We’ll explore a curriculum re-mapping process for a first-year, required “catch-all” course, emphasizing student choice and career connections. Guided by adult learning theory, this skills-based approach can create a sturdy bridge between academia and career. This talk discusses the benefits of meaning-making-mapping and the potential difficulties or limitations for use.

At St. Catherine University, all first-year students are required to take a 4-credit course that attempts to cover university values of social justice, college reading and writing skills, communication, career planning, self-care, and critical thinking. Historically, this course has felt fragmented, trying to seemingly cover a year’s worth of (often) unrelated topics in 14 weeks. This has led to the potential for low student engagement and “buy- in” to meaningful interaction, (particularly when students felt the need to “prioritize” the courses directly in their major.)

Recognizing that this course has the potential to strongly contribute to student success and wellness throughout the university learning process, I decided to intentionally re-map the course curriculum in a way that would 1.) promote inclusive, active learning, 2.) encourage student choice, and 3.) connect to student career goals. This provided students the opportunity to take ownership of their engagement in the course and find long-term meaning.
In this presentation, I will discuss the process that I used to map the “catch all” course curriculum into a cohesive, scaffolding pathway.

This process involved:
1. Intentional analysis of the class audience, including not only the student’s paths of study, but also their preferred learning styles, values, and personal course goals
2. Connection with program faculty to learn core career competencies
3. Specification of university requirements for the course, including opportunities for flexibility or modification
4. Identification of overlapping areas between career competencies/skills and university course requirements/objectives
5. Mapping a scaffolding skill-teaching structure throughout the course (focusing on transferable skills)
6. Selecting a unifying topic relating to career interest (to provide real-life, integrative application of skills)
7. Creating assessments that allow for student curiosity, reflection, and choice

Throughout this process, I utilized course language that clearly defined the purpose for all content in the course and showed its connection to both future academic and career success.

While this mapping process led to a course closely supported by adult learning theory, the process was not without constraints. This process was time-intensive– particularly when teaching asynchronously. It required a significant amount of collaboration with university departments/ supports. It also necessitated flexibility for both the faculty and the students. Despite these potential limitations, this student-focused, career-forward process resulted in measurable engagement and reflection from students, who reported that they felt connected with meaningful learning experiences.

In this lightning talk, I will use many visual examples from a course focused on disability representation in graphic medicine (designed for a class of pre-OTA students.) This presentation will ask attendees to reflect on the possibilities, opportunities, and limitations of integrating specific career-focused skills into first-year general education-courses.