alternate theme or new perspective relevant to complex theme/topic/problem.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Well-Being:
- Recognize and apply diverse cultural and wellness perspectives in their chosen career.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Well-Being (DIW): 6 credit hours
This is a scaffolded sequence of courses in which students explore their cultural identity from the introductory to an advanced level by considering such concepts as wellness, community, and global citizenship. Students may complete this requirement in one of three ways:
- 6 semester hours of courses with a DIW attribute: , at least 3 of which must be at the 300 or 400 level
- 6 semester hours of a foreign language
- 3 semester hours of a foreign language and 3-4 semester hours of courses with a DIW attribute at the 300 or 400 level
Introductory (100-200 Level) DIW Course Learning Objectives:
- Reflect on the development of their own identity.
- Demonstrate multiple levels of wellness.
Advanced (300-400 Level) DIW Course Learning Objectives:
- Describe the impact of individual and systemic bias.
- Identify behaviors and practices that create healthy and inclusive communities.
Transfer/CCP/IB/AP Students and Integrated Studies
Students with Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degrees
Transfer students entering Heidelberg University with a completed Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, or Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university will be considered to have fulfilled the Learning Community, Connections Courses, Diversity, Inclusion and WellBeing Courses and the Exploratory courses. Such students will be required to complete only the Capstone requirement for their major. Regardless of previous degree, transfer students must meet all requirements for their specific degree program, including degree specific complementary liberal arts requirements.
Students with 24 or more hours of transfer credit
Incoming students without an Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree and with a minimum of 24 hours of CCP/AP/IB or transfer credit are exempt from the Learning Communities INT 100 and INT 101 . The Registrar, in consultation with the Director of the Integrated Studies General Education Program, will award credit for Diversity, Inclusion, and Well-Being (DIW) and Connections Courses on a case by case basis. These students do not need to take the additional learning community courses in WRI 101 and COM 100 if they have equivalent course work in Writing and/or Communication.
Students may not apply credits granted on the basis of AP/IB score, CCP or any other standardized examination program from which Heidelberg University awards credit toward fulfillment of the Exploratory courses or Integrated Studies Capstone components of the Integrated Studies requirements.
Students with under 24 hours transfer credit
Students with fewer than 24 hours CCP/AP/IB or transfer credit will take INT 100 and INT 101 . The Registrar, in consultation with the Director of the Integrated Studies General Education Program, will award credit for Diversity, Inclusion, and Well-Being (DIW) and Connections courses on a case by case basis. These students do not need to take the additional learning community courses in WRI 101 and COM 100 if they have equivalent course work in Writing and/or Communication.
Special Exemptions
While the University is committed to the Integrated Studies requirements as the foundation of a broad liberal arts education, it also recognizes that in extraordinary situations a student may have difficulty scheduling the completion of the requirements. Students may petition the Director of Integrated Studies General Education and the Honors Program for substitutions for not more than two courses in the Integrated Studies Program. Petitioning students must have a minimum 3.00 grade point average. All substitutions will be reviewed on an individual basis by the Provost and do not reduce the 38 hours required in Integrated Studies or the 120 hours required for graduation.
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Students in the Nursing Program complete a modified version of the Integrated Studies Program (38 hours). Required courses include:
Bachelor of Music
Students in the Bachelor of Music Degree Program complete a modified version of the Integrated Studies Program (37-38 hours). Required courses include:
AIM Hei Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science, and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing
The AIM (Advise, Inspire, Mentor) Hei mentoring program is a two semester program for new incoming students that provides a structured means by which students can:
- Design and implement a program of study - both inside and outside the classroom - aimed at achieving the learning goals the University has for its graduates.
- Define, explore, and reflect upon their academic, personal, and professional goals and relate those goals to Heidelberg and beyond.
New students are placed in small groups to work with faculty for two semesters. Students transferring to Heidelberg with fewer than 24 credit hours participate in the AIM Hei program.
Students transferring 24 or more (non CCP) credit hours complete HEI 103 , a condensed version of the HEI program designed for transfer and non-traditional students.
HEI 101 or HEI 102
The AIM (Advise, Inspire, Mentor) Hei mentoring program provides first-time degree-seeking and transfer students with a structured means by which they can design and implement a program of study-both inside and outside the classroom-aimed at achieving the University’s four responsibility goals:
- Value and pursue academic excellence
- Develop personal and professional responsibility
- Act with integrity in all aspects of one’s life
- Become engaged through participation and service in one’s communities
Learning Objectives: Upon completion of the AIM Hei program, students will be able to demonstrate:
- An understanding of the nature of a liberal arts education, including how the Heidelberg general education program or honors program, individual majors and extracurricular experiences relate to such an education;
- How co- and extracurricular experiences relate to a liberal arts education;
- The ability to set academic, professional and personal goals and to make plans related to the fulfillment of those goals;
- The ability to reflect upon experiences and to use that reflection as the basis for modifying goals and plans related to their academic, professional and personal lives;
- An awareness of support and planning resources at Heidelberg University related to academic, professional and personal issues;
- An understanding of degree requirements and auditing, along with the course registration process at Heidelberg University.
