NCLC Learning Communities/Courses
In New Century College's Integrative Studies program, students and faculty collaborate as learners and teachers in specially designed courses called learning communities. The teacher Peter Senge defined a learning community as:
A diverse group of people working together to nurture and sustain a knowledge-creating system...The members of a learning community are thus stewards of a knowledge-creating process, helping one another enhance their capacity for effective action and reflecting on and conceptualizing their evolving understanding.
In NCC, learning communities are:
- interdisciplinary - they combine subjects generally taught as individual courses into one integrated course
- team-taught - they integrate two or more faculty and their disciplinary perspectives
- theme-based - they tackle a complex contemporary intellectual inquiry from several different perspectives
- collaborative - they offer both faculty and students the chance to learn from, and teach, each other
NCC learning communities structure the fragmented learning many students acquire while working their way through a series of unconnected courses. They promote the active participation of students in their own learning. And they foster intellectual and practical interaction between students, faculty and the wider local community.
Finally, many NCC Integrative Studies students build on learning community collaborations to work individually with faculty and community mentors, to rewrite their definitions of education through internships and other experiential learning and to explore potential post-graduation careers.
Below is a comprehensive list of NCC learning communities, with links to descriptions and sample syllabi.
Mason Cornerstones
NCLC 101 Narratives of Connected Ideas
NCLC 102 Global Communities & Networks
NCLC 103 Scientific Change & Human Creativity
NCLC 203 Inquiry for Action
Learning Communities
NCLC 110 Community of Learners
NCLC 200 Visual Thinking and the Creativity
NCLC 202 Public Speaking and Critical Thinking Skills
NCLC 204 Leadership Theory and Practice
NCLC 211 Introduction to Conservation Studies
NCLC 220 Energy and Environment
NCLC 225 Dean’s Honor Book Review
NCLC 226 Dean’s Honors Seminar
NCLC 231 Introduction to Community Studies
NCLC 244 Beats, Rhyme, and Culture
NCLC 245 Visual Culture and Society
NCLC 249 The Internet: Literacy, HTML Tools, and Virtual Community
NCLC NCLC 270 Page and Stage: Theory and Practice
NCLC 304 Social Movements and Community Activism
NCLC 305 Conflict Resolution and Transformation
NCLC 307 Narratives of Nature (6 credits)
NCLC 308 American Landscapes in Fiction, Film, and History
(6 credits)
NCLC 311 The Mysteries of Migration: Consequences for Conservation
NCLC 312 Images and Experiences of Childhood: Social Construct, Literature and Film
NCLC 313 Strangers in a Strange Land: Immigration in 20th Century America
NCLC 315 Spirituality and Conflict Transformation
NCLC 317 Issues in Family Relationships
NCLC 318 Exploring Virginia’s Watersheds
NCLC 320 Construction of Differences; Race, Class, and Gender
NCLC 321 Vision Quest: Modeling the Natural World Using Art, Computer Programs, and Science
NCLC 325 Dean’s Honor Book Review
NCLC 326 Dean’s Honors Seminar
NCLC 330 Enterprise Development
NCLC 333 The Nature of Mathematics
NCLC 335 Ethics, Communication, and Freedom
NCLC 336 Wealth, Power, and Values
NCLC 337 Politics, the Arts, and History
NCLC 340 Progress: Can America Figure Out What It Means?
NCLC 341 Progress: Washington—the New Edge City?
NCLC 343/ENGL 343 Interactive Digital Texts
NCLC 345 Introduction to Multimedia
NCLC 347 Gender Representation in Popular Culture
NCLC 348 Information in the Digital Age
NCLC 349 Writing for Multimedia
NCLC 360 The Built Environment
NCLC 361 Neighborhood, Community, and Identity
NCLC 378 Medicine, Justice, and Public Policy
NCLC 379 Cancer and Its Social Impact
NCLC 381 When Cultural Worlds Collide
NCLC 391 Introduction to Integrative Studies
NCLC 410 Contemporary Health Issues
NCLC 420 Work Effectiveness Skills
NCLC 422 An Experiential Approach to American Foreign Policy
NCLC 423 Management in the Global Marketplace
NCLC 424 Force and Justice in the International System
NCLC 426 Dean’s Honors Research/Thesis
NCLC 431 Principles of Fundraising
NCLC 435 Leadership in a Changing Environment
NCLC 440 Death, Dying, and Decision Making
NCLC 441 AIDS: Impact on Society
NCLC 446 Art, Beauty, and Culture
NCLC 449 Multimedia Research and Project Development
NCLC 491 The Senior Capstone Experience
NCLC 510 Institutional Records Keeping
NCLC 512 Organizational Development
NCLC 513 Population Management I: Data Acquisition and Processing
NCLC 514 Population Management II: Data Analysis and Breeding Recommendations
NCLC 520 Conservation Education
NCLC 522 Developing an Institutional In Situ Conservation Strategy
NCLC 523 Managing Animal Enrichment and Training Programs
NCLC 531 Principles of Elephant Management
NCLC 625 Online Library Research for the Zoo and Aquarium Professional
Independent and Experiential Learning
NCLC 165, 265, 365, 465 Independent Study (1–12 credits)
NCLC 190, 290, 390, 490 Internship (1–6 credits)
NCLC 194, 294, 394, 494 Service-Learning Experience (1–15 credits)
NCLC 195, 295, 395, 495 Field-Based Work (1–15 credits)
NCLC 196, 296, 396, 496 Teaching Assistant Experience (1–6 credits)
NCLC 197, 297, 397, 497 Add-On Experiential Learning (1–3 credits)
