When students meet with academic advisors to register for the Polytechnic Incubator's first semester, it will be helpful to know a key concept: Rather than attending each of their enrolled course separately, the new program's students will come together for several hours at a time each day (except Friday) during every week of the semester. Those multi-hour seminar and design lab sessions will cover objectives from multiple subject areas. This is how we will achieve our goal of providing a project-oriented "learn in context and for a purpose" educational experience.
Here's another way to look at it. In traditional programs (outside of the Polytechnic Incubator), each course meets separately in the same time slot each week. As examples, Course 1 might meet at 8:30 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; Course 3 might meet every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00. Subject material does not cross the boundaries of class sessions. Material from CGT courses, for example, is never covered during English class sessions.
The traditional mapping of one course to one multi-day time slot might look something like this:
Example of a student's daily schedule in a traditional program
The graphic above does not show Wednesday through Friday, but we trust that you understand the concept: Each course meets separately at its designated times throughout the week, often in either a Monday-Wednesday-Friday or a Tuesday-Thursday pattern.
In the Polytechic Incubator's program, we will erase the traditional boundaries of courses and class sessions. Coming together for several hours on most days each week, students will work in teams with other students and with faculty mentors and learning assistants from multiple disciplines. Within the span of the entire semester, material from multiple course subjects will be covered, providing students with an in-context "learn by doing" approach toward mastery of skills and bodies of knowledge which match the learning objectives of individual courses. In the illustration below, green, purple, and red lines represent how our ''concurrent learning sessions'' (the blue and yellow boxes) incorporate Courses 1, 2, and 3.
Example of a student's daily schedule in the Polytechnic Incubator
Although not shown in the above graphic, the Polytechnic Incubator's Monday and Tuesday concurrent learning sessions will continue on each Wednesday and Thursday. On Fridays, there are no scheduled concurrent learning sessions, providing students with extra time to work on their projects in the same active learning rooms where they will have met earlier in the week.
The graphic above also shows black arrows pointing from class sessions back to Courses 4 and 5. During our inaugural year (2014-2015), students might need to enroll in some courses which will meet separately in traditional classrooms or lecture halls. Although the illustration shows two such courses, the quantity of such courses will vary based on the student's declared major.
For absolute clarity, we offer this footnote. Please note that example schedules shown in this article are generic and intended merely as informal guidance; students' actual weekly schedules will vary. Students should see their academic advisors for official plans of study. Our program design is still being finalized, and this information is subject to change.