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Duke Debuts Signature Courses

Laurie Patton discusses new series of courses designed for large groups of students

Professor Jed Atkins introduces his new "signature course," scheduled for this spring,comparing ancient Greek and modern American democracy.

A new Trinity College of Arts and Sciences initiative underway this semester addresses complex issues. Called “Signature Courses,” these new classes aim to attract large groups of students from diverse backgrounds. (More information is available here)

The program started this semester with two Signature Courses, one on world history, the other on Italian art masterpieces. Here, Trinity Dean Laurie Patton discusses the new courses with Duke Today.

Why is it important for students from a wide swath of backgrounds and majors to attack a single challenge?

We all have powerful memories of that one transformative class that we shared with other students. Each generation has a different sense of what that experience will be -- and for our students today, it's focusing on a big question that can help them find a place in the world. 

How might doing so bring about a different way of teaching and a different way of learning?

There are many classes at Duke that contain the best elements of Duke teaching and pedagogical innovations. The key difference is wrapping them all up into a single package of one class: The best teachers, biggest questions, most effective traditional pedagogy combined with powerful innovations. This seems to us to be a winning combination for liberal learning. 

The eventual goal is for these courses to be large - - enrolling up to perhaps 100 students. Why? 

Even as we make sure 75 percent of our classes are under 20 students, we also want to provide students with a shared experience that has a "plenary" feel to it. Students really enjoy that larger sense of community if we do it right. 

Is your vision for these courses that the questions be rooted in humanities issues -- like the World Masterpieces course, or “Race: A World History” rather than, for example, something in the basic sciences?

Not at all. Those are just the first ones. We are already discussing several science-related course proposals with faculty.

Below, short videos about several signature courses for 2014-15.